Thursday, 19 February 2009 15:47
by
Lena
Viewbooks are so yesterday. Today's generation is the web savviest class of college applicants yet, and paper-and-ink catalogs don't do the trick anymore. That's where Unigo.com comes in. Made by students for students, the website gives soon-to-be-collegegoers an authentic glimpse at what it's like to be on campus.
Most recently featured on Wired.com's The Hopkinson Report, Unigo.com is a young operation which relies only on students, not admissions officers, to supply its content. With student reps in colleges throughtout North America, the website uses its networks of current college students to survey their peers on everything from Greek life to quality of teaching to political attitudes. The lengthy responses are then posted in their entirety, with each college's profile page maintaining a collection of these surveys along with videos and photos of the school. Colleges themselves aren't allowed to edit their school page or post anything. The result? One of the most comprehensive college databases out there and possibly the most authentic in terms of representing the student voice.
For high schoolers researching potential colleges to apply to, reading up on schools on Unigo may be a good supplement to traditional approaches like attending information sessions or even visiting campuses. Instead of learning about universities through the one-sided views expressed in marketing materials or by tour guides, today's college applicant can log on and tune in to the latest videos, interviews, and photos from real students attending their schools of choice.
If they weren't irrelevant before, then viewbooks are now definitely a thing of the past.