Your College Has A MySpace Page? Who Cares?

Posted by Kenneth Ronkowitz on

Saw a related article on The Chronicle site called "Is Your College on MySpace? It May Not Matter to Prospective Students" saying that those Net-happy high school kids seem to shun chat rooms, blogs, and online networking sites for the purpose of college search. This is according to a study by Eduventures Inc. (can't see the study - it's a members-only site).

But it does say that less than 10% of high-school students used the big 3 - MySpace, Facebook, YouTube - to get college info. 71% said a campus visit was their most trusted source of information, followed by college Web sites and personal recommendations.

71% also said they had done research on colleges before their junior year of high school while 13% actually started looking in 8th grade or earlier.

That all makes sense to me, but I wouldn't dismiss the unintentional stumbling onto info about your school on social net sites while looking for other things. And I do think that "official" videos and "professional" MySpace pages may not have the appeal of a MySpace blog that happens to be from someone at a school you are considering. Kids can spot an official site in the same way that they smell the fear in a new substitute teacher.

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