Search was a computerized college selection service founded in 1967 by David Dewan when he was a student at Harvard Business School. High school students answered 72 questions about their academic record and college preferences. Search then compared their responses against a verified database of all 2,837 accredited U.S. colleges and mailed each student a letter listing the ten best recommendations.
In 1967, there were more than 2,300 US 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities in the United States as well as over a thousand 3-year degree-granting schools (primarily hospital-affiliated nursing schools.)
In the fall of 1967, there were approximately 13,647,000 students enrolled in public and private US high schools.
At this time, 31,455 guidance counselors served these 13.6 million students, a ratio of one guidance counselor per 434 students. National guidelines recommended "A lower ratio of one counselor per 300 students is considered desirable for providing high-quality guidance services in secondary schools."
The number and variety of colleges, combined with the shortage of guidance counselors, meant that most high school students had no practical way to survey all the possibilities when making their college decision. Dewan, whose existing companies â Contact and Computer Dance â had given him extensive experience distributing questionnaires to thousands of students and processing their answers by computer, recognized that the same technology could be applied to the more serious problem of college selection.
In 1966âÂÂ1967, Search created a database of 2,837 accredited colleges, universities, and degree-granting institutions in the United States; every qualified 2-year, 3-year, and 4-year school.
Beginning in the summer of 1966, a staff of eight assembled the school catalogs from an initial group of 2,200 colleges. The researchers read every catalog, compiled as much information as possible from each, and encoded the data on punch cards for entry into the computer files. "It turned out to be a larger project than we expected," Dewan admitted. With the addition of the remaining schools, the Search database grew to more than 2.5 million facts.
Accuracy was essential. "The basic thing is having the facts on each college correct," Dewan told The Christian Science Monitor. "Nothing can leave here until everything is perfect. There's no room for mistakes."
Search verified its data by mail with every school and encouraged cooperation by doing as much of the research in advance as possible. As the verification letter noted "We have tried to avoid asking you to fill in a lengthy questionnaire by getting most of our facts beforehand from your printed material. We would like you to double-check these facts to prevent incorrect data from being recorded in our files."
<div style="text-align:center;">Only two pages of the five-page verification letter are known to exist.</div>
The approach drew an enthusiastic response from institutions. "Our college relationships were very positive. We get virtually 100 per cent positive reply when we send to them for information." Dewan reported. The database was updated twice a year through direct correspondence with the admissions office of each institution. Dewan said "We're more up to date than any book on colleges can be."
The Search questionnaire had 72 questions covering "General Information" about the student (questions 1âÂÂ10) and the student's "College Preferences" (questions 11âÂÂ72), answered as Preferred / Acceptable / Not Acceptable. The questionnaire was "developed with the help of guidance counselors and college admission directors." Each applicant completed the questionnaire and mailed the enclosed reply form to Search in Boston for computer processing.
The Search computer compared each student's answers and preferences with the complete database of 2,837 colleges and selected the 10 schools that best met his or her needs. The computer printed a letter with each school's name, location, required tests (SAT or ACH), and the application deadline. Search also enclosed ten computer-printed, pre-addressed postcards so students could request catalogs and admissions information directly from each recommended school.
As one of the first companies to apply computer technology to college selection, Search attracted widespread media coverage:
Frederick H. Treesh, in a story distributed by United Press International (UPI), reported that Search "now is receiving applications for its service at the rate of 1,000 a week."
Additional coverage included