A recent thread in the parent’s forum prompted me to post this. Some of us believe there are many CCers interested in researching or posting about several good, albeit lower tier, schools that do not have their own forum - for instance what are good safeties or matches regionally? What are the “hidden gems” in our own backyard? Where are some good quality programs for students who, for whatever reason, may not be ready for (or desire) a “top” school?
So, what about adding an additional forum for “Other Schools” to the colleges forum, that could be subdivided by state, where we can discuss or read about some of these schools within any given state?
Hidden gems…well what are you looking for? what state do you go to? Telling you all states is hard and will be a bigger list to get.
i have had problems getting answers about colleges such as clarkson… but maybe cc people mostly go to the top 25 schools…
yeah, but most of those forums have few or no posts
if we combined some of the schools’ forums into larger forums (e.g. per state) they might actually get some views
Token, I thought you might have at least posted the link to the actual “hidden gems” thread that discusses some schools that did NOT make it on your list (which is a great list, btw, but that is all it is - a LIST, much like the individual CC college forums are a “list” but at least yours included the state. Some people may not even know that Linville College or Bradley University is in their own or a neighboring state. And, heck, even your list did not include two of DS’s choices (and one of them was even a US News top 100!).
But how easy it is for newcomers to find out more than just the names of a few schools that happen to be in their state from a list in just one thread? Or how easy is it for them to find these old threads when they do not know they even exist? (yes, some of us do like to do searches in the old threads, and yes, they could just post their own thread seeking information, but most - especially the lurkers - may not know what questions to ask (one reason why they are lurking) so may prefer quick and easy access to information such as is provided by the subforum structure that CC has created for other topics/schools for just this purpose). People gather and process information in different ways, so I was just suggestng another option for providing information to some who may not be finding the information they are looking for in an easy manner.
That’s a fair comment. As it is, the great majority of new inquiries on this site come in on the College Admissions Forum, even if they are really questions better fitted to the College Search & Selection Forum, and once a student (or parent) raises a question, anyone may answer that question. There are a few hundred colleges with individual college-specific forums on CC, and all of those may be hyperlinked, as in my example below.
One great option for Minnesota students is the [University</a> of Minnesota - Twin Cities](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-minnesota-twin-cities/]University”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-minnesota-twin-cities/), located in the heart of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Once some miner has discovered a hidden gem, it’s certainly welcome to talk it up in any on-topic place here on CC, and once there is enough discussion of that college, if it doesn’t have a college-specific forum it will get one.