2008 Woodie Awards
Online college guides expand
Radhika Madana Mohan
Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: News
Originally published: 10/9/08 at 7:16 PM EST
Last update: 10/9/08 at 7:14 PM EST
College searching is becoming revolutionized with student-written reviews and student-college matches.
Jordan Goldman, co-author of "Students' Guide to Colleges," has taken the textbook concept online with Unigo.com.
Launched on Sept. 17, Unigo.com, an online college guide, features raw material from photos, videos, documents and reviews by "the real experts: Students," said Sharon Fuchs, Unigo's managing editor.
"The idea is for high-school students to interact with college students and learn about the schools," Fuchs said.
"What makes it different," Fuchs said of comparing Unigo to guidebooks, "(is) instead of hired journalists to review schools, we (Unigo) use students."
Information on the site is free, and the idea is generated toward prospective students. Fuchs called it a "library of content" - with thousands of student-written reviews, photos and even videos.
"The idea is to keep people as informed as possible," and to answer the question of "what college suits me?" Fuchs said.
But she said: "these are based on a person's opinion. And there is no way to characterize reliability. The more opinions the reader has the better the reader can drill through and reason for themselves."
Plattsburgh State junior Jholy Ponce compares Unigo to ratemyprofessors.com. "You check a school and read all the reviews to find out if a school fits you. I definitely would use it as it would help the college-search process."
"It's a good thing as who knows better then the people living in the environment?" echoed senior Claudia Gutierrez.
Meanwhile, another site launched March 2007, Cappex.com takes the nature of a matching service.
The idea behind it, Chris Long, president of Cappex.com, said, "(is that) we (Cappex.com) help students find college opportunities, some (students) may have never even heard about and also help colleges find the best student match."
Unlike Unigo, Cappex has no review function, but emphasizes matching colleges and prospective students.
Jordan Goldman, co-author of "Students' Guide to Colleges," has taken the textbook concept online with Unigo.com.
Launched on Sept. 17, Unigo.com, an online college guide, features raw material from photos, videos, documents and reviews by "the real experts: Students," said Sharon Fuchs, Unigo's managing editor.
"The idea is for high-school students to interact with college students and learn about the schools," Fuchs said.
"What makes it different," Fuchs said of comparing Unigo to guidebooks, "(is) instead of hired journalists to review schools, we (Unigo) use students."
Information on the site is free, and the idea is generated toward prospective students. Fuchs called it a "library of content" - with thousands of student-written reviews, photos and even videos.
"The idea is to keep people as informed as possible," and to answer the question of "what college suits me?" Fuchs said.
But she said: "these are based on a person's opinion. And there is no way to characterize reliability. The more opinions the reader has the better the reader can drill through and reason for themselves."
Plattsburgh State junior Jholy Ponce compares Unigo to ratemyprofessors.com. "You check a school and read all the reviews to find out if a school fits you. I definitely would use it as it would help the college-search process."
"It's a good thing as who knows better then the people living in the environment?" echoed senior Claudia Gutierrez.
Meanwhile, another site launched March 2007, Cappex.com takes the nature of a matching service.
The idea behind it, Chris Long, president of Cappex.com, said, "(is that) we (Cappex.com) help students find college opportunities, some (students) may have never even heard about and also help colleges find the best student match."
Unlike Unigo, Cappex has no review function, but emphasizes matching colleges and prospective students.
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