Creator: Noodle | visit site
Grade Range: 8 - 11
Combine an intangible product like a college education, an overload of data, and anxiety about choice, and you have the perfect niche for a website which claims to simplify it all for you. Noodle is one of the newest websites of this kind. But Noodle’s difference is that it is a hybrid: part search engine and part college curating platform. Rather than creating its own content about each of the more than 3000 post secondary institutions in the US, Noodle pulls its content from a collection of existing sources: the colleges’ own websites, general education sites, and other college search sites. It’s no coincidence that Noodle’s CEO is also the founder of The Princeton Review. The beauty of Noodle’s platform is that it collects information from the student who has set up a personal profile, and then tailors the search based on the student profile. Profiles can be established using Facebook login information, which is often problematic for in-school use. It can also be established using an email address. Once the student has entered his or her personal information, (including test scores, GPA, and family income information), Noodle suggests the student’s chances of admission to a given college and has tailored information about college costs taking into consideration the likelihood of receiving available financial aid.
In the Classroom
Noodle certainly deserves to be among the college search sites bookmarked on any high school college counseling center’s resource list. Other educators who focus on college and career readiness will also find Noodle a good resource to recommend. Noodle works best when combined with an individual student profile, so students will need to establish their own accounts and then come back to that account for ongoing research. Noodle promises that it will not sell student information from those individual profiles. However, Noodle can also provide a quick overview of any college simply by searching on the college name or from preset categories without establishing an individual account.
At Home
As you and your college bound student begin to explore post secondary education together, Noodle is a useful tool in trying to narrow down the choices and tailor those choices to your teen’s individual preferences and abilities. Have your teen establish an account and then come back to that account for ongoing research. Noodle promises it will not sell student information from individual profiles.