Evaluating colleges once meant visiting a campus, or at least talking with school representatives, but now social media are adding a new dimension to the higher-education search.
Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, along with user-generated websites such as ‘s r/college pages, and databases such as CollegeProwler, Cappex and Zinch are being embraced by new college students and high-school seniors alike.
While students still consult the Princeton Review and other publications that evaluate college academics and social life, social media offer students and prospective students a way to customize their searches.
“Our Class of 2015 Facebook page has been extraordinarily successful,” says Emily Forbes, director of communications for the University of Denver’s undergraduate admissions department.
“I see 100 new comments every day. ‘What class are you signing up for?’ ‘What residence hall are you in?’ Obviously, there’s substantial growth in social media in communicating with students.”
Both Cappex and Zinch require students to develop a profile, like a condensed version of the Common Application. All communication between students and colleges is administered by the sites, which cuts down on promotional spam cluttering students’ (or parents’) home e-mail inboxes.
At Cappex, the “What Are My Chances” calculator helps students decide if their odds merit the time and cost of an application and its accompanying fee. If they like their chances, they can look at the reviews and profiles of schools, and the number of merit scholarships those colleges offer.
On Zinch, students create a profile that can be browsed by college admissions staffers and by other students.
“I think a lot of colleges and universities have tried to leverage social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, thinking they would be the next big thing to connect them to students,” says Rick Goranflo, graduate studies manager at Oregon Health & Science University.
“Professionally, I work with a very slim subset of students and am always looking for ways to stay in the loop with what is going on in the rest of academia.”
Goranflo is a regular visitor and contributor to the user-generated news aggregator . One day, he came across a Reddit subset, r/college. He looked for his school and began frequenting that site along with other college subreddits.
“I would say (the college subreddits) are a great tool for students wanting advice for their specific situations but should only be used in conjunction with other resources, as well,” Goranflo said.
“The college subreddits are more of a forum than a utility like Zinch,” says general manager Erik Martin.
Like Zinch and Cappex, the college subreddits started going online in 2007. Unlike those database sites, the college subreddits are linked informally with colleges, not generated by admissions offices.
“The college subreddits are different from a college’s Facebook page because, for one thing, anything on Facebook is sterilized by being connected to your real name. On the college subreddits, you can be candid and expect an honest response to your questions.”
Forbes and Goranflo see social-media platforms as a useful new resource for students and prospective students — with a caveat.
“Obviously, there’s substantial growth in social media, but word of mouth, a campus visit and high school counselors are still important,” Forbes says.
“Our goal is to communicate with students in the places and ways that are the most valuable and relevant to them.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
