The College Tourist, Alexandra Bacchus, explores different tools that aid in the college process—from utilizing the school counselors to utilizing a computer, the information is endless when researching different schools.

One day I was just sitting, staring at my computer screen with nothing else to do. “College,” I typed into Google, not knowing what to expect. Within the first five results of that simple search, I found the tool that would alter my opinions on various colleges more than I could begin to comprehend.

Collegeprowler.com is a website that attracts visitors by offering a straightforward grading system on most aspects of college life. Type in any school and it will present a list of letter grades in categories such as academics, on-campus housing, athletics, and even the attractiveness of guys and girls on campus.

I found myself spending hours reading candid student reviews of various schools and comparing my grades and scores to other accepted or denied students on a scatter plot. So I prowled. And I’ll admit that I really enjoyed it. Though I learned a lot from my prowls, the credibility of this website is debatable since it’s based completely on student opinion as opposed to fact.

What I did find out, however, is that Abeline Christian University is ranked first in all-around most attractive guys and girls, while Texas A&M apparently gives students the best overall experience, according to College Prowler.

Naviance.com, first introduced to me by my school counselor during sophomore year, is a great tool that helps with college and career planning. It also uses the scatter plot feature so students can compare their GPA and test scores to those of past students who were accepted, denied, waitlisted, or deferred from any particular college. However, unlike College Prowler, the data from Naviance is based solely on the history of past Redwood students and their acceptance history, making it more factually accurate.

These are just two websites that have both amused me and provided me with much-needed help during the process, but the best resource (by far) to use is your very own counselor at school. It’s never too late to forge a relationship with your counselor, and I’m pretty sure they love to get to know their students as much as we like asking them for help.

So whether you type into a search box on College Prowler, click your way through lists of schools on Naviance, or submit a slip in the counseling office, it won’t be hard to find all the information you need.