Answers to the questions most users ask first

CampusPin is a U.S. college discovery platform that helps students, parents, counselors, and educators search, compare, and evaluate colleges and universities. It combines filter-based search, detailed school profiles, a side-by-side comparison tool, a pinned shortlist, an Intelligent Advisor, and editorial guidance.

Yes. Searching colleges, viewing school profiles, comparing schools, reading editorial guides, and using the Intelligent Advisor are free for students and families. Some institution-side features for verified college representatives are paid; those are clearly labeled and never affect what students see.

No. You can search, filter, view profiles, and compare colleges without signing in. Creating a free account adds persistent pinned shortlists, the full Intelligent Advisor experience, and other personal workflows.

CampusPin is built for U.S. and international students researching U.S. colleges, parents and families supporting the search, school counselors, and educators who advise on college decisions. Verified institution representatives also use it to maintain their own profile data.

CampusPin is built by a Maryland-based group of academic faculty and education-focused professionals with backgrounds in higher-education administration, undergraduate advising, learning analytics, and data-driven decision-making. See the About page for more.

Start with the constraints that are genuinely non-negotiable — geography (state or distance from home), tuition or net-price range, school type (university or community college), and program format (in-person, online, hybrid). These filters create the cleanest first-pass shortlist.

Yes. The program and area-of-study filters narrow results to schools that offer specific majors or program categories. Pair the program filter with cost and location filters to avoid lists that look strong on paper but ignore real constraints.

Yes. Use city, ZIP code, or state in the search box, or apply the state filter directly. The map view stays in sync with the result list, so you can see geographic distribution as you narrow.

Yes. The pin button on every school card and profile saves a school to your shortlist. Logged-out users get a temporary shortlist for the session; logged-in users get a persistent shortlist tied to their account.

Filter combinations can over-narrow. If a school you expect is missing, broaden a filter or two — for example, expand the tuition ceiling or relax the campus-setting filter. Some institutions also have incomplete fields in our dataset; see /data-methodology for sourcing.

Each profile includes location, school type and control, tuition (in-state and out-of-state when available), acceptance rate, enrollment, programs and areas of study, graduation and retention rates, financial aid context, campus setting, and safety information from federal sources. A "Profile last updated" line shows the freshness signal when a verified date exists.

Public datasets do not cover every field for every institution. CampusPin shows "Data not available" rather than guessing — a missing value is more honest than a fabricated one. Always verify final figures with the institution directly.

Most profiles show a "Profile last updated" date near the school name. When no verified date exists, the page shows a public-source attribution note instead. The associated JSON-LD includes a dateModified value when available.

Tuition is the published price an institution charges before any aid. Net price is what a student or family typically pays after grants and scholarships are applied. Net price is usually the more useful number when comparing affordability across schools.

Net price on CampusPin is sourced from federal data and reflects the average price paid by students receiving aid, after grants and scholarships are subtracted from total cost of attendance. It does not include loans. Income-banded variants are surfaced when available.

Use net price rather than sticker tuition. Open two or three schools in the comparison tool, pair the net-price columns with graduation rate and retention, and treat four-year cost — not first-year cost — as the real number. CampusPin does not include loans in net price.

Yes. Use the in-state or out-of-state tuition filter to set a ceiling. For deeper affordability comparison, open the comparison tool and read the net-price columns side by side — the "How to compare colleges by net price" guide on the blog walks through this.

Yes. The /compare page lets you open up to four colleges at once and review tuition, net price, acceptance rate, enrollment, graduation rate, campus setting, and program format together. Pin schools first from search results or the state hub, then open compare.

Up to four. Holding more than four schools in working memory rarely produces a better decision; the limit is intentional.

The comparison tool shows control type alongside cost, enrollment, and outcomes columns. State-page hubs also break down public vs private institution counts so you can see the local mix before searching.

The Advisor is best for clarifying constraints, asking tradeoff questions, narrowing pathway options, and translating institutional data into plain language. It is a research assistant, not a ranking source or admissions counselor.

No. The Advisor is a discovery and decision-support tool. It does not predict individual admissions outcomes, calculate official financial aid, or replace conversations with admissions offices, financial aid officers, or school counselors. Always verify with institutions.

Yes for general college-search questions. Personalized references to your pinned shortlist require a free account, which gives the Advisor full context.

Yes. The /for-parents page is built around the workflow of supporting — not replacing — a student's decision. Both the student and parent can pin schools, run comparisons, and use the Advisor. The platform is intentionally non-prescriptive about who decides what.

Yes. The blog has flagship guides on net price, four-year cost realism, and family decision frameworks. The /data-methodology page documents how affordability data is sourced.

