Forget college viewbooks. The Web now lets prospective freshmen hear raw reports directly from students on just about any institution they’re interested in.
That’s at least the sentiment expressed by the editors of Unigo, a new college-review Web site that was the subject of a lengthy New York Times Magazine article on Sunday.
The site’s founder, Jordan Goldman, a 2004 Wesleyan University graduate, began collecting reviews, photos, and videos about a year ago from college students across the country, according to the article. The result is 30,000 individual bits of student-submitted content, including reviews, photos, and videos, all of which Goldman says will be included on the Web site.
“The colleges are going to have to change what they’re doing,” Nikki Martinez, an editor for Unigo, told the Times. “The pictures of the kids on the lawn won’t do anymore.”
Although similar guides already exist, Unigo’s breadth may be what makes it stand apart from both online and print competitors. Goldman and his editors say they will publish every student comment, even ones that college officials would rather not see.
A student at Quinnipiac University, in Connecticut, for example, noted approvingly in his review that the university is “still a white school.” Unigo editors defend their all-inclusive approach by suggesting that the larger the volume of information, the more accurate the portrayal.
“If that’s the kind of people that are going there,” Martinez told the Times, “people need to know that.”
The site has been having some technical difficulties this week, however, making it difficult for a Chronicle reporter to check out the new guide. —Caitlin Moran
