Build a college list your budget agrees with
Most college searches start with rankings and end with sticker shock. CollegeDI starts with your family's recommended budget and carries it through every search result, recommendation, and comparison — one connected workflow from first look to final list.
Recommendations and financial-fit labels are personalized from your assessment — that's why the workflow starts there.
One connected workflow
From open search to confident shortlist
Search with your budget
Browse and filter colleges by state, type, size, region, and tuition. With an assessment on file, every school is labeled affordable, stretch, or over budget against your recommended annual budget.
Get recommendations
The recommendation engine ranks schools by financial fit against your budget, completion rate, typical student debt, and acceptance rate — with plain-language reasons for every suggestion.
Build your list
Add schools to a working list organized as safety, target, and reach. Track your list's average net cost and estimated four-year total as it takes shape.
Compare side by side
Put your finalists next to each other on net cost, acceptance rate, completion rate, average student debt, and median earnings — with the best value highlighted in each row.
Personalized net prices
Costs that reflect your income, not the average family
When College Scorecard data is available for your income range, estimated net prices use what families like yours actually paid — not a college-wide average. Each estimate is labeled with its source, and older reported figures are projected forward to approximate today's dollars.
- Estimated cost of attendance and net price
- Graduation and completion rates
- Admissions and acceptance rates
- Typical student debt at graduation
- Median earnings after enrollment
Every figure on a college detail page is shown when the underlying data exists — and clearly labeled as an estimate until a real award letter replaces it.
More than a saved list
A list that does the thinking with you
Filter with intent
Narrow by state, type, size, region, and tuition — or sort by affordability once your budget is on file.
Reasoned recommendations
Every recommended school comes with the reasons why: budget fit, outcomes, debt, and admissions realism — weighted with financial fit counting most.
Safety, target, reach
Organize schools into the three categories that matter, and watch your list's average net cost and four-year estimate update as it evolves.
Honest comparisons
Compare finalists metric by metric, with best values highlighted and comparison worksheets you can export and share.
Straight answers
Estimates until offers arrive
Search results and recommendations use estimated and projected figures — clearly labeled with their data source — until you upload a real financial aid award letter. CollegeDI does not predict whether your student will be admitted, guarantee any financial aid package, or claim to rank every college in the country. It shows you which schools deserve a closer look through a financial lens, and gives you the tools to look closely.
Your list connects directly to the Financial Impact workspace, where each school gets annual cost breakdowns, four-year projections, and debt analysis against your budget.
Find the schools that fit your family
Start with your assessment, then let your budget guide the search.