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I will finish high school this year so I know that many international students like me who are seeking a chance of study in the US, at this time of the year or even sooner, always searching for reviews about US and Non-US Colleges so they can choose which colleges they like.
I also think that it is always better to read the reviews by a students rather than reading information about the schools provided by the schools that is available in magazines, books, wikipedia... because there is usually a very distinctive different between real experience and what is in those information provided by the school. Those information can be used to get a general idea about the schools though.
I understand that there is plenty college review websites on the internet already so open a new one might be not necessary. Though the site might target a specific type of students such as international students or for a specific country students such as my country students.
I have a place to host and a domain already. The host is a shared one. I usually fool around the host with scripts though. But now I think I should put it to some good uses. I think I will use phpbb 3 as the core of the website because my coding knowledge is pretty limited.
My main concern is how to get people to write reviews of their schools there. May be I can ask if TL.netters can write some reviews because I can see this community is pretty big and people come from many different schools.
Or may be this is just a waste of time.
Poll: Should I open a college review website?
(Vote): Yes
(Vote): No
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Don't expect to get any objective reviews. Most people who spend 4 years at a school of their choice defend it with the fury of a console fanboy.
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@Wasabi: I don't think I can have a wikipedia level one because it is just too much to be run on a shared host account. But you just give me an idea using the MediaWiki script as the core instead of phpbb 3 
Oh, I visited some sites and see that there are negative reviews too.
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how should one objectively compare colleges? It's not like I've seen more than 1 German university. Ok two plus some from outside, but still...
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I think that the ones who write the reviews will set their own standard. They are their experience anyways. But well, I will look into that.
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United States47024 Posts
On March 09 2009 02:01 Wasabi wrote:
That's already what it's like when you visit college review sites anyway. You have these people write reviews who claim their college is the "best."
Which is why most useful college reviews are done by proper publications that are thoroughly edited and reviewed before they make it to print. With the formal editing process that goes into a book, most of this bias can be reviewed, balanced, or edited out.
Personally, I feel like college is one of those things you can't really just look at a review for. Its one of those things you have to look at yourself and decide what's best for you, personally. You can't read them off a ranked list or pick out a bunch of 5-star reviews.
Plus, you'd need reviewers that are comfortable listing a large amount of personal information (major, interests, family background - which is the iffy one) for reviews to be useful.
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United States47024 Posts
On March 09 2009 04:05 Wasabi wrote:
Reviews done by students are different on the other hand. They're more personal and gives a different perspective.
Except given the internet these days, it's not difficult for a college applicant to get in contact directly with a student at a university. Said student can then answer specific questions that the applicant has, which would be even more personal and tailored to the applicant.
Edit - Actually, thats an idea that I could get behind. A website that helps college applicants get in contact with students at their potential schools in order to learn more about them. It would probably also be easier to staff than a review site. I think most college students would be more willing to chat with someone than to write a long, formal review.
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United States47024 Posts
On March 09 2009 04:32 Wasabi wrote:
Hmm.. Having to contact a student versus going to a website that has more than one student's perspective... Hard choice.
Hmm...having a perspective tailored to your personal needs versus going to a website that has several students' general, and not necessarily relevant, perspectives...
Its not as black and white as you make it seem. Also, read my edit.
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United States47024 Posts
On March 09 2009 04:46 Wasabi wrote:
What you're saying at this point is merely a preference. Why bother contacting anyone when you can find the information instantly?
Because college is important enough that one shouldn't be trying to get "instant information." IMO getting information about a college tailored to your interests is worth spending the extra time and effort if its where you'll be spending the next 4 years of your life.
On March 09 2009 04:46 Wasabi wrote:
And how can a foreign student make a good contact with a university student? There are factors such as language barrier (though it may not be that big of a deal since a foreign student should know English, it's still awkward), and availability of your contactee, among other factors.
How is this different between a website designed to help applicants make contact with students and one that has review? Both need some minimum level of english language ability to navigate the site, and presumably, that would be enough to type a post looking for a contact in one's native language.
On March 09 2009 04:46 Wasabi wrote:
Think of it this way: instead of that student placing that information for everyone to see, he instead is doing a service to a single foreign student. What sounds more helpful and less time-wasting?
You're on a forum, and you're telling me you can't think of a way to make a conversation available and accessible to all?
On March 09 2009 04:46 Wasabi wrote:
General information huh? As I've said, you can find that information on the university's website itself. Have you even checked what a typical college review is like? It's most likely written by a student, it's personal and not so general-sounding as you make it seem.
Personal to the reviewer. They're not personal to the needs of the applicant. Something written for an audience like a review can't be tailored to the applicant.
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OP: Woo, dude, I always see you writing about colleges in the USA!
I am an international student and just went through the whole process of applying (waiting for decisions loalz). yay for dramaz.
While I think a review site tailored specifically to international students wouldn't be too bad, I can't see a way in which it would be different from stuff like studentsreview.com or gazillions of flame posts on collegeconfidential. What do you have? Reviews that usually state "Oh I'm SUPER BRIGHT and I like my XXX school very much, you just have to work very hard bla bla" or "THIS SCHOOL SUCKS don't go here unless you want to /fail your life" are, indeed, general and totally not addressing most concerns of applying students.
TheYango is pretty spot-on with his reasoning, such a review is not personal relative to the applicant. Service for contacting people in college is also a pretty good idea, but I don't actually know how many people you could dig for it. One of my friends who studies in the US was becoming increasingly annoyed as I continuously pestered him about the whole application process and life in college in general.
Personally, I like websites that gather 'success/failure stories' of applicants (of course, most people like to contribute the former for obvious reasons). If they're well written, then, well, they're at least a good read  There is a multitude of such stories on the internet - the problem is, they are mostly scattered on maaaany websites. The way I see it is, a site gathering more elaborate reviews, that would expand upon personal motivations and would tell some background stories. There are some reviews on studentsreview.com like that, but they're kinda rare. Not many people can be motivated to actually write such stuff.
I hope I was helpful. Good luck, sir.
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So is it possible to have both of them on the site?
My plan is using MediaWiki as a portal, pretty much like wikipedia but in each article, there will be link to a sub-forum which is power by phpbb 3. Each school will have a sub-forum. To post a review, just open a new topic and if anybody want to ask the writer about anything, they can post a comment in the topic. And taking advantage of the group system in phpbb 3, each school's will have an open group where students can just enlist themselves in. From the article, there will be link to the user group page where people can find members that are or used to be that school's students. There, they can easily PM the one they want to ask about the school using phpbb 3 PM system.
It would be a pain to input the whole list of colleges and the general information database for each school though.
Is this sound ok?
And yes, my main concern still is I don't know how to get people to write review or participate in this.
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EPT
