Using the filters on the college tool is one of the most important ways that students and educators can build strong, relevant, and meaningful college lists. Overgrad's college filters will allow you to identify schools across a wide variety of criteria, including Location, Academic Fit, Price, Majors and Programs, and more. Filters are available to both students and educators. 


Navigating to the College Search Page


You can access the college search page in two ways (these directions work as a student or for an educator ghosting as a student

Through Your Navigation Bar

  1. Click on the Search dropdown menu and select Colleges


Through Your Dashboard

  1. Find the Follow (#) Colleges milestone for your grade level and click on that box
  2. Click on the hyperlinked Complete Milestone text just under the title of the milestone


Using Filters

You can use the search and filters on the left side of the screen: 

Here is a brief description of each filter: 

  • Location: select state(s) with checkboxes or "distance from" an address or zip code
  • Admissions Chances: uses student GPA and test scores compared to median GPA and test scores of admitted students to determine likelihood of admission. 
  • Admissions Considerations: lists potential components of the application: 
    • Recommendations: required, recommended, or neither required nor recommended
    • ACT/SAT scores:  required, recommended, or neither required nor recommended 
      • We recommend checking the college website as well, especially as many colleges have slightly altered their test score requirements with limited testing opportunities for the 2020-21 school year. 
  • GPA: required, recommended, or neither required nor recommended 
  • TOEFL Score (International Students): required, recommended, or neither required nor recommended; this is only relevant for International Students because colleges use this test determines English fluency 
  • Academics: allows you to search based on average GPA, ACT, or SAT score of admitted students; uses a double-sided sliding scale to adjust minimum and maximum. 
  • Majors & Areas of Study
    • Areas of Study provides a list allowing you to select multiple options. If you select multiple options, search results will show colleges and universities with at least one of these areas offered. Areas of study is typically a broader way to search for available offerings. 
    • Specific Majors allows you to add specific majors to your search. You can type the major directly into the text box, or, when you click into the text box, a list of all possible majors will populate and you can scroll to browse, and then select from the list
  • School Type: allows you to select one or multiple types of schools, including for profit, public, or private, and certificate programs, 2 year, or 4 year programs. Selecting multiple options will show results that meet at least one of the criteria selected. 
  • Setting: the general location of the campus (city, town, suburb, or rural). 
  • Campus Size: allows you to select one or multiple size groups (small, medium, large). 
  • Net Price: allows you to search based on a maximum selected from a dropdown menu. 
    • Please note that net price for public institutions uses in state tuition to calculate net price, so if you live in a different state than the college, your net price might be higher due to differences between in state and out of state tuition.
  • Graduation Rate: allows you to search based on a minimum selected from a dropdown menu. 
    • Please note that if you have entered information about your ethnicity, you will see graduation rates for students who share your ethnicity wherever available. 
  • HBCUs & Women's Colleges: allows you to select "Yes" or "No" for each university type. 
  • Programs & Supports: allows you to select if Opportunity Programs are available. 
    • Note: this feature is only available for our New York users. 
  • Ways to Apply: allows you to select Common App and/or Coalition App. If you select either of these options, you will see schools that allow you to apply through the general application that you selected. 
  • Tags: Tags are created at the district level and added to institutions by high school account managers to help identify institutions that share specific characteristics. Clicking into the Tags search bar will create a dropdown menu of available Tags.

Apply one or more filters on the left side of the screen. If more than one filter is used, the search will become more specific.

Once the filters are applied, make sure to click the Search button. 


If you have applied too many filters and the search shows no results, remove filters by deselecting specific options, or selecting CLEAR at specific filters:


Or you can clear all of the entered filters by selecting the Clear Filters button at the top of the filter selection.