by Laura Koontz
Staff Writer
In addition to catalogs, college visits and chats with recruiters, prospective college students now have another resource for information and opinions on colleges.
U.S. News & World Report, known for its annual ranking of colleges, lets college students do the talking about their schools and college experience in its "Student to Student" forum on the Internet.
High school students or parents who have questions about choosing and getting into colleges can post questions in the forum and get answers from people who have already been through the experience, said Amy Harrison, an associate producer of new media for U.S. News.
"It's a great way for high school students to interact with college students from their own homes," Harrison said.
U.S. News got the word out about the site by sending e-mail to college newspapers and placing a graphic on the magazine's home page, "hoping people who come to the site will see it," Harrison said.
Apparently, it worked. Czarina Muro, a senior at Whitney High School in California, said, "I was looking for the U.S. News 1997 college ratings, and I stumbled onto the college forum."
In the past month, more than 200 messages have been posted in the forum, with topics ranging from what to do to get into college to what college to choose for which majors and the relative value of different colleges.
Elson Thomas, a senior at Alief-Elsik High School in Houston, said the replies to his question about whether he should attend MIT, Rice or Berkeley for chemical engineering and pre-med were "so influential that I made my decision based on the information I picked up from both the rankings and posting.
"I can't stress how big an impact this site had on the biggest decision of my life thus far," Thomas said.
In addition to information, some participants have found a sense of support and relief.
"It's really nice to know that others are also agonizing about which college to go to," Muro said.
She asked the forum whether she should go to Northwestern University or stay in Southern California and go to the University of California-Los Angeles.
Muro got a response from "Paul," a Californian attending Northwestern. "It really helps to know that someone else has gone through what I'm going through and thrived in the college he finally chose. And he gave some reassuring bits of advice," Muro said.
"It's an extra bonus for people, another way for people to talk to each other and get feedback," Harrison said.
University of Houston Ambassador Wendy Hermann, a senior communication disorders major, said she thought the forum would be good for students who, after visiting the campus, go home and have questions. "Students can read the handbook ... but they want to talk to another student and get a student's perspective."
The UH Ambassadors are a group of students who work with the admissions office to answer prospective students' questions.
"Most everyone has something of substance to contribute," Thomas said of the forum participants, whether they're high school students, college students, former college students or graduate students.
Harrison said the forum also has two high school guidance counselors to answer "more complex" questions.
"Sometimes the guidance counselors get feedback, saying thank you," Harrison said, but the forum doesn't keep track of the participants' decisions.
The forum does not monitor the postings. In a message titled "Forum participants please read," Harrison posted U.S. News' guidelines for forums. Guidelines include refraining from personal attacks, advocating criminal activity or using obscenity. The message suggests that people who wish to discuss off-topic matters to do so via e-mail.
Some participants thought have been engaging in personal attacks and using obscenity.
"We've had some problems," Harrison said, but U.S. News is continuing its hands-off approach.
However, the forum is changing the way participants register, requiring that they enter a name, screen name and e-mail address in order to be sent a password with which to enter the forum.
U.S. News will keep the forum in operation though the deadline of students to notify most colleges of their intent to attend is May 1.
The forum is located on the World Wide Web at www.usnews.com/usnews/edu.