College and Finance

Interview With The myUsearch Founder

Every year, perspective students are faced with the daunting task of selecting the place in which they will spend the next 2-4 years (sometimes more) of their lives. One’s college choice is also important because of the financial implications from an investment standpoint. Unfortunately, sometimes students find that they may have not made the right decision, and end up looking to transfer after one or so years. With that in mind, Derek Kraus decided to found myUsearch. Essentially, myUsearch allows students to search through colleges and find those schools that most accurately match what they are looking for in terms of higher education. Mr. Kraus was kind enough to grant College and Finance an exclusive interview to help shed some light on the service:

1. What would you say your main service is for those of us that are unfamiliar with myUsearch?

myUsearch is a free service for anyone looking to enroll in college. Our free service provides students with unbiased college matching results. We do not advertise or promote any specific colleges. We also fund and award scholarships to students that use our college matching service.

For colleges, myUsearch provides the opportunity to introduce themselves to new students, plus colleges have the ability to connect with those students actually interested in their programs. We provide colleges with a very targeted approach to marketing, and eliminate spam for students.

2. How did you design the survey on your site?

Our “Smart” Questionnaire is designed to eliminate irrelevant questions, and reduce the time to find the right colleges.

3. How is your site different from existing college search sites?

First, we do not promote nor restrict students’ college results based on whether a college is willing to pay us.

Secondly, we have a large list of over 3,400 colleges from across the country that students can match with. Again, we do not restrict colleges based on whether they’re paying us. We list them regardless.
Lastly, we make sure to ask students all the necessary questions for providing a proper college match, and we eliminate those questions that are not relevant.

4. What’s the philosophy behind creating the site/business?

Our philosophy is two-fold. First, we wanted to provide students with an honest and accurate method for determining which college is best for them. We were tired of seeing so many college search sites that either did not provide a valid service, or took advantage of students. Secondly, we are avid supporters of education, and we have always wanted to provide scholarships for students that have financial difficulties with college. By starting an education based business, it presented the opportunity to direct business funds directly into our very own scholarship program.

5. What’s your background prior to myUsearch?

Initially, I had a difficult time in college. My grades were awful and my family did not have enough money to pay for my college education. I was fortunate, however, because I was a college athlete and I had a mother that made me realize just how important my grades were. Eventually I improved my grades, graduated from college and passed the Certified Public Accounting exam, which I thought would never happen.

Recently I worked at an online college where I experienced firsthand the difficulties and inefficiencies colleges were experiencing with my competitors.

6. Where do you get all of the ideas/content/writers for your blog?

We are actively involved in multiple higher education forums, blogs, etc. and we also stay current with student and college topics through various newspaper publications.
We’ve gathered writers from posting job opportunities at college campuses, as well as recruiting others that already maintain blogs about higher education or the college experience.

7. How does the myUsearch College Matching making process work?

We pose the most relevant questions for students to answer and then objectively match them with the right colleges within our large database of college profiles.

8. Should students using myUsearch still visit their college before deciding?

You bet they should. myUsearch is focused on narrowing that group of colleges to visit to the best opportunities and to disclose those lesser known colleges that actually should be considered.

9. Colleges are constantly changing, new programs, acceptance rates, rankings, and more, how often is myUsearch updated?

This is a problem with several other college search sites. Our goal is to have any and all changes updated on the site the instant these changes occur. We have developed an operational process that allows for instant updating and a more accurate database.

10. Would myUsearch be useful for students unhappy with their current college situation and looking to transfer?

Yes. Ultimately, myUsearch is useful to any person searching for a college, regardless of whether they’ve had prior college experience or not.

11. Where does myUsearch draw its information from? Directly from the Universities?

Without going into great detail, yes we derive our information directly from colleges and universities. However, we also derive our data from other public resources if the college isn’t currently working with us. This allows us to provide the best information to students and maintain our objectivity.

12. How important would you consider attending the “perfect” college or university to fit one’s needs is to success?

We believe that it is very important to a student’s long-term success at that school. The problem today with peoples perception of the “perfect” college is that it is usually based on someone’s ranking system. The problem is that just because a college is highly ranked does not mean that it will be a good fit, nor does it mean that those that are not ranked are not very good, if not great colleges.

13. About how large is the catalog of colleges listed in your database?

Currently we’re over 3,400 colleges and growing.

14. What types of scholarship opportunities can students find on your site?

Currently we’re offering two $1,000 scholarships. Both are financial need based. One is for a student looking to enroll in a video game design program and the other is more general and only requires an essay recommending ways in which colleges could improve the admissions process.

15. Do you have any future expansion plans for the range of myUsearch’s services?

Most definitely. There are multiple improvements and additional services we’re researching. Two most likely additions include expanding our scholarships to include different offering types and increasing the dollar amounts of each scholarship granted, and including campus tour videos with each college profile.

16. Finances are a huge concern for many college students, does or will myUsearch offer something more regarding finances, in addition to scholarship opportunities and information?