Yes. The /for-counselors page outlines a workflow for using filters, profiles, comparison, and the Advisor with students. The help center documents specific advising-friendly patterns. CampusPin does not replace official counseling tools — it complements them.

The blog and help-center articles are publicly readable and CampusPin-attribution-friendly. Educators are welcome to reference them in workshops, college nights, and advising sessions; please link back to the canonical CampusPin URL when you do.

Verified institution representatives can submit a claim through /claim-institution. After approval, the institution-side workflow allows eligible profile-management tasks. Some fields go through protected review to preserve data quality and source integrity.

No. Identity and core institutional facts can be updated by verified representatives directly. Other fields — typically those drawn from federal datasets — go through a protected update workflow that includes editorial review.

Yes. Premium institution features (analytics, additional profile customization, advertising) are paid and clearly labeled. They never affect the public student-facing data on the profile.

CampusPin sources institutional facts from federal datasets — IPEDS / NCES College Navigator, the College Scorecard, Clery Act campus security reports, FBI Uniform Crime Report — and from institutional websites and editorial review. Each source is named on the /data-methodology page, with field definitions on /data-dictionary.

IPEDS and Scorecard data refresh on annual federal release schedules; institutional fields and editorial content update more frequently. Tuition and acceptance rate values can lag the most recent academic year by 1–2 cycles depending on the source. Always verify with the institution.

Public datasets refresh on annual cycles, while institutions update tuition, deadlines, financial aid, and program offerings throughout the year. CampusPin is a discovery layer, not the official source. Before applying, paying a deposit, or making a final decision, confirm directly with the school.

No. CampusPin does not publish rankings of its own. We do not believe a single ordinal list captures the multidimensional question of fit. Sort options exist for narrowing, but they are explicitly not "best of" rankings.

Acceptance rate is the percentage of applicants admitted in the most recent reported cycle. It is a useful signal of selectivity but not a measure of school quality and does not predict an individual student's outcome. CampusPin reports the federally-published value and rounds to whole percentages.

See the Privacy Policy for the full statement. CampusPin does not sell student data, does not target advertising based on personal academic profiles, and limits internal access to account information. The /privacy page is the authoritative reference.

Click "Sign up" in the top navigation. Email and Google sign-in are supported. You can use most of CampusPin without an account; an account is only needed for persistent pinned shortlists and full Advisor context.

Use the contact form at /contact and clearly state that the request is for account deletion or a data-removal review. Account-related requests go through human review to ensure they're routed correctly.

Use the contact form at /contact and include the school name, the specific field that is wrong, and the correct value or source. Reports go to the editorial team and are reviewed against the source data.

Please report it via the contact form. CampusPin does not publish AI-templated bulk content; if a public page reads as low-quality, we want to investigate.

Editorial corrections to school profiles or guides typically resolve within a few business days. Source-derived field changes (e.g., tuition) may need to wait for the next dataset refresh; we communicate that status when it applies.

The full search, filtering, comparison, and Intelligent Advisor experience is available worldwide without an account. Filter by cost, location, school type, program, and campus setting, then verify international admissions, tuition, and visa requirements with each institution and U.S. official sources.

No. CampusPin is a college discovery and comparison platform. Visa, SEVIS, OPT, and STEM-OPT questions belong to the U.S. Department of State (travel.state.gov), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (uscis.gov), and each institution's designated school official.

Read each institution's admissions page directly. International-applicant requirements (test scores, English proficiency, financial documentation) are usually published on a dedicated international-admissions or international-student-services page on the school's site.

Use ZIP-code or city search to center the map, then pan and zoom to see schools in your preferred area. Distance-from-home filtering at finer granularity is on the roadmap; for now, the map view is the most useful tool for geographic narrowing.

Yes. The full search and comparison experience is available without an account. Filter 3,800+ U.S. institutions by cost, location, programs (computer science, engineering, business, mathematics, economics are common Chinese-applicant fields), and school type. See /international-students/china for a dedicated guide.

CampusPin shows federally-published net price, which is calculated mostly for U.S. domestic students. Chinese students typically pay published international tuition. Use cost columns on /compare for cross-school comparison, and verify international tuition and aid policy on each institution's financial aid page.

Yes. Some Chinese students attend a U.S. community college first to lower cost and improve English-language fluency before transferring to a four-year university. Verify articulation agreements between each community college and target destinations before enrolling.

Yes. Use the program filter on /results to narrow to computer science, engineering, mathematics, biological sciences, or related fields. /programs/computer-science and /programs/engineering provide additional guidance on what to compare across schools.

