To connect with prospective applicants, admissions offices across the U.S. often recruit current students to write blogs about their college experience. Although these officially sanctioned (but uncensored) blogs can sound a bit like a promotional tool, they often do provide a real insider’s view of life at that institution. Happily, bloggers are likely to tell you about both the good and the bad. Ideally, the reader will come away with an idea of what makes that college unique and interesting. Blogs can put a very human face on the institutional façade.
Bloggers are generally selected by the admissions office staff. At some schools these students receive a small stipend each month, while at others they are volunteers. This is similar to the practices involving student tour guides. But are they really helpful? At MIT, the admissions website gets 15,000 page views a day. When MIT surveyed admitted students in a recent year, they discovered that the blogs were among the three most useful things in helping students to decide to attend.
Some colleges offer blogs written by the Director of Admissions. These present a more official view of admissions at that institution. Try out some of these blogs yourself to get an insider’s look of life at your target colleges.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: http://blog.admissions.illinois.edu/?page_id=14
Lehigh University: http://lehighadmissions1.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Tulane University: http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/
Johns Hopkins: http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/
Oregon State University: http://oregonstate.edu/admissions/blog/
Olin College of Engineering: http://studentblog.olin.edu
Clark: http://clarkdiaries.clarku.edu/
