College Planning Resource Guide
Designed to assist ESOL and Middle Class Families
Unigo: http://www.unigo.com/colleges
This website provides student reviews of many schools that are sometimes supplemented with videos and pictures uploaded by students. Colleges that have a “Unigo Summary” link allow you to read a curated article featuring the strongest reviews. This website can be a great resource in understanding how current students view a school but the quality of the summary can be impacted by how many students are active in reviewing a school.
Princeton Review 376 Best Colleges:http://www.princetonreview.com/rankingsbest.aspx
This link will give you solid information on 376 schools that have been specifically reviewed. You do need to create a login/password for access beyond basic stats/details of each school. Once you do, you can click on the menu in light gray to the left that says, “The Basics, Academics & Majors, Admissions…” to get even more information. In particular, you’ll find the Academics & Majors, Rankings & Lists (often a lot of fun to look through), Student Body, Campus Life/Facilities and perhaps Other Schools to be most helpful since they offer opinions from current students and go beyond mere data. Be sure to always click on the “more” button to get, well, more information revealed. This is ALSO available as a book much like the Fiske Guide.
Online Campus Tours
Most schools offer some version of this on their website. Some are simple maps with explanations. Some are sophisticated interactive sites with audio and video featuring student “tour guides.” It’s typically found in the “Visit” section of the undergraduate admissions website. You can also look here:http://campustours.com/productions and here:http://youvisit.com/collegesList.php for direct links to a limited number of schools.