The IPEDS College Opportunities On‐Line (COOL) Electronic Directory of Postsecondary Institutions is provided by the US Department of Education as a resource for anyone researching American postsecondary institutions. COOL allows users to search by geographic region, state, city, maximum distance from zip code, type of institution, instructional programmes offered, name of institution, number of students enrolled, and Title IV participation. Users have the ability to search on more than one category, and to sort results by institution name, city, state, or number of students enrolled. Browsing is not available.
An institution's record includes its mailing address; phone numbers for general information, the admissions office and the financial aid office. There are links to the mission statement and Web site; plus information on the types of federal aid offered; the types of degrees and certificates awarded; the Carnegie classification; the application fee, as well as the costs for tuition and fees, room and board (on‐campus vs. off‐campus), and books for the past three academic years. Also included are links to various statistics about the institution, such as enrollment data for the undergraduate population, the number of degrees conferred, financial aid awarded, accrediting bodies, and campus crime statistics.
Enrollment data for undergraduates is broken down into the categories of gender and race/ethnicity. Data is provided on the number and percentage of students who are full‐time, first‐time undergraduates, and the percentage of these students receiving financial aid, which includes the type of aid, percentage of students receiving aid, and average amount of aid received. COOL also provides detailed information regarding awards/degrees conferred, which gives users the total number of degrees conferred in the last academic year, including a breakdown by the institution's largest programme areas. There is also the ability to search by type of degree and by specific programme area. A very useful feature is the inclusion of crime statistics for each campus. This includes criminal offences, hate crimes, and arrests. Numbers are provided for on‐campus crimes, crimes in residence halls, non‐campus crimes, and crimes committed on public property, as well as the name of and contact information for the Security Officer on campus.
There is an IPEDS COOL Search Help page, which provides definitions for terms used on the search page as well as directions for searching multiple fields. The only glossary available is provided by the Office of Postsecondary Education, which is helpful if one needs assistance interpreting certain terms relating to the crime statistics pages. The site is easy to use and would be helpful to students and parents comparing colleges or looking for data on specific institutions. Many of the search options feature drop‐down menus, which can be rather lengthy. The interface is relatively clean, featuring consistent global navigation. One somewhat awkward element of the design is that most of the internal navigation is located at the bottom of the screen.
It is noteworthy to mention that it is not indicated how often this site is updated or how it is kept up to date. Some of the data was from the 2001‐2002 school year, while other data was from 2003. However, enough information is provided that users should have no problem finding the most recent data available for a particular institution. School, public, and academic libraries should find this helpful for their users.
