Every college program page includes a Similar Programs section — a quick way to widen your search beyond the schools you already know about. If a program looks like a good fit, the schools that match it on division, academics, and cost are one click away.
Where to find it
Open any school's program profile and scroll to the bottom of the Info tab. You'll see a grid of up to 20 program cards (each with a logo, name, location, type, and size) under the Similar Programs heading. Click any card to jump straight to that program's own profile.
How matches are chosen
Similar Programs isn't calculated live while you browse. It's built from a batch job that runs periodically across every program in ProductiveRecruit's database, so the list you see is a snapshot rather than a real-time recalculation. Expect the exact set of schools to shift slightly each time it refreshes.
Two programs are grouped together when they line up on the same sport and gender, and then are close enough on a set of academic and financial measures:
| Criterion | Match range |
|---|---|
| Sport & gender | Must be identical |
| Division | Must match (when known for the source program) |
| Average GPA | Within ±0.5 |
| ACT (cumulative) | Within ±5 |
| SAT reading | Within ±300 |
| SAT math | Within ±300 |
| Undergraduate enrollment | Within ±7,000 students |
| Average annual cost | Within ±$20,000 |
| Campus setting | Same bucket (City, Suburb, Town, or Rural) |
If a school hasn't reported one of these data points, that particular criterion is simply skipped for it rather than excluding the school from matching altogether, so a program with sparse data can still surface reasonable matches on the fields it does have.
There's no way to adjust these criteria yourself or filter out schools you've already added to your target list — the grid always shows the same matching logic for everyone.
Using it in your research
Similar Programs works best as a discovery step, not a final answer. Treat a strong match as a lead worth a closer look — check the program's own Info tab for coaching staff, admissions data, and cost before deciding whether to add it. If it looks promising, use the heart icon on the card (or the program profile itself) to add it straight to your target list.
What's next
- Dig into a matched program's full details in College program profile pages.
- Set up your own criteria ahead of time with College preferences & recommendations.
- Once you've added a match, move it through your pipeline with Tracking status.