Many eye advice, unbiased view

By Joanna Massey

Globe Staff

Rather than rely on glossy college brochures or campus tours, high school students are cruising the information superhighway in search of an unfiltered glimpse at colleges and the way they pick students.

Their thirst for the inside scoop has led thousands of prospective undergraduates to online discussion forums and message boards. Internet sites such as the Princeton Review's, or more grass-roots, independent college message boards like xoxohth.com or studentsreview.com, run by graduate students at MIT, provide unedited, and seemingly unending, college data from high school students, university students, and graduates.

"You get an unbiased view-point from kids who actually went there," said Zach Bobker, who used a message board to find out more about Bentley College in Waltham.

Users like Bobker, 17, say the message boards offer varied perspectives on college admissions and give a sense of community to high school students struggling to pick a university.

But some college admissions officials say they worry the forums, most of which are not heavily moderated, can be rife with misinformation. The urge students and their parents to take information with a grain of salt.

"It's not intentional misinformation, but there could be a student who says, 'I heard every student lives in dormitories with hot tubs,' while in reality that isn't true; they just had a friend who did," said Kent Rinehart, Bentley's director of undergraduate admissions. "At any college in the country you're going to find students who love the place, students who hate the place, and many in between. You have to consider the source."

Bentley, like other colleges, is developing its own online discussion forums so students have an accurate source of information, Rinehart said.

But Bobker said the Princeton Review message board gave him a fuller range of information about the college than he got during his tour of Bentley last month.

How does Bentley compare with the business school at Boston University, he asked online from his home in Westchester, N.Y. With a 1420 on the SAT and a 3.7 grade-point average, what are his chances of getting a Bentley merit scholarship?

Within 24 hours, Bobker, a high school junior, received several replies, including one from a recent Bentley graduate who spoke highly of the course offerings and "potential job contacts."

The sites not run by colleges give students a chance to "tell it like is [their typo, of course since I didn't even say this at all] without the sweet talk we're used to hearing," said Matt Johnson, who recently completed his freshman year at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.

Many high school students go online and list their "stats" including test scores and extracurricular activities, then ask for a rating on their chances of admission or for suggestions of other schools. Others post questions about campus atmosphere and professors.

One student who asked about getting into New York University and Pace University received this response: "Your test scores are low for NYU but they won't completed rule you out."

Jarret Cohen, the owner of xoxohth.com, a popular independent college discussion board, said the six-month old site received upward of 10,000 posts a day.

On the admissions forum run by usnews.com, students also receive feedback from financial aid and admissions officers.

"Applying to college used to be like signing up for the Y; now it's more like an Ebay eBay auction [boy, they really didn't proofread this at all, did they?]," said Steve Thomas, director of admissions at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. "There's no way we can police all the information out there, but we have to adapt to the fact that it's being used."

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transcribed by xmatt

Comments in [square brackets] are mine

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=43134&forum_id=2#705291)

TTT article.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=43134&forum_id=2#705355)

we need to update that "as seen in" to add boston globe in addition to leiter reports.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=43134&forum_id=2#705359)

Disgraceful. Had the author of the article spent any time actually READING those forums herself, she'd have seen they are riddled with ~supposedly~ "unbiased" posters who behave like shills, writing propoganda, both and pro and con, all day as if it were a job. An investigative reporter should report Bobker's perception but then challenge its accuracy with a critical eye too.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=43134&forum_id=2#707861)