No, and you should be skeptical of any tool that does. OPT and STEM-OPT eligibility depend on degree level, the CIP code of the major, and current USCIS policy — not the school. Verify with USCIS (uscis.gov) and the institution's designated school official.

Many U.S. institutions offer some merit aid to international applicants, but availability and amounts vary widely. CampusPin shows federally-published averages; always confirm international merit aid policy on each institution's financial aid page.

Yes. Filters and the map view work for any user. International tuition is what most GCC students pay unless sponsored by a national scholarship program. CampusPin shows federally-published averages; verify international tuition and aid policy with each institution.

CampusPin is independent and not affiliated with any national scholarship program. It can help families compare schools on a sponsor's approved-school list, but the approved list itself comes from the sponsor — not from CampusPin. Always confirm sponsor rules separately.

School profiles surface what each institution reports. Deeper community context — Muslim Student Associations, prayer rooms, halal dining — usually comes from each school's religious/spiritual life office. CampusPin does not rate these directly.

Yes. Net price columns on /compare let you read the average price aid-receiving students pay across up to four schools side by side. Net price is usually the more useful affordability number than published tuition.

Use the map view on /results to center on your home ZIP, then apply a tuition or net-price filter. The result list and map stay in sync as you narrow.

Different sources publish on different cycles. CampusPin uses College Scorecard and IPEDS, which lag the current academic year by 1–2 years. The institution's own current-year tuition page is always the authoritative source.

The Intelligent Advisor at /advisor uses an AI model trained on general knowledge plus CampusPin institutional data and editorial library. It is a research assistant for college-search questions, shortlist pressure-testing, and tradeoff thinking — not a ranking source or admissions counselor.

No. AI answers are useful for narrowing direction and asking better questions, but always verify final tuition, admissions, financial aid, and program details with each institution before applying. CampusPin's data lags federal cycles by 1–2 years; institutional pages are always more current.

CampusPin grounds the Advisor in institutional data and editorial library content rather than open-web speculation, but no AI is perfectly reliable. Always verify any specific numerical or admissions claim on the institution's own site before relying on it.

Yes. /transfer-college-search is a dedicated guide for transfer applicants and explains what to compare — articulation agreements, max transferable credits, transfer-specific aid, and major capacity. The full search and comparison features work for transfer applicants without an account.

Yes. /community-colleges is the hub. Search /results with the school-type filter set to community college, build a shortlist of two-year starting points, then move to /transfer-college-search to explore four-year destinations. Always verify articulation agreements with both institutions before enrolling.

No, and you should be skeptical of any tool that claims to. Maximum transfer credits depend on the destination school AND your specific course history — only the destination registrar can issue an authoritative transfer credit evaluation. CampusPin surfaces school-level filters that help you build a shortlist; the per-student credit evaluation is institutional.

CampusPin does not label schools "transfer-friendly" because the term is too vague. Two schools that both "accept transfers" can lose 5 credits or 30 of your credits. Use filters to build a shortlist; verify the actual transfer experience with each school.

Use /colleges-near-me or open /results and type your ZIP code, city, or state into the search box. The map view stays in sync with the result list and orders by distance. Pair location with cost, school-type, and program filters for a realistic shortlist.

Yes. ZIP code search on /results centers the map on that location and orders results by distance. Combine ZIP with a tuition ceiling and program filter to narrow further.

Yes. Use the state filter on /results, or browse the directory at /colleges-by-state for all 50 states + DC with regional context and decision factors.

ZIP / city search centers the map on a location and orders results by distance. A precise distance-from-home filter at finer granularity is on the roadmap; for now, the map view is the most useful tool for geographic narrowing.

CampusPin does not publish rankings. Schools surface based on the criteria a student or family searches for — cost, location, program, school type, fit. Each profile cites federal data sources for every reported field. This is filter-first discovery, not "best of" lists ordered by opinion.

Yes. Use the program or area-of-study filter on /results to narrow to schools offering a specific field. /programs hosts dedicated guides for computer science, engineering, business, nursing, data science, cybersecurity, and information technology — each explains what to compare.

No. We do not publish program rankings. Each program guide explains what to compare for that specific field — direct-admit policy for CS, ABET accreditation for engineering, BSN-track requirements for nursing, CAE designation for cybersecurity — so students can make decisions that match their goals rather than a list ordered by opinion.

Yes. Apply the program-format filter (online, hybrid, onsite) on /results after selecting a program. Online and hybrid availability differs by school and by program; verify with each institution.

Accreditation information is reported on each institution's academic catalog and program page. CampusPin does not claim accreditation directly. For licensure-track fields (nursing, engineering, education) accreditation is critical — verify before applying.