There are many steps that going into picking the perfect college. A very important factor is how the current and former students feel about their school. That is why college review sites in which students do the reviewing are a necessary part of the search process. Since both of my sons have already entered college, I have gone through the decision process with a teenager twice. In my opinion, these are the best three websites for finding student's opinions on colleges:
1. Unigo - Unigo is the newest of the 4, and also has the most features. College students share not only reviews of their school, but videos, photos and much more. The website is interactive so that high school students can network with the college students. Unigo is continually updated and there are at least 60 or so reviews per college. You will also find forums and articles on every topic. Unigo has revolutionized the college review website.
2. College Prowler - College Prowler publishes short college guides written by college students. Most of the important information is now available online on the College Prowler website. Based on students feedback, colleges are graded in areas such as housing, dining, computers, strictness, diversity, safety, academics, athletics and many, many more areas. Student quotes are included also.
3. College Confidential - This website is actually made up almost completely of forums. There is a wealth a knowledge to be found in these forums. I spent hours and hours here a few years back. There are both many teens and parents on the site. There are sections for college search, college admissions, financial aid, etc. One of the things that I liked most about College Confidential was discussing the colleges with other teens and parents that were also searching. One caveat, a fairly high percent of teens on these forums are applying to top tier colleges.
See also': Back to School Guide to College
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You might want to add http://www.morethangrades.com to your list of sites to look at. Here, students create profiles and can search for colleges via the google style search engine. Unlike most sites that offer college information, the pages viewed are under the control of the college which means the information contained within the site is current. When this site is combined with information provided by other sites by students (such as unigo), prospective applicants can get a real indepth look at the colleges they are interested. MoreThanGrades.com also gives students the opportunity to ask questions directly to guidance and college admission experts and get answers in a private setting. CRios
In addition to the list you have here, there's http://www.stuvu.com which also does reviews from a student's perspective.
I've found that StuVu features a lot of schools including 4yr, 2yr and vocational schools which gives the student more schools to explore.
I am adding these sites to my favorites.
Nice list Jennifer! I wish I had this when I was trying to select a college! (Which feels like years ago) haha
Nice to see someone taking the time to actual review the service and offer an opinion based on how useful the site and information is. I'm glad my college days are done woot :)
second time around on the kid college search and I am a big fan of Unigo. My daughter is at UW Madison and has friends who are doing this, they keep it pretty real
Amy, thanks for sharing your experience with Unigo.
Just sent you an email Jennifer! Great rundown you have here, please also check out CollegeTimes at reviews.collegetimes.us.
Great content, and best of luck! =)
This is the best site I have never seen it tells about the best colleges and helps us to find the best...