<p>Do parents here read the student newspapers of the schools their kids are looking at? I find them pretty interesting. Most seem to be available on line. I think you can get some sense of the mood on campus, as long as you realize that school newspapers are, in a lot of ways, unchanged from when we attended college! (Complaints about food, dorms, etc.) You can, however, learn some things they don't tell you at the Info Sessions!</p>
<p>I do read the college newspapers, they are pretty enlightening!
My daughter's college however doesn't post a link to the paper, they have had pretty questionable content for high school students to access online, yet they don't want to have to decide to censor the student paper.</p>
<p>We found them a useful tool when we were college shopping. We also tried to pick up a copy of the local paper (not the big city metro that was distributed in the area).</p>
<p>The papers give a good view of the social life in the area and what topics were on people's minds.</p>
<p>At my daughter's college, there was an option to subscribe to the
newspaper when she ordered the yearbook. I hadn't intended on
subscribing as the cost was quite a bit; however, she accidentally
signed us up.</p>
<p>Now that we're receiving an envelope every week with several
papers in it at a time, I find I look forward to reading them. It really
helps me get a sense for what's happening on campus. Helpful, since
my D only emails occasionally and calls once every 10 days or so.
I'm now glad we are receiving them!</p>
<p>Just wanted to mention a web site that has links to many college student newspapers:
<a href="http://newslink.org/statcamp.html%5B/url%5D">http://newslink.org/statcamp.html</a></p>
<p>Of course, you can also usually find them at the school's site by doing a search for
"student newspaper" but I find the above link interesting and just a tad faster.</p>
<p>Carolyn, thanks for that link!</p>
<p>Sometimes I'll check out the college newspaper, but more often I check for communities on livejournal or xanga. Learned a LOT about Reed on livejournal.</p>
<p>I subscribe and look forward to the thin envelope ea week. Not much in the paper so far, but the fee helps the paper. The on line Bull sheet has more info-lists activities and "crime"-so far minor. Redlands also has a web cam: saw son the first week and made me very happy. Son is not a caller. Attended first concert last night and will attend Jazz concert this Friday during Parents/Homecoming weekend.</p>
<p>Livejournal is a great source -- but can be kind of scary for cautious moms reading about what really goes on on some campuses. LOL :)</p>
<p>Livejournal is sort of interesting. I had trouble trying to figure out what it was, and how to use it (I guess I am behind the tech curve), but I had a nice conversation with some students at Kenyon. I'll have to look at xanga.</p>
<p>Thanks Carolyn for the link. It's good! I just read the Case newspaper, which struck me as sort of dispirited. Hmmm...</p>
<p>Penn State Univ Park has a very good student newspaper, I believe comparable to the UNC student paper. </p>
<p>Also at PSU you can swipe your student card and obtain the NYTimes, the USAToday and the local paper from various kiosks around campus.</p>
<p>I recently received a free copy of the school newspaper at my daughter's college, with an appeal to subscribe for the year. I thought it would be a great idea until I read about all the problems with drinking in the freshmen dorms - several students were so tanked that ambulances were called!</p>
<p>A couple of deep breaths later, I recalled one of our summer conversations that she would be responsible for her own well-being while she was at college and that I would have to trust her. One way for me to move in the direction of letting go will be to avoid "looking over her shoulder" by reading the student newspaper.</p>
<p>However, when we were looking at colleges last year, school newspapers were valuable for getting a feel for the campus and students.</p>
<p>It is indeed amazing how much more iinformation is available to today's parents and prospective students about the college experience than was true decades ago when I was in college.</p>
<p>And it goes way beyond campus newspapers. </p>
<p>Most professorss have websites, some quite elaborate, that almost give one the ability to be a "fly on the wall" in the class. There aer links to syllabi, papers written by the professor, lecture notes, and--in some cases--even publicly viewable videos of lectures.</p>
<p>MIT's "open courseware" initiative is exceptional in that respect, but many individual professors at other colleges offer quite a lot on their websites too. Motivated autodidacts (adults and kids) can learn an awful lot just from reading the contents of some of these websites.</p>
<p>The course websites are a nice way for parents (and siblings!) to have some idea what's their college students are learning without pestering them with a lot of questions in phone calls, email, and IM. And reading some of the web-posted articles and lecture notes might provide the basis for some interesting conversations when they come home for the holidays.</p>
<p>Reading college newspapers is a good way to balance the hype of the admissions brochures. We found it a way to see not only the campus news but also what was of importance to the student body, daily and weekly events, relevant issues and how they were being handled by the administrations, and the real word on campus safety etc. They also can give you good insight into the political and social climate of the school.</p>
<p>Many college websites also have links to the school's magazines and other literary publications as well. All these offer a much better insight from afar than the literature/advertising that comes from admissions.</p>
<p>We subscribe to both the campus newspaper and one of their smaller political publications to which our son submits pieces on a regular basis. We do learn a lot about what is going on at the school, they even print a police blotter of campus incidents.</p>
<p>There is a time lag. We could go on-line to get most of the content but I just like supporting their publications.</p>
<p>Yes. the college newspapers were very useful during my daughter's college hunt. For example, searching on areas of interest provided a lot of insight into admissions, activities, departments, housing, and major issues on campus. A great way to get a real "feel" for the campus culture.</p>
<p>I read the paper now as a way of staying connected with my daugher's experience at college.</p>
<p>I subscribe to a few online and find them great for everyday details of dorm life and dissatisfactions with profs and/or courses. Also give you a sense of campus "hot topics".</p>