<p>How much credence do you give to these websites where students weigh in on their experience at a particular school? I realize that the people posting are a small subset of those who are or have supposedly attended, but I still wonder what the consensus is here. </p>
<p>Second, how do you see past the marketing hype that is turned out in printed form and on web pages by colleges/universities who are trying to sell their product? We knew a lot more about our first child's choice because his father attended and we also visited several times (for other reasons). I knew S would be fine there. Does it basically come down to a gamble?</p>
<p>When it comes to any type of internet "review", I always remember that the people who had a bad experience are going to toot their horns much more often and loudly than people who had a "so-so" or even a great experience.</p>
<p>As for the hype...talk to past students from as many different schools as possible (if you don't know what you want to major in, or from your school if you do know), visit during the winter to see how "bad" the weather will get, etc.</p>
<p>I don't put a lot of stock in those. The posters are self-selected, so you're likely to get the kids who are the very, very happiest and the most disgruntled. I'm guessing the truth lies somewhere in between.</p>
<p>In terms of the actual college websites, I take those with a grain of salt as well. Some college personnel picked which kids to highlight, so that's not representative either. One website I did find interesting was a a school within a large public university. Of course, the kids were deliriously happy, but the part I found interesting were the descriptions of the kinds of things they had done in their fields.</p>