New informational Web site helps prospective students find right college

Fort Worth, TX

9/26/2007

TCU today announced it is participating in the University & College Accountability Network (U-CAN), a Web-based informational site designed to help prospective students and parents more effectively evaluate independent colleges and universities. U-CAN, which was developed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), will list key institutional data of the more than 500 institutions in a common format, making it easier for parents and students to evaluate the schools. This is the first national consumer information tool developed by colleges and universities -- either public or private.
  
“Transparency is crucial in this day and age,” said TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. “TCU tries to be as transparent as possible with prospective students and their parents and this Web site will help further our goal to remain as open as possible.”
   
NAICU developed the U-CAN site after growing concern among families, members of Congress and the U.S. Department of Education about the lack of institutional data available to incoming college students. NAICU conducted focus groups with students and parents to determine what type of institutional data they were most interested in accessing.

There is no charge to use the U-CAN database and all university profiles are presented in a common format for easier comparison. The data in the university profiles, which is taken from the U.S. Department of Education’s IPEDS survey and the Common Data Set, consists of admissions, enrollment, academics, student demographics, graduation rates, most common fields of study, transfer of credit policy, faculty information, class size, tuition and fee trends, accreditation, price of attendance, financial aid, campus housing, student life, and campus safety information. Each university profile also has more than two dozen hyperlinks on the site that will take the user to individual pages on a college’s Web site. These pages flesh out the quantitative data of the profiles, and provide insight into each college’s unique character.

View TCU's U-CAN Web site here.