Update: This promotion is now over. Sorry!

Anyone that has gone to college, is looking to go to college, planning on going to college, or is related/associated to someone that falls in the previous three categories has probably researched college rankings at one time or another. One of the top authorities on college/university rankings is U.S. News & World Report.

U.S. News & World Report is a company that, among other things, ranks colleges and universities in the USA and worldwide. U.S. News provides ranks on college/universities in a variety of ways, such as best business college, best medical school, best college for biology majors, best colleges overall, best worldwide colleges, and more. U.S. News provides limited free access to everyone that shows only the top ten colleges/universities in a particular category. If anyone wants to get the full rankings, they have to purchase premium access, known as U.S. News College Compass.

Typically this premium access costs $$$. However, as part of their campaign to promote Google Apps in academia, Google is teaming up with U.S. News & World Report to provide everyone with one year free access to U.S. News College Compass. In other words, you can get access to the full U.S. News college/university rankings for free. The best part is, the process to get this freebie is surprisingly simple. All you have to do is visit the promotion page and register. Once you register, simply visit the U.S. News College Compass, login if you aren’t logged in already, and start exploring. Easy, no?

Take note that this promotion appears to only be valid until 9/16/2011, i.e. it ends today. So you better start clicking now.