In order to provide the best college financial service we would need to develop an arrangement with the Federal Department of Education and their online forms. Currently there are several other sites that provide more in-depth college finance information, and the DOE alone provides direct assistance with Federal Aid. Therefore, I do not anticipate providing more in-depth financial information outside of expanding our scholarships and our information and links to these other great sites.

17. What do you hope that students will get out of using myUsearch?

An honest and accurate approach to finding the right college. We want students to have a memorable and successful college experience. Ultimately, we want to assist in making sure that students actually graduate from college. We believe that selecting the right college is step 1 to improving college graduation rates.

18. Do you think that students who use myUsearch will significantly lower their chances of disliking their university, and deciding to transfer as a result?

Of course. This is what we strive towards. We continue to evaluate ways in which we can improve the matching process, so as to increase the likelihood of a happy and successful college experience.

June 13 2008 | College Advice and Financial Advice and Pre-College Decisions | No Comments »

Don’t Ever Buy Textbooks for College…

…unless you absolutely have to

I am in Biology 101 this quarter (yes I know, easy class, but it fulfills a GEC; General Education Credit), and the book was supposed to be about $100. Previously, I’d always been a good boy and purchased every textbook for every class. I shared a textbook a few times, but even then I helped pay for it. So, I thought to myself, “let’s try something new.” I didn’t purchase the textbook right away, and decided to wait and see how the class is. Well, it turns out, I certainly didn’t need the textbook. Every lecture comes with a nifty PowerPoint presentation with all the information on it. We don’t even need to do readings from the textbook. I’d finally successfully avoided getting ripped off.

So, here’s the monumental tip: don’t buy your textbooks right away. If the class is conducted mostly in lecture, and you think you can get through without having to read from the book, then don’t buy it.

There are many ways to save money on textbooks; not buying them is the most financially beneficial. Of course, some classes need the textbook (or lab books, or special editions of textbooks, course packets, etc), but you will always find out in a week or two. Sometimes, you find out the very first day of class. I’d lost money too many times (one time I bought an Economics textbook that came in pages, binder ready. We never once even opened the book because the class was entirely lecture notes. Of course, the store wouldn’t buy the book back at the end of the quarter because it wasn’t bound. I learned my lesson.).

You should never sacrifice your grades just for financial reasons. However, more often than not, you’ll run into a few classes during your college experience that don’t ever use the textbook. Take advantage, and save some money.

November 21 2007 | Financial Advice | 2 Comments »

Water — It’s Free So Students Should Drink It

Our Earth is made up of about 71% of this (according to my favorite encyclopedia), and it’s very useful, as well as cheap. Unfortunately, too many people pay money for it, when in fact it can be obtained for free. Yes, you’ve guessed it; I’m talking about water. Drinking it can be a fantastic financial decision.

I know what you may be thinking. “Whoa, of course water is free, but how can it help me save money if I’m a broke college student.” Well, quite simply, if you drink water instead of the traditional Coke, Mountain Dew, Lemonade, Coffee, it can save you loads of money. I’ve been trying to drink more water this year to save money, since I’m now living off campus, and so I have to deal with many other financial burdens than before (namely, gasoline). So far, I feel that I’ve saved quite a bit of green. How? Think about it like this:

How much is the average Soda (or Pop, depending on where you’re from)? I’d say some can cost up to $1.50, but you can find the occasional can for less than $1.00. In any case, the way college students spend money on machines, it probably averages out to about $1.00 per drink. If you’re having beer with every meal than you could bring the price up. If you are actually paying for water, then it’ll be around the same. So, if you spent $1 on a drink, per meal, every day of the week (and you’re eating three meals a day), it would average out to about $21 a week, or $84 per month. That’s a lot of money (for me anyway)! Even if you only ate two meals a day, or drank plain old water for one of the three, you’re still spending quite a bit on flavored, carbonated water (which is all soda is). I can’t even begin to think about how much money I’ve saved so far this year by using drinking fountains instead of buying drinks with lunch. I even sometimes bring a bottle with me full of water from home. It’s nice to have with lunch, and feel the happy $1.50 that’s still in my pocket, safe and sound.

Why more college students aren’t constantly drinking water I’ll never know. But, I realize some hate tap water. Personally, I feel like it’s all the same (in fact I’ve read that tap is in fact better most of the time). However, if you are really stuck on having that “natural” spring water (by the way, some companies still bottle plain old tap water, suckers), then why not spend the money on a Brita Water Jug? All you really have to pay for after the initial investment are the filters. You can very easily pour that filtered water into a bottle and bring it with you to class, or lunch, or wherever you may be heading. I guarantee you that it’s more cost effective than buying huge boxes of bottled water.

So, that’s my brilliant financial tip of the day; drink water! I know it may not be as exciting as some of the other beverages out there, but your wallet will thank you for it. If you are on a meal plan that you’re parents pay for, and beverages aren’t a financial concern to you, than I envy you. However, you still shouldn’t waste money on bottled water.

October 21 2007 | Financial Advice | No Comments »