<p>I've recently been reading up on a few college student review sites for a couple of the colleges I'm interested in. Usually most of the reviews are positive while there are the usual negatives. However, some of the negative reviews I've read for a certain school are REALLY negative - there's no pros, just cons. And then some of the positive reviews are REALLY positive, almost as if they were written by someone who is in the school's administration. (I'm not saying they are but some of them just seem a little unrealistic) So my question is, have you ever read reviews and then found them to be accurate, inaccurate, in between or have you found that they not a "fair" indicator of what the school is like? </p>
<p>I know the best way to tell if a school is right or not is to actually determine that for yourself but that's not relevant to what I'm really asking. (lol) </p>
<p>I will also post on the college life section to see if any students will reply, but I wanted to ask parents first because you guys have always been great at answering any of my previous posts. As always, thanks a lot.</p>
<p>You have to keep in mind that with many review sites, the people who are unhappiest are most likely to seek out and write a review to share their negative experiences. Those who have generally happy, or just fine experiences are less likely to seek an online location to express their general happiness. So, yeah, most review sites tend to be slanted towards very positive or very negative.</p>
<p>Yes, I have. I am basing most of what I posted above on what I've read on that site.</p>
<p>Did you see in the NY Times article on that site?</p>
<p>It said that the most universal student complaint about colleges is the lack of parking -- something which clearly is not the most germane aspect of getting a college education.</p>
<p>So I'm not sure that these reviews contain much in the way of deep insight, especially as they are not based on a perspective of experience across multiple campuses.</p>
<p>I spent quite a bit of time rummaging through the Tulane feedback, as I have questions about the drinking culture there. Typical comments were along the lines of "Tulane has a reputation as a party school, but hey, lots of drinking goes on at any college." This doesn't really help me much.</p>
<p>The site is all messed up today. They have the college's names and then have a description for a different school. For instance, the first school that comes up on the list is Purdue. It's description says it's in Princeton, NJ and then goes on to describe Princeton. Under Carnegie Mellon, it has a description for Carleton, etc. Be careful that the description you are reading actually belongs to the school you are interested in.</p>
<p>I think if you read enough reviews of a particular college, you'll see a pattern developing which may be fairly accurate (kind of like talking to 20 different students at a school, you'll get different opinions, but 15 of them may have things in common). I've been reading reviews of two colleges I know very well and am finding them pretty realistic.</p>
<p>They do need to get the bugs worked out on that site, though.</p>
<p>I think the reviews are very accurate. At the schools I investigated, I found MORE people saying positive things than negative. So the theory about only the disgruntled will bother to post doesn't hold water. What the majority of students had to say about their school was totally consist with my own opinions formed either from having visited the school or reading information on other sites.</p>
<p>For the schools I checked, I found some extremely thoughtul reviews. Most were helpful. Only a few were short and useless.</p>