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The Tell-All Campus Tour

Posted by timothy on from the oh-it's-probably-not-all dept.

theodp writes "Want to check out colleges without the bother of having to read about them? Well, my YouTube-loving friend, the NY Times reports that old-school elephantine dead-tree college guidebooks may be a thing of the past thanks to startup unigo.com, which has launched a free, gigantic, student-generated web-based guide to North American colleges that's laden with photos, Flip-shot videos and reviews (OK, you may have to do some reading)."

11 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Just like paper... by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Funny

    Their website has gone up in smoke. I hope nobody was trying to get campus information from them today.

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:Just like paper... by drapeau06 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That'll teach them to get their media release published on Slashdot!

    2. Re:Just like paper... by Smivs · · Score: 3, Funny

      So, maybe dead trees have there uses after all. They wouldn't 'go up in smoke', wood they?

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      Smivs on the intertubes!
    3. Re:Just like paper... by electrictroy · · Score: 2, Funny

      The website is working, but it's not answering my most-important concern... the question that could ultimately sink-or-swim my future educational choice:

      - Which school has the most coeds wearing nothing but bikinis?

      I imagine it's someplace like Hawaii or Miami, but some independent verification (with photos) would be nice.

      --
      The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
  2. I can't imagine schools will be too happy by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't imagine schools would be too happy with this. Allowing J. Random Student to publish, in a semi-official venue, information which is intended to represent a public face of the school is not likely to do much for their image any more than having the most (or least) number of girls going wild and lifting up their school t-shirts on spring break porn videos.

    Hell, non-tenured faculty are usually limited in what they can say and do because it will reflect on the institution, whether its positive or negative.

    Although, I would imagine that were I still in high school, rather than two and a half years out of college, seeing things from the viewpoint of normal students would give me a much better grasp on campus life than the promotional propaganda filled with happy looking, so-called students, who are hired models pretending the part.

    Knowing if you're going to fit into the community of students is as important as knowing the reputations of the faculty in your department, their research interests, etc -- the professors are your mentors and guides, but your peers are the ones you're going to hangout/date/drink with and are the relationships that, going forward, are going to help you establish yourself.

    I think this is a good idea, but I'm not sure how long it'll last.

    1. Re:I can't imagine schools will be too happy by swimin · · Score: 3, Informative

      There are already sites that host reviews of colleges from students, and most of them are negative, because the whiners are the ones who bother to write up a review. One such site is: StudentsReview And, no I don't work for them.

    2. Re:I can't imagine schools will be too happy by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I can't imagine schools would be too happy with this. Allowing J. Random Student to publish, in a semi-official venue, information which is intended to represent a public face of the school is not likely to do much for their image any more than having the most (or least) number of girls going wild and lifting up their school t-shirts on spring break porn videos

      This is the same type of thing as the "Rate Your Teacher" sites. They don't like 'em, but this is the age of information, and people are free to communicate.

      One thing to keep in mind, as with the Rate Your Teacher sites, these schools are a business, they sell a very expensive product, and they need to be responsive to their customers.

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  3. The article was better than the website. by mongoose(!no) · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'd have to say that NY Times article is more interesting than their website, which seems to be failing under the load of the New York Time and Slashdot. I don't see how the site, from the description in the article is any different than any other web startup, trying to change how an established industry works. I do hope they make colleges and those college guidebooks rethink how they do business. Unfortunately, business interests have taken over higher education, and many schools are more concerned about portraying a good image, rather than actually fixing problems.

  4. Would be nice to have reviews of on-line programs by failedlogic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm a working professional with an undergrad. I'm looking to do a Master's part-time. There's several universities (I'm Canadian) that offer on-line Master's courses. You do all the work/reading yourself (which is what it always was about anyways) and get your degree. There's reputable universities offering this, but I'm not sure as to how well implemented the programs are. It would be nice if the Tell-All would work to include or expand upon the non-campus tours.

  5. Bleah by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can we finally drive a stake (heh heh) into the "dead tree" meme?

  6. no way by globaljustin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Universities will always have an 'official' guide book for prospective students. Really, they'd be idiots to let random students post content and let that serve as the 'official' guide book.

    As usual, the article description is silly, what with the claim that "dead tree college guidebooks are a thing of the past"...uni's already have well developed websites, and that fact, more than some wiki-guide book website is what's making the dead tree guidebook less important. It's the internet itself.

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