Google Search Adds University Stats Cards To Help Future Students

Google has updated its Search product to help users get all the info they need on colleges and universities. This is a sort of prequel to the job search platform Google introduced last year; you need to get a proper education before you can find a good job, and that's where this new feature comes in.

You don't have to do anything special to use the new feature: rather, it appears when you search for a four-year college located in the United States. The information includes data relevant to families and students determining which college to attend.

In addition to a description of the university, as well as where it is located, Google provides direct access to the school's admission rate, the average cost of attending after financial aid, and its graduation rate. As with businesses, users also get direct access to the school's website, phone number, and address.

The information doesn't end there, though, instead digging into the finer details, including providing breakdowns of the student population based on things like gender. There's also detailed info about rankings, major, notable people who graduated from the college, and more.

Google says it pulled the information from the US Department of Education's College Scorecard and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System's public information. The company also worked with a variety of people and groups in the education industry to determine what information college seekers want and need.

Mobile users will see the new data cards starting today; desktop users will see "some" of the features.

SOURCE: Google Blog