<p>I was searching for graduate school when I came across this US News Grad Compass. It costs $29.95. Is it worth a buy? Have you all tried it? It looks promising though. </p>
<p>I would say no. First of all, it’s only for “law, business, engineering, education and medical programs.” Unless you are trying to go into one of those fields, it’ll be useless to you.</p>
<p>And what information does it include?</p>
<p>“What test scores do you need to get into school? LSATs, MCATs, GMATs and GREs are included for all programs.” - for these fields, you can find this information for free on the Internet. Most law and business schools post the average LSAT and GMAT scores of their incoming classes (search “[school name] MBA/JD class profile”). I’m pretty sure that most medical schools post something similar to this, too. Like [url=<a href="http://hms.harvard.edu/departments/admissions/applying/selection-factors/admissions-statistics"]Harvard[/url">http://hms.harvard.edu/departments/admissions/applying/selection-factors/admissions-statistics"]Harvard[/url</a>].</p>
<p>“Find out the average grants, scholarships and student debt for law, business and medical schools. For engineering and education programs, fellowship and research appointments.” I’m pretty sure that this is also available for free on the Internet, but even if it was not, I’m not sure that it’s meaningful. Average debt is a tricky thing. Many students at top, expensive business and law schools (and med schools, too) come from wealthy families that are funding all or part of the bill. I think that you can safely assume that if you are attending law, business, or med school that you will finance all of it by student loans unless you are an exceptional student who gets a competitive scholarship OR have another source of money. Engineering and education are trickier because there are RAships available at some of those programs, but they usually advertise that freely on the website.</p>
<p>“Learn the breakdowns for each program between international students, gender proportions and underrepresented minorities.” - Also usually available freely on the Internet. And if it’s not freely available, you can always email the school admissions office and ask for that information. Also for free.</p>
<p>So no, it sounds like U.S. News just compiled some of the stuff that you can find yourself with a little elbow grease and is charging you for the convenience.</p>
<p>Thank you. That was very informative. I actually was able to find out all those information from the university’s website with a little research. :-)</p>