<p>Does anyone else panic when they read those websites where the students review the different colleges? Every once in a while I will read the reviews of my younger daughter's top choices and I really have a hard time taking them lightly even though I know they are often contradictory and exaggerations. Sometimes I'll compare what these students say about the school my older daughter goes to just to put things in perspective but the schools my younger daughter is looking at are very different in size and interest than my older daughter's school, plus they are two very different people. I don't usually overreact or panic but reading these reviews really does upset me. Yes, I know I don't have to read them but....</p>
<p>I feel the same way sometimes. I do think they are good to get a “vibe” but know that people are more compelled to tell a bad experience than a good one. I will say that most of the schools that I visited were similar to what we read on Princeton Review, rather than student review or whatever it is called.</p>
<p>Yes! I read those and worry that my son could end up at a college that is too ‘Bro’ centric, especially at schools are are safeties or that gave him very high merit awards. At these schools, I worry that the focus could be on partying and socializing as much as or more than academics. My solution is to attend the accepted students days with him so that he (and I) can see other accepted students in person and get a more complete vibe. We’ve asked him to prioritize his top 3 schools and at those 3 we’ll spend a focused effort to understand the complete school more closely.</p>
<p>I did panic before my son chose a school. A lot of people have strong feelings, and perhaps an ax to grind. I feel that is true for both the negative and positive write ups, and frankly I am not convinced that only students currently attending the schools write 100% of the reviews. FWIW, I just read through the posts at the school my son attends, and I feel that about 50% of it is accurate.</p>
<p>I try very hard to remember that even a large number of posters on these sites is still a relatively small fraction of the student body as a whole. And those who are “inspired” to post are often outliers who have reasons either very good or very bad to post. I do like to look at one particular site because you can get a sense of a college’s culture (Greek life, nightlife, the surrounding area, transportation to/from, etc.) and that is helpful even if it too has to be taken with a grain of salt. But as far as the “This place sucks.” comments, I pretty much ignore them. Come to think of it, this describes my take on alot of CC posters as well :).</p>
<p>I’ve recently read Twitter feeds from people that mention some of my son’s top schools. He’s been getting accepted at many of them, so it’s becoming more real for me than when he had just applied. The Twitter info (tweets) are interesting because it’s not scrubbed, it’s real time, and you can also get a sense for the pride these students have for their school. While all schools have kids that tweet after they’ve been partying, a white flag goes up if I see many drunken tweets because to me it sets a tone for the school’s atmosphere.</p>
<p>What Mutti2012 said. These are not random samples. <em>Lots</em> of response bias. I think a grain of salt is not nearly enough.</p>
<p>1st rule of the interweb–do not believe opinions you read from one-time posters on the interweb. There are many nuts out there.</p>
<p>I agree with above posters … student review comments have an enormous response bias. But you can get some idea of what the college is like IF you can identify and discard the chaff. Not easy to do sometimes but worth the effort, if for no other reason than to compare your impressions to what you actually see when you visit.</p>
<p>Thanks for telling me what I know, it helps a lot!</p>
<p>I’ve seen some where it is evident that one person with a grudge has posted multiple different negative comments. I’ve seen very different results between different student review sites. If you pass attention to a review site, you have to read many reviews to try to get a cross-section, not just a few.</p>
<p>I try to get a sense of what it is students are complaining about. A lot of them are about the social life (too much alcohol, not enough alcohol, boring parties, nothing to do in the area EXCEPT the boring parties, etc.). Here you have to decide where your kid fits on the spectrum.</p>
<p>Also look for repeated themes - couldn’t get the classes they wanted, professors not available outside class, classes were not challenging, neighborhood was unsafe, etc. More mature posters who are well past graduation will often post more objective and thorough comments.</p>
<p>Yes, charliesch, I agree that some sites let students post too anonymously, so a student with a grudge can over represent their view. I’ve seen that with my D’s current college when she was first looking at going there. My hunch proved true when I also found a YouTube video of a random student posting one of their performances from this college; on the video the same user (an ex-student of the college) was commenting multiple times on the video using the same negative phrases about the overall college that had been on that other site. Once I subtracted those comments out of the review, I could get a more honest perspective of the strengths and weaknesses of that college. My D is a junior there now, so in the end the reviews did help her see a realistic pro and con view of the college, and she accepted the negative possibilities as part of the experience.</p>
<p>I think most of those that take the time to post on a website are the disgruntled kids. Most of the time the happy ones are too busy being happy to get on the web…</p>
<p>My best advice is to ask kids that you know that go to the school how they like it.</p>
<p>The various published guides that are not USNews paint pretty accurate pictures taken together.</p>
<p>Aahh! I really hadn’t looked before, but just did for D’s school. It freaked me out a little at first, but then I realized that the cited “negatives” were actually things D either liked or at least didn’t mind, or else they weren’t applicable to her major or personal circumstances. The reviews of her second choice school were scarier, so that was comforting at least. She’s happily in her second year so it’s pretty irrelevant now anyway.</p>
<p>If read with the filter of a 20-year-old mindset in consideration, I think the student reviews tend to be fairly accurate assessments. None of these schools are perfect. Things happen, administrators and faculty are humans prone to bad days, ineptness and poor attitude too. And a great deal of drinking and nonproductive behavior is a fact of life at nearly all colleges and universities. Having visited several schools in session, and just observing buildings and people, I’ve concluded that the reviews for those schools were reliable if disappointingly true.</p>
<p>There is one website that paints many schools really darkly and I can only assume that these students are venting. Think about it, if you are happy with a school, you are less likely to tell everyone than if you are unhappy.</p>
<p>I read over a few different sites and if a recurrent theme seems to keep appearing like Greek life really strong or work load especially heavy then I tend to think those things are more true.</p>
<p>Overall, for most things in life, you have people who love certain experiences and those who don’t. Like cruises for example. We don’t like them. Many do so my review of a cruise experience would include how the vibration of the ship made me crazy, I can’t stand how fake the staff are fawning over everyone and the food is only mediocre.</p>
<p>Too tired to post a clear message!</p>
<p>The [Stevens</a> Henager student](<a href=“http://www.colleges.cliffsnotes.com/stevens--henager-college----murray"]Stevens”>http://www.colleges.cliffsnotes.com/stevens--henager-college----murray) review that I read wasnt too bad. I liked the fact that students have scored the college high in academic experience, and academic flexibility. It is reassuring to know that they have a zero tolerance policy for any improper treatment of students or faculty. Safety is a big priority for me.</p>