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For Parents/Guardians: Searching for and Suggesting Colleges to Your Student

If you are not yet linked to your student(s) or their high school(s), follow these steps.

Parents and guardians can use Scoir’s Discover tools to explore colleges, learn more about what they offer, and suggest schools to your student. 

Below is an overview of the different ways you can find colleges, review details, and share recommendations in a simple, supportive way.

Searching for Colleges

If you already have a college in mind, you can type its name into the search bar to jump straight to it.

If you’d rather explore more broadly, head to Discover, where you can browse colleges and use filters to narrow down your options.

The Discover page includes filters for things like academic focus, location, school size, campus setting, admissions selectivity, and more. You can apply as many filters as you’d like, and matching colleges will appear automatically as you make adjustments.

You can also open All Filters to see every available option or reset everything if you want to start fresh.

Expand to see definitions for Discover filters

Academic Focus: Use this filter to search for general academic focuses or specific majors.​

Degree: This filter lets you select levels of undergraduate degrees.​

School Size: This filter lets you select campus population ranges.​

Campus Setting: This filter lets you select various campus setting designations.​

Distance: This filter lets you select a distance radius from a location.

Location: This filter lets you select domestic/international preferences, as well as regions of the United States. You can also add individual US states by clicking within the Specific US States box and typing the name of a state.

Admissions: This filter lets you select from different levels of selectivity (which is calculated by dividing the number of admitted students by the number of applicants). You can also select Test Optional colleges, or adjust the ranges for average SAT and ACT scores.​

Application Method: This filter lets you select the application methods offered.​

School Type: This filter lets you select from various school types including Funding Source, Religious Affiliation, and Special-Mission.

Athletics: This filter lets you search by athletics and divisions.​

Student Life: Use this filter to search for and select multiple interests and activities that correlate with colleges across Scoir’s college database.​

ROTC Programs Offered: This filter allows you to select ROTC program availability.

Colleges are sorted by Relevance by default, but you can switch to alphabetical order, acceptance rate, size, or list price.

Relevance ranks colleges based on student interest. Colleges with the most interest appear higher in your results. Interest means students who marked a college as following, applying, or applied in Scoir.

You can also view your student’s College Preferences from their profile to keep their interests in mind as you explore.

Discovering Colleges Through Posts, Events, and Programs

From the Discover page, you can explore colleges in a few different ways beyond search results. Use the tabs at the top of the page to switch between #Posts, Events, and Programs, depending on what you want to explore.

#Posts

The #Posts tab includes content shared directly by colleges on topics like internships, study abroad, campus life, and more. It’s a helpful way to explore opportunities and experiences that might interest your student.

Events

The Events tab shows upcoming college-hosted events, both virtual and in person. You can apply filters to focus on virtual sessions or recurring opportunities. When you register for an event, you’ll be taken to the college’s website, and any event updates will come directly from them.

Be sure to check whether the event is intended for students or parents/guardians on the registration page.

Programs

The Programs tab highlights summer and pre-college programs offered by colleges. Each program card displays dates, location, credits (if available), and general costs. You can filter programs by season, academic focus, credits awarded, and more. You or your student can open a program to review details or continue to the college’s website to register.

Any notifications about the events will be sent directly from the college, not from within Scoir.

Reviewing College Profiles

After browsing through colleges, you can click a school’s name to open its profile and take a deeper look at what it offers. Each profile includes detailed information to help you explore academics, admissions, costs, and student life.

College profiles are organized into five main sections, shown as tabs you can click through to explore different details.:

  • Overview includes general details like size, type, average net price, location, similar colleges, and available sessions.
  • Academics highlights degree offerings, popular majors, and fields of study.
  • Admissions includes acceptance rates, test score ranges, deadlines, and—if available—historical scattergram data from your student’s high school.
  • Cost & Aid provides estimated tuition, fees, net price information, and financial aid data.
  • Student Life covers enrollment, diversity, campus culture, and ROTC availability.

Comparing Colleges

If you’re deciding between a few colleges, comparing them side by side can make it easier to spot differences and similarities at a glance.

You can add a college to Compare directly from the college profile when you’re viewing a school in more detail.

You can also add colleges to Compare from the Discover page or search results and review up to four schools at once.

As you add colleges, you can open the College Compare sidebar to manage your comparison.

From there, you can remove schools, reorder them, and click Compare to view the full side-by-side breakdown of up to four colleges.

The comparison view lets you see key details—academics, admissions, costs, and more—side by side, making it easier to evaluate options.

Suggesting Colleges to Your Student

Once you’ve narrowed down a few schools that seem like a good fit, you can share your thoughts by suggesting colleges directly to your student.

As you explore Scoir, you’ll see opportunities to suggest colleges in multiple places, such as from Discover results or directly from a college profile.

Suggested colleges appear in the Suggested column of your student’s My Colleges page. Your student can move a suggested college into Following or Applying when they’re ready. 

Even if your student has marked a college as Not Interested, you can still suggest it if you think it’s worth another look.

To remove a suggestion, open your student’s My Colleges list, click the three dots next to the college, and choose the option to remove it.

Only the person who made the suggestion can remove it, and once your student accepts a suggestion, it can no longer be removed.

Scoir gives you several ways to explore colleges and support your student’s decision-making—from browsing and comparing schools to suggesting options along the way. Whether you’re just getting started or helping refine a list, these tools make it easy to stay involved and informed.

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For Parents/Guardians: Viewing college profiles

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