Here’s a response Zante got about how to become a mod.
This feature is for college visits, not “college reviews”. That feature, and a few others, are coming soon. 
Mods are invited if they have an extensive history of friendly and helpful posting, preferably spread over a period of time that indicates more than a seasonal interest. College admissions expertise is less important than a friendly, welcoming attitude and demonstrated interest in helping others. People sometimes volunteer, too.
“This feature is for college visits, not “college reviews”. That feature, and a few others, are coming soon.”
Sweet! haha, CC will be the one stop shop for collegiate needs.
“Mods are invited if they have an extensive history of friendly and helpful posting, preferably spread over a period of time that indicates more than a seasonal interest. College admissions expertise is less important than a friendly, welcoming attitude and demonstrated interest in helping others. People sometimes volunteer, too.”
I’d volunteer to mod the transfer + Berkeley forums or whatever needs to be modded (ha) 
I have enjoyed so much reading the free-flowing, often very quirky visit reports of several posters that this new system seems a little sterile and not nearly as informative - or fun to read. I think there is a need for both, and this new system is great for a “down and dirty” look, but I sure hope folks don’t stop writing those lengthy, funny, visit reports that include the voice of the writer (these have often been posted in the parent’s forum).
Thanks
1- I think the board with the visits is hard to find. The only place that I could find it is through the discussion boards. It’s not listed anywhere else.
2- It still takes you to the wrong college. I first clicked on Georgia Tech, then I went to Carnegie Mellon. When I tried to read the report on Carnegie Mellon and clicked on the most popular or last read report, it took me back to Georgia Tech’s page. When I clicked under the grey bar for the same report as I had just tried, it took me to the right report.
3- Is there any way to transfer the reports that are already under the parents forum to there, even if they aren’t in the right format?
orjr, I agree completely. We originally envisioned space for a few words next to the individual category ratings, but EVERY member who posted a report got truncated. So, we expanded those comment areas but we have left a HUGE “Visit Description” field for those more personal anecdotes. (That field will hold as much text as three admissions essays or so!) So far, not many have posted more than a paragraph or two in that area, but I hope that some of our talented raconteurs will make good use of that space.
fourkidsmom, we don’t have the visit area linked much yet while we are getting the kinks out. That will change. We’ll check out the “wrong link” thing to see if it’s different than what I explained above.
We can’t really transfer the reports because each report is posted by a CC member. Any member, though, is welcome to transform a visit post they made in the Parents forum, a school forum, etc. into a visit report. Feel free to encourage the members whose reports you found useful to do so.
ConfusedHSJunior, looks like WE were confused… here’s the link for [Brown</a> University Visits](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/crep/www/report_browse.html?college_id=23]Brown”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/crep/www/report_browse.html?college_id=23). Nothing there yet, though, since we just added it. 
i think theres a small glitch with the post form. For the “overnight visit” box and circle button, i clicked yes and typed in information for that category but the typed info wouldn’t post at all when i submitted the information.
I agree that more schools should be added to the list, like Bates and Bowdoin. Also, some of the schools are very hard to find.
I liked the college visit forum HOWEVER, you have a rating and a place to review many aspects of the college EXCEPT academics. There should be a place to review the appropriate college in the university and rate the academic offerings/facilites.
i really l like this new section because I always enjoy reading visit reports. my one suggestion is to somehow show that a school has a report. Currently when you browse you have a list of so many schools, but only a few actually have reports. Maybe these could be highlighted, and maybe you could do the yellow circle for new reports also.
Thanks, estargrl88, we’re working on that specific feature. Nice CMU report, BTW. (I’m a CMU alum. :))
<li>I like the the “useful” vote</li>
<li>People should be able to write as much as they feel appropriate.</li>
<li>Perhaps there should be the question, Did you choose this college? (People may choose not to answer) and a Why/Why not?</li>
Also people should be encouraged to review schools they are not attending, as this will give readers a view not completely from those who did feel at home in the college.
I don’t think attending a college is necessary to write a good review - indeed, those reviews are likely to be biased in favor of the school while others should be somewhat more neutral. In most cases, the visit report will be filed before acceptance letters go out anyway.
<li>I like the “helpful” feature. I think it’ll become more useful when more people vote/there are more reports available.</li>
<li>For me personally, I prefer reading (and writing) short blurbs on each topic. It’s easier for my brain to comprehend (lol!) without too much effort when reading (as opposed to a really long paragraph).</li>
<li>Just a note, when I click “Post a report” and DON’T use the alphabetical listing at the top (i.e. if I directly click on of the colleges under Ivy League, Top Unis, Top LACs), it takes me to the page for the reports, instead of the page to post one.</li>
I think this is a great feature for CC, and, if people learn to take all the reports with a grain of salt, an invaluable resource for those on their college search.
Good catch on the school links, machiavelli. We’ll fix that.
It’s intereresting - so far, it seems that a portion of the people prefer to either read or write short blurbs on specific topics, while others like the long narratives. Personally, I think the ideal report has a few pointed blurbs, and a more detailed and impressionistic narrative.
<li>I think it’s good to show how many thought a report was useful and avoid the comparisons.</li>
<li>Shorts answers are good for quick overviews. One long narrative area for explanation is good for details that don’t fit elsewhere.</li>
- Would folks be interested in visits that aren’t part of “official” college admissions visits? Seems many of those can be dog-and-pony shows, and information from other kinds of visits (sports camps, special conferences) might be useful. Example: DD has great photos from a conference of Georgetown dorm room, with usual student clutter, and photos of the views from said dorm room. Can we do links from the reporting form to outside web sites where photos are posted (not of people, mind you. Facebook is prevalent enough as it is).
We don’t want to link to external resources like photos that may change locations or lead to people spamming with links to their blogs, etc. I think any college visit qualifies as such if there’s useful information to report. When I was in the college search mode with my kids, there were a few visits where we did any “official” stuff but just looked around the campus, etc.
I like the new forum, and I also prefer short blurbs with a longer narrative. (If it hasn’t already been fixed, it would be helpful to know when you run out of room so you don’t end a section in mid-senten … )
I’m not a big fan of the stars for every subsection. I can see having an overall star rating but having several star ratings was distracting. If you decide to keep the stars, then I think you should let people write longer answers for each section so the basis for each rating is clear. Of course, a reason that supports having the star ratings is that it’s a shorthand in lieu of excess description, so feel free to disregard this suggestion.
The longer answer and the “end of space” warning are in the works. The stars for each area are so that as we get a body of visits for a school it’s easy to see that, on average, a particular college’s campus was scored a “4”.