What are you looking for in an Admissions Web site?

Applying to College
1

Hi everybody,

I work for a Web design company that is currently redesigning the Admissions web site for a large university. (I can’t tell you which school it is, but it’s a pretty good one.)

We’ve gotten some inspiration for our design and writing strategies by haunting the CC admissions forums and reading the comments of prospective students; they are uniformly enlightening and insightful.

As we move into the active site building process, I figured I would start a thread and see if anyone cares to share your feelings about Admissions Web sites in general. What are you looking for on a school’s admissions site (besides, y’know, a link to the application)? What features are the most important to you, and which ones don’t matter? What sites do you like or dislike?

Some deeper questions: do you look to the Admissions site to form your general impressions of what it might be like to attend a school, or do you usually just look to the main .edu site for that? Do Admissions sites ever insult your intelligence? Do you just visit a site once for the application and then move on, or do you print out all the pages and carry them around in your back pocket? Does a great site make you more likely to pick a school, and vice versa? Stuff like that.

I’d be very interested to hear anything you have to say. Thanks for your time!

– J.

2

<p>Pet Peeve: Freshman profile, the SAT scores and such of recently admitted, are so buried that you have to search for them. As soon as you click admissions, or undergrad admissions, you should see a link to the freshman profile.
Clear requirements for admissions, including SAT II requirements.</p>

3

<p>Building on the comment about freshmen profiles, sometimes things such as GPA or SAT scores are skewed because of recruited athletes or people with special considerations therefore not giving a completely accurate account of the freshman class.</p>

4

<p>I don't really have any set opinion on admissions sites, but I'll answer some of your questions. </p>

<p>*What are you looking for on a school's admissions site (besides, y'know, a link to the application)? * Information about majors. That's what you're going to college for in the first place. I like to know what majors are offered, if I can double major, how one goes about changing their major, what kinds of minors can I attach to which majors, etc. Is my AP/IB/Dual Credit stuff transferable? What extracurriculars (in addition to sports) are available? How's the Honors Program, how does one get into the Honors program? Information about financial aid/grants/work study is important too. Specific and accurate student profiles. </p>

<p>And as a random note, it's nice when the college actually keeps the admissions site up to date. There are some websites still talking about 2003 stuff. No one cares about the statistics of the 2003 class. </p>

<p>What sites do you like or dislike? I love UNC's admissions website to death. It's thorough, well laid out, and it doesn't take me forever to find what I'm looking for. Not necessarily applying there, but the site almost makes me want to. </p>

<p>do you look to the Admissions site to form your general impressions of what it might be like to attend a school, or do you usually just look to the main .edu site for that? To be honest, if I'm at the admissions page, I already have an impression of what it's like to attend that school, whether that impression is formed by what I've heard from current students/alumni or what information a brochure presented to me. (etc. etc.) The main .edu site has enough information, I believe. If you're prospective, you head there first anyway. </p>

<p>Do Admissions sites ever insult your intelligence? Not if you're looking at the right college for <em>you</em>. I understand that the web people have to get really basic sometimes - there are tons of different people reading these websites and the information needs to be presented as basically and clearly as possible. There are people whose native languages aren't English reading, parents, grandparents, people that couldn't necessarily major in college admissions like the superb CC people here. ;) </p>

<p>Do you just visit a site once for the application and then move on, or do you print out all the pages and carry them around in your back pocket?
What extreme options! Neither really. I'll think about the information, end of story. If the pages are good, I'll come back to the site to surf around, though. </p>

<p>Does a great site make you more likely to pick a school, and vice versa? Perhaps. It definitely makes the selection easier. I don't think it would be a deciding factor, though. </p>

<p>Sorry that was so long, but I just felt like this is something important. :)</p>

5

<p>Following onsilverwings' thought - please update info yearly....and tell us what current year (or coming year, if that's known) expenses are at the admissions site - you can give me a link to finaid and scholarships, but tell me the cost info upfront, don't bury it in 3-4 linked pages and make me search for it.</p>

<p>People want to know the cost and the admissions process, see a link to the app, see the current admitted freshman profile, perhaps the majors listed....when you start getting into questions on double majors, changing majors, minors, etc., all that info should probably be on linked pages....adding all that to the admission page will just muddy up the waters for everyone.</p>

6

<p>Thanks! This is very, very helpful. Keep it coming!</p>

7

<p>Oh yes, the major stuff should be on a linked page somewhere, not the main page. (Just make it accessible, that's all.) Didn't clarify that before, whoops.</p>

8

<p>I think a vital component about a college admission site is that it can provide you substantial amoung of info. to make you see where you would stand among the student group. In some websites such as brown u and rice u, it is sooo hard to find the standarized test ranges and admission rates.</p>

<p>Another thing is that i definitely found the stats charts to be helpful toward newbies and there should be both pros and cons about the college on the admission site which will separate your college with others.</p>

<p>My amateur opinion here, might not be right also...</p>

9

<p>I like the freshman profile item- it would sure be nice to easily gain an idea the composition of the frosh, and student body. I also liked the site of Bellarmine University. Small school in Ky, but a nice site with brief video available on many pages.</p>