<p>I am the mother of an "average" rising senior son in New England and have been browsing other sites to see what students have to say about some schools my son might be interested in and able to get into. How much should I pay attention to what students on other sites have to say about them?</p>
<p>Wildly inaccurate. Not representative. Tends to be the more dissaffected youth. Now, knowing all of that , it can be very enlightening to wade through those sites. Don't really look at them thinking they take the place of a visit. Look at them as giving you things to check out when you do visit.</p>
<p>Well, there's always a grain of truth to what people say, but you have to remember that the only people that bother to talk about their school on these sites are the ones who either love it or hate it. You'll rarely find a poster who doesn't feel something extreme towards their school.</p>
<p>Not much. There are several problems.</p>
<p>a) Some of the posts are not from students of those colleges or are from the same student under different aliases. I think a lot of the posts are from high school kids.</p>
<p>b) It's not a random sample. </p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and buy a good reference book like Fiske Guide to Colleges, which has a two page description of each college. Close reading of those descriptions will give you an idea of what each school is all about.</p>
<p>I don't know. I always hated those type of reviews...I didn't pay any attention to them. They are kind of like internet product reviews...there is probably a grain of truth, but usually only people who are thrilled with or hated their experience (or...toaster) bother to put the energy into the reviews.</p>
<p>I read all reviews for all schools D#1 and D#2 were considering. Everything previous posters stated is true -- you will NOT get a unified picture of the institution. (My pet peeve with the reviews are competing views that "professors are great/professors are horrible.") But when students at Sweet Briar complain that socializing with members of the opposite sex is difficult, well that's something a visit to the school would confirm. And when students at the University of Connecticut say that sports are great but the campus is isolated, well those are a couple things that might be important to a prospective student. Where else are those kinds of issues likely to come up?</p>
<p>NewHope. Yeah. Those are great examples of what we are talking about.</p>
<p>DON'T BELIEVE A THING. These random websites are ridiculous. Especially the ones where people post reviews. Anyone can post (i.e. someone who was rejected, someone who's football team lost to that particular school, someone just playing a prank, etc.) And they can post as many times as they want. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. Stick to official guides (Princeton Review, College Prowle r are my favorites) and forums like this where you can get information directly.</p>
<p>What's the name of the website that our CC poster, Carolyn, has started? She was quoted in the NY Times recently and she has some very interesting reviews on colleges that she has visited. It'll come to me at some point and I'll post it. I agree that the major guides like Fiske are reputable.</p>
<p>We used Fiske and Insider's Guides and found them both to be very helpful and accurate as to what we found on visits.</p>
<p>I think the reviews right here at College Confidential are also good, especially when people write about the visit and not just check off things. The problem with some of the books is that they don't review many of the lesser known colleges. My solution was just to buy 'em all used on amazon or half.com, read everything and then visit!</p>
<p>The trouble with most of the CC reviews is that they are impressions from visits, not a cross section of actual students. I've looked at the reviews for some of the above mention sites for a couple of colleges that I know pretty well and thought they were surprisingly accurate.</p>
<p>I think that all sites can provide a part of the picture for a college. The prospective student, and parent, has to work to keep it all in perspective, though, and combine those types of review sites with other information they have gleaned from actual visits, guidebooks, etc. I think that if a kid, or parent, wants to get an 'inside' view of true student opinions, and information, from current students, then the livejournal communities are a very good source. The posts usually contain discussions covering a myriad of issues, from silly to serious, and everything in between. Utilizing as many sources as possible, and then sifting through the information, is the key. One of my Ds attends a school that provides a website with course, and prof, evaluations. Every student has the opportunity, in class, to complete these evaluations at the conclusion of the course. The evaluations are not just the opposite ends of the spectrum of opinions, either. They are actually pretty useful to students during the course selection process. I wish more colleges did this.</p>
