The college application process is both stressful and scary. On Tuesday, Google announced that they are developing a new feature. The feature will make college information more accessible to prospected college students. It’s been reported that this information will include the average cost after financial aid, the typical annual income of students who attend and graduation, and admissions rates.
In a blog post, Google’s product manager Jacob Schonberg said that “Information is scattered across the internet, and it’s not always clear what factors to consider and which pieces of information will be most useful for your decision. Schonberg also wrote that last year they begin an “initiative to connect people to economic opportunity”. Google believes that the new feature will aid their initiative. The job search engine is also part of Google’s economic opportunity initiative.
Recently there have been many other companies taking the same initiative. Alongside Google are nonprofits trying to provide data to more students and parents throughout the college search. David Halperin, an attorney who has written extensively about the relationship between internet advertising and for-profit schools, believes that “it’s [the new feature] just providing somewhat different information that Is hopefully more relevant for students”.
Like other businesses, colleges try to bring in as much money as possible. Google’s new feature will work to create a more informed consumer.
Faith Sandler, the executive director of the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, helps low-income students apply to college and weighed in on the manner.
“Anybody who is going to invest this kind of time and money should be looking deeper than the front page”
Google issued the following statement:
“These features are part of organic Search and will not affect ads in any way, nor will a college’s placement nor information presented be affected by advertising”
Schonberg issued the following statement to EdScoop news in an email:
“It is Google’s mission to make information universally accessible and useful. We believe education is a critical part of a person’s life, and we are invested in making information around education easily available.”
Featured Image via Wikipedia
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