College grant search

College search software: One step forward, two steps backward

Several years ago, an excellent college search tool was available on one 3.5-inch floppy disk. It was easy to load, never crashed, held quite a bit of data (all of the accredited two- and four-year colleges were included), featured no extraneous bells and whistles, and was so easy to use that one could do searches with a few key strokes while talking with students and parents. Once the user became familiar with the commands, it was possible to run searches with just brief glances at the screen. Criteria could be quickly adjusted. Printouts took just a couple of extra seconds. Hard copies of various lists could be quickly generated and compared. An updated version was issued each year and the cost was reasonable.

Sadly, the DOS-based version of the product was discontinued and the maker came out with a new Windows-based tool available only on CD. Not surprisingly, the CD version cost more than twice as much as the DOS-based version. Though it included a few more majors and other search criteria, it was much more cumbersome to use, especially in the counseling setting. Some of the additions made it clear that the new product had been created with student users in mind. One had to negotiate a minefield of animation and color graphics to get into the database. Our office purchased the new version. I continued to use the old DOS software for a few years in the counseling setting, despite the fact that it was out of date. We installed the new CD version on our network and invited students to use it. It sat virtually untouched.

I did not give up on the original product easily. I called the company. I begged. I pleaded with them to continue producing it. "It's a great tool!" I exclaimed. "I use it practically every day. Couldn't you continue to release updates of the old version? How expensive could it be? I would happily pay more for it, if you have to raise the price for a smaller run. Coca-Cola brought back Coke Classic! Why can't we keep this classic?" My pleas were to no avail. Progress left me behind, a dinosaur constitutionally incapable of appreciating the new and the updated.

The next step backward, in my view, came a few years later when the company decided to abandon the CD product and offer only an Internet-based search site. The data would now be constantly updated online, they claimed. Never again would one need to worry about buying next year's edition. Well, we tried to use the service. We found the web-based search machine to be even more inefficient than the CD, in part because one must be online to run it. The original version traveled well. I could take it home, use it on the train commuting to work, or bring it with me wherever I needed to meet with students and parents. I didn't have to worry about a slow modem or any other Internet-related complications. Even if the connection was good, the web site was slow compared to computer-based software. It froze a couple of times in the middle of searches and we had to leave the site and log back on. The screens and data were more difficult to organize and print than the old software. So, I found myself still relying on a more than two-year-old version of the CD. Now, even the last CD is too outdated to be useful.

Sound familiar? I extend my heartfelt thanks to the designers of that early DOS-based search tool. It worked beautifully. It was exceedingly "robust" in computer parlance. It helped me to be a better and less anxious college counselor as I learned the ropes. I felt confident going into sessions with students and families accompanied by my trusty college database. I could generate lists as we discussed college preferences: big, small, urban, rural, state, or private, and I could do it smoothly, efficiently and unobtrusively.

The latest advances in computer technology coupled with the vagaries of the world of corporate mergers, product development and marketing have taken us from a bulky, 10-pound college guide to one little 3.5-inch floppy disk, to a CD, and to the Internet. Finally, in desperation, I am back to the Manhattan-phone-book-size college guide.

Couldn't someone devise a great new product to meet the needs of college counselors - a fast, easy-to-use, and comprehensive, computer-based college search package? We college counselors will buy it in droves and perhaps students will too.

Grant Calder is director of college counseling and chair of the history department at Friends' Central School in Wynnewood (PA). He received a B.A. in American and European history and an M.A. in German from The University of Pennsylvania.