<p>I agree with all that alwaysamom wrote. I think the prospective student needs to glean information and opinions about a school from many resources. First, a starting point could be using three guidebooks such as the Fiske Guide to Colleges, The Princeton Review Directory of the Best Colleges and The Insider's Guide to the Colleges. Then reading CC and talking with any current students or parents of students who post here about a particular college can be helpful (but talk to more than one to glean many perspectives). As well, reading any visit reports on CC can be helpful. Reading the other sites mentioned might provide some useful nuggets (some good examples were given in earlier posts here....such as "isolated campus", etc.), but should also be taken with a grain of salt with respect to all the posts because it is not a random sample and just contains posts by whomever feels strongly enough about the school to post and could keep reposting under many names. But there might be something there to at least raise some questions you may want to explore deeper about the school. Then, it is very important to visit the school. When there, try to talk to as many students that you can to glean a range of perspectives. I agree with alwaysamom about reading any livejournals or daily jolts for a school to get a flavor or ask questions of current students. Even CC's individual school forums often have current students posting who are willing to take questions. As well, I know at least one of my kid's colleges has class and professor evaluations and I agree with AlwaysAMom that these are useful pieces of information on the academic end of things. A student needs to put together the input from all of these sources and not rely on just one. Combining all these resources and gleaned perspectives with a campus visit that has many elements to the visit beyond just a tour or info session, would give a good picture of the school.</p>
<p>I completely agree that student review sites are inherently unreliable in depicting an entire school, but they do raise aspects of a school (good and bad) that you might not have thought about and should look into if it is something of importance to your child's college experience. </p>
<p>I think investigating colleges is similar to fitting pieces into a puzzle. To find the pieces, it is critical to tap into as many sources as possible to get a feel for a particular school and everything should be evaluated through the filter of what is important to your child's college experience. </p>
<p>One thing I found useful was to subscribe to the online version of the school newspapers. When read over a period of time, you also get a sense of what is happening on campus, what issues are being faced by the school administration, the diversity of opinions of the students, who performs or lectures at the school, etc.</p>
<p>I actually liked Students Review and epinions ( although Epinions was much more recent when my older daughter was looking at schools)
For students review just like anything- you don't just use one or two sources and consider context.</p>
<p>However- my daughters school was fairly small ( 1300) and I recognized students from their descriptions and courses- that I knew. I also have read reports from other schools that I am somewhat familiar with, and found them to not differ from my experience. SO from that, I am assuming that other schools reports, do have interesting information to offer.
Its not going to be the last word, but when StudentsReview brings up a concern, that will be something I will check out further.</p>
<p>Not familiar with Campus Dirt- CollegeProw-er was scorned @ Reed because it seemed that one student( and he was apparently annoying before that) was recruiting opinions to make $.</p>
<p>Ratemyprofessor for Reed, did seem accurate for that place and time.
( also recognized students there, including my D)</p>
<p>We also have been looking at student newspapers & local newspapers to get a general feel for community</p>
<p>Colleges livejournals if they have them are good places- if snarky to get current info.</p>
<p>And Carolyn :D</p>
<p>Big problem with CampusDirt is the "apparent" number of respondents that are contributing to the ratings- sometimes it's maybe 3 or 4 people (who maybe graduated 3 years ago). This certainly does not create a reliable picture. As far as RateMyProfessors and other similar sites, I would give those ratings SOME credence if 1) the number of ratings is high and 2) there is substantial agreement among the postings. Otherwise, it is a crap-shoot as to what kinds of malcontents may be reporting.</p>
<p>One is better served if one can locate on-campus faculty evaluation publications. Some schools require the reader to be a student, others do not. Look at the evals for professors in the intended major or in required core courses. I found this was a good way to get a sense of what to expect.</p>
<p>Both sites are totally unreliable and inaccurate everyone but incoming freshman know this!</p>
<p>I don't think those types of sites are totally worthless. If you sift carefully there are some useful tidbits. Example, someone says the food at XX dining hall is great or awful, it would be worth asking about on a visit. So statements of fact or specific opinions can suggest follow up inquiries of your own. </p>
<p>The sites are not surveys based on samples, such that the opinions stated may be considered representative of the student population a whole. Nor should the sites be used at all to compare schools.</p>