About CollegeCove
Find Your Perfect College.
CollegeCove is the college search platform that helps high school students discover their perfect school using the lifestyle filters that actually matter.
Our Mission
Choosing a college is one of the biggest decisions of your life — but most college search tools feel like sorting through a boring spreadsheet. They show you academic rankings, but miss what actually shapes your college experience: the lifestyle.
We built CollegeCove to fix that. Think of it like Zillow, but for colleges. You wouldn't buy a house without knowing if it's near a beach, in a walkable neighborhood, or close to the things you love. Why should picking a college be any different?
With CollegeCove you can filter schools by beach proximity, ski resort distance, Greek life, athletics, campus safety, school-year weather, tuition budget, ACT score range — all at once.
What We Built
4,400+ School Profiles
Every accredited 4-year U.S. college and university, with tuition, admissions data, ACT scores, campus safety scores, and lifestyle info.
Interactive Map
Pin-coded map of every college in the U.S. Click any school to see key stats, then jump to its full profile.
Side-by-Side Compare
Add up to 4 schools and compare every metric. See cost, selectivity, safety, and campus vibe at a glance.
Lifestyle Filters
Filter by beach proximity, ski resort distance, Greek life, HBCU status, athletic division, campus safety, weather, and more.
Campus Safety Scores
Composite safety scores built from U.S. Dept. of Education Clery Act data, normalized per 1,000 students across three sub-categories.
Fields of Study
Search by major and see which schools offer your program, with median graduate earnings powered by College Scorecard data.
Our Data
IPEDS / NCES
Core institutional data — tuition, enrollment, admissions, ACT scores, and campus details — comes from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) maintained by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2024 survey year.
College Scorecard
Total undergraduate enrollment and field-of-study data — including which degrees each school offers and median graduate earnings — comes from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard This powers the Field of Study filter and the enrollment figures on school profiles.
NOAA / NCEI
Campus climate data — monthly average temperatures and school-year climate categories (cold, warm, hot) — comes from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information 1991–2020 Climate Normals dataset. This powers the weather chart and School Year Weather filter.
NCAA
Athletics division and conference data — including NCAA Division I, II, and III affiliations — comes from the NCAA schools directory This powers the NCAA Division filter and athletics details on school profiles.
U.S. Dept. of Education — Clery Act Campus Safety
Campus Safety Scores are computed by CollegeCove using crime and disciplinary incident data from the U.S. Department of Education Campus Safety and Security Survey (Clery Act), averaged over 2021–2023 and normalized per 1,000 enrolled students. We compute three sub-scores — Personal Safety, Property Safety, and Party Scene Safety — and a composite score (0–100, higher = safer). This powers the Safety Score radar chart on school profiles and the Campus Safety filter in search.
Contact
Questions, feedback, or data corrections? We'd love to hear from you. Reach us at hello@collegecove.com.
Built Just for Fun
CollegeCove is a passion project — built because it's what our high schooler wanted and just couldn't find. We are not affiliated with any college, university, or government agency. All opinions and curated rankings are our own.
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