collegedata

What collegedata does

CollegeData is a free online college advisory service provided by 1st Financial Bank USA (1FBUSA), a private banking institution headquartered in North Sioux City, South Dakota. Founded in 1998 and operating for over 25 years, the platform targets high school students (primarily juniors and seniors), their parents, and high school guidance counselors, helping them navigate the college research, application, and financial aid process. The service is distributed through a web property (collegedata.com) and free mobile applications on iOS and Android, with content marketing and organic social channels as primary acquisition vehicles.

The product suite includes a searchable database of 2,600+ college profiles, a Scholarship Finder indexing awards worth over $5 billion, a College Chances admissions probability calculator, an EFC (and now SAI) Calculator, a Net Price Calculator, a Financial Aid Tracker, an Admissions Tracker, a Compare Awards tool, and a Common Application guide. Technical components include TLS/HTTPS encryption for personally identifiable information, a mobile app stack, and integration with HubSpot for marketing automation. CollegeData is a NACAC member and subscribes to the Statement of Principles of Good Practice.

The business model is freemium from the user's perspective: the service is entirely free, with revenue generated indirectly through advertising and referral of 1FBUSA's financial products—primarily student credit cards and banking services—to the platform's user base. CollegeData functions as a customer acquisition and engagement channel for the parent bank rather than a standalone revenue-generating entity, and there is no evidence of external investment, venture funding, or independent ownership.

Name

collegedata

Legal name

CollegeData

Website

https://collegedata.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Short description

CollegeData is a free college advisory platform, owned by 1st Financial Bank USA since 1998, that helps high school students, parents, and counselors search 2,600+ colleges, find scholarships, and plan financial aid.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

College Planning Software

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Scholarship, Financial Aid & FAFSA Support Platforms (EDAFAMAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Financial Aid, Scholarships & FAFSA/CSS Profile Support (EDANAEAI)

Keywords

• College search tools
• Scholarship finder
• Financial aid planning
• Admissions calculator
• College planning resources

Headquarters

HQ city

North Sioux City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Advertising and Financial Product Referrals: CollegeData is provided free of charge to users. Revenue is generated through advertising 1st Financial Bank USA's financial products (student credit cards, banking services) to users. The service also promotes the bank's student credit card and other financial products throughout the platform.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

CollegeData is a free online college advisory platform that provides students, parents, and counselors with tools to search and compare 2,600+ colleges, discover thousands of scholarship awards worth over $5 billion, estimate admissions chances, and calculate financial aid eligibility. The service also offers educational content, student stories, and mobile applications for iOS and Android.

Product overview

CollegeData is a free online college advisory service provided by 1st Financial Bank USA, operating for over 25 years. The platform offers a comprehensive suite of college-planning tools including College Search (for searching and comparing 2,600+ colleges), Scholarship Finder (accessing thousands of scholarships worth over $5 billion), College Chances (admissions calculator), Admissions Tracker, EFC Calculator, Net Price Calculator, Financial Aid Tracker, and Compare Awards. The platform also provides educational resources, student stories, college planning articles, and a mobile app. The core value proposition is helping students make informed decisions about preparing for, applying to, and paying for college.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• College Search A college search and comparison tool that allows users to search and compare 2,600+ colleges by name or personal preferences including location, size, cost, acceptance rate, majors, diversity, and graduation rates.
• Scholarship Finder A scholarship search tool that allows users to explore thousands of scholarship awards worth over $5 billion offered by private organizations, foundations, corporations, and individuals.
• College Chances A college admissions calculator that estimates users' chances of admission at any of the 2,600+ colleges listed on CollegeData.
• Admissions Tracker A tool that allows users to track their college applications and see who got in where and how they compare against other applicants.
• EFC Calculator A tool that calculates the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), the amount a family is expected to contribute to college costs, to estimate financial aid eligibility.
• Net Price Calculator A calculator that estimates the true cost of college and actual out-of-pocket cost for any college based on cost of attendance, financial aid eligibility, and recent financial aid awards.
• Financial Aid Tracker A tool that helps users review a college's financial aid history and identify financially friendly colleges.
• Compare Awards A tool that helps users evaluate financial aid packages and determine which one is the best fit.
• Common Application Colleges Guide A guide to colleges that accept the Common Application for streamlined college applications.
• CollegeData Mobile App A free mobile app that provides access to college application and testing dates, scholarship finder with over $5 billion in awards, and tools to search and compare 2,600+ college profiles.
• SAI Calculator SAI (Student Aid Index) calculator tool listed among the College Tools menu for estimating financial aid eligibility.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $5 billion in scholarship awards searchable through the platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• College Confidential: College Confidential runs college search, application tools, and a large parent/student forum that overlaps with CollegeData's planning tools and adds community-driven admissions content.
• Cappex: Cappex offers free college search, college chances calculators, and scholarship matching — a near-feature-parallel alternative to CollegeData — and has historically been bundled with EAB's broader enrollment services portfolio.
• Niche: Niche.com is a free consumer platform that aggregates college reviews, rankings, search, and admissions data for prospective students and parents, competing head-to-head with CollegeData's college search and comparison experience.
• Naviance (PowerSchool): Naviance is a college and career readiness platform used by high schools and counselors; it overlaps directly with CollegeData's counselor-focused workflows and college search/admissions tooling, with deeper institutional integration into K-12 districts.
• Scholarships.com: Scholarships.com is a free scholarship database and college search resource targeting the same high school student audience, with a comparable freemium model monetized through education-related advertising and partner referrals.
• College Board BigFuture: College Board's free college and career planning platform offers college search, scholarship search, and financial aid guidance to the same high school student audience as CollegeData, and benefits from the College Board's brand as the operator of the SAT.
• Unigo: Unigo provides free college search, scholarships, reviews, and student-matching content to high school students, putting it in direct overlap with CollegeData's research and scholarship tools.
• Fastweb: Fastweb is one of the largest free scholarship search engines, directly comparable to CollegeData's Scholarship Finder in product scope, audience, and monetization model (referrals to financial products and education services).

Broad incumbents

• Chegg: Chegg is a broader education platform serving college students with tutoring, textbooks, and admissions-adjacent content; it overlaps with CollegeData in the college planning funnel but operates at much larger scale with paid products.
• The Princeton Review: The Princeton Review offers test prep, college counseling, and admissions resources that overlap with the planning and admissions-odds functions CollegeData provides, while operating a larger, paid services portfolio.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CollegeData
• Facebookfacebook.com/CollegeData
• Instagraminstagram.com/collegedata

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about collegedata