<p>So there is this site called student reviews where students describe how much they enjoy or loathe their college. I'm a junior now and periodically will look into a college which i may want to attend, but after reading a few negative reviews i simply can't picture myself at that college.</p>
<p>Do any of y'all use the site? Should I base my college search primarily through the site? I can't visit colleges. I might be able to during the summer, but i doubt it.</p>
<p>I look at it sometimes but take it was a grain of salt. However, if something is repeated over and over again by different people you should take that into consideration, whether it be good or bad.</p>
<p>It’s mostly used by discontent students to inveigh against their professors for giving them bad grades and whatnot. Take it with quite a few grains of salt; you probably won’t be able to glean too much from it other than more objective characteristics of certain professors.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that anybody can go on to that website and give schools that they are not even affiliated with some F’s. So the credibility of that website is extremely low.</p>
<p>Let me tell you of a story of when I ordered an external hard drive online. </p>
<p>It seemed like a great hard drive. Cheap. Great performance wise. I then read the reviews. They were horrible. They made it seem like it would come dead on arrival. With horrible customer service should it break. It seemed like everyone in the world hated it. </p>
<p>I bought it anyway. It’s worked great for two years now. </p>
<p>So you gotta realize that, the people who are motivated to get off their lazy butts and actually write a review are people who are pretty emotional. And that emotion is usually negative. So, I’d take the reviews with a grain of salt. </p>
<p>The best thing for you to do is visit yourself.</p>
<p>I have been using that site. Schools in Ohio seem to be fairly accurate. For example, almost every student I know loves Ohio State, Univ. of Dayton, and Ohio University and that web site also reflects that love. My son attends another school and I’ve noticed that recent reviews have been negative, mentioning crime on campus. Unfortunately, it’s true. If there are a lot of reviews listed, it’s helpful to sort by major. It seems like there can be a pattern within a major. For instance, a college can have primarily negative reviews, but most of the education majors can love the school.</p>
<p>Another way to cross reference is to use rate my professor dot com. My son was considering a science major at a popular university. I was amazed to see that EVERY singe biology professor had very negative reviews. Now I know biology professors usually aren’t the most popular professors, but at least there were some positive comments about biology professors at other universities.</p>
<p>Selection bias. It’s commonly observed that people with a complaint are far more likely to take the time to write something than people with a favorable impression.</p>
<p>I often use that site to figure out the college’s atmosphere and etc,
but i always notice that the negative comments are always… emotional.</p>
<p>sure there are some reasonal ones, but i dont think one should judge a college only based on www4.**************.com…</p>
<p>I get discouraged when I read that site, because there are always multiple students hating on the school no matter what school it is. However, one can glean some information from the reviews if one reads critically. </p>
<p>For example, one review of a school on my D’s “list” mentioned all the hills and how it was such a pain to walk to classes. Not really a reason to give a school an F, but if you want a compact campus, not really the best place. </p>
<p>Another had a couple of reviews complaining that “it seems like everyone is from [wealthy Texas suburb].” Those people hated the school for that, but if you’re from that suburb or someplace like it, it might be a good fit.</p>
<p>Use that site with caution. My S really liked one school last year, then read a few negative posts on studentreviews. They planted a bias that the place was cliquish and snobby. So went he visited, has radar was sensitized to that fault. Was that an unfair bias, or did studentreviews reveal a real problem? I don’t know for sure, but as others point out, there’s nothing to prevent a disgruntled person from hammering a school just out of spite (after being rejected for example). See if the same theme (positive or negative) gets repeated by different posters, people who appear to be balanced and objective, and who have first-hand knowledge.</p>
<p>I have found that many of the reviews are fairly accurate on that site. Definitely know that it is each posters own opinion and experience and not necessarily a campus wide opinion, but if you read enough reviews both positive and negative for a particular school it can be a good gauge. Another site with student reviews is ***** dot com, so it’s good to check other sources of information.</p>
<p>that was u n i g o that got starred out</p>