18. Research Made Easy

Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly.

—Roger Ebert, Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic

Ever wonder where U.S. News & World Report and the other college guides get their statistics? You might have assumed that collecting all those figures must be incredibly labor intensive. Imagine calling hundreds or thousands of schools to ask about the average financial aid package, graduation rates, test score ranges, and many other mind-numbing figures.

Researching colleges, however, isn’t nearly as hard for publishers or families as you might assume. In this chapter, you’ll discover the following online resources that will make the job much easier.

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