<p>Something I’ve found helpful recently trying to narrow down schools is to go to the respective livejournal communities for the colleges I’m interested in and reading what students and recent alums have to say about the school. Of course not all of it is pertinent or helpful, but in the “memories” sections there are usually at least one or two threads having to do with prospectives’ questions. I like this approach because you’re actually getting info straight from people who are in the thick of it. I’ve also found that there is a certain lack of inhibition online, for some reason; people in my experience have been pretty straightforward about their school. Plus, if you happen to have a livejournal (or even just create an account and not put anything in it), you can ask questions yourself. Just another thought that might help this year’s rising seniors:)</p>
<p>Lady, I’ve been reading livejournals for various schools for a while now, and I totally agree with you — they are terrific for getting a sