You have decided to go to college. You know that you have to take the SAT to be accepted to many colleges and universities, but you do not really know where you would like to send your score reports. Honestly, you only have a vague idea of what you want to major in. There are thousands of schools out there. How do you even start to find a school? Do you just…Google it?

What if there was something like Google for colleges? Well, there is, and it will take a lot less effort than sifting through hundreds and thousands of search results.

Since 1972, the College Board has offered the Student Search Service as a way to help colleges and students find their best matches. Since then, around 1,500 colleges and universities have partnered with College Board to send information to prospective students.

For students (like you reading this article) who are not sure where they want to go or what they want to do, the Student Search Service can provide a wealth of information–though that can be a downside as well, and I will talk about that later.

Anytime you take a College Board exam, like the SAT, PSAT, or AP Exam, you have the option to sign up for the Student Search Service. You can also opt in and out through your College Board account, which you will need to make in order to access your scores for those exams. Then, College Board will provide partnered schools and scholarship organizations with select information about you so they can determine if you might be a match for their school or scholarship.

This sounds like–and can be–a great way to discover schools and opportunities you had not even dreamed of. I remember getting a brochure from Sarah Lawrence College and having a (very) brief dream of going away to a small liberal arts college in the Northeast. That is until my mother said it was too far away from home. Anyways, knowing all the options available to you is still important, even if you end up choosing something closer to home. Who knows what might be just around the corner that you did not even know about!

However, there are some caveats regarding the Student Search Service that you should know about before making your choice.

There is no charge for you to be a part of the Student Search Service—no monetary charge, at least. In order for the service to work, schools do get access to some basic information in your College Board account like your mailing address, email address, and graduation year. Once you take a College Board-administered exam, like the SAT or an AP test, universities will have access to your score range for that test. While prospective schools will not know your exact score unless you choose to send them a report, they can search for students, for example, in the 1400–1600 score range. If you have such a score, you will be included in the results.

However, schools do not just search by score ranges. You can provide more information about your college and career plans by adding more information to your College Board profile like your GPA, courses you’ve taken in high school, your intended major, and even colleges you are interested in. Filling out your profile may result in receiving information from schools that more closely match your interests and preferences.

Just as important is what information schools will not receive. Even if you have provided College Board with medical and financial information in order to access accommodations or fee waivers, they will not share that with colleges.

Finally, even though you do not pay for this service, schools and scholarship programs do pay. By opting in, you are allowing College Board to sell your information. Even so, College Board only allows accredited universities and nonprofit scholarship programs to access your information. Those organizations are also prohibited from sharing your information with other entities beyond what is necessary to send you their brochures.

Another major caveat is that you may receive an overwhelming amount of information from schools, particularly in your email inbox. Thus, before you sign up for the Student Search Service, it is important to think about your needs as you plan for college. If you already know what schools you want to apply to, you may not need this service. If you are starting from scratch, it can be worthwhile to opt in for at least a little while in order to start getting ideas about what you want from your college experience.

The good news is that you can always change your mind either way. You can opt in or out at any time in your College Board account. Once you have opted out, you will be immediately removed from the Student Search Service list, but keep in mind that colleges that already have your information may continue to contact you. If you continue to receive unwanted emails, use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of those schools’ emails in order to stop receiving them.

One last caveat is to always be mindful when clicking through links in informational emails. All of us (meaning all humans with an email address) are targets for email scams, but if you have lots of emails from colleges and scholarship programs filling up your inbox, it can be easy to confuse a scam for the real thing. If anything sounds too good to be true, has an odd-looking email address sender, or is poorly formatted, you are likely looking at a scam. Just pay attention, and think of it as a way to practice your digital literacy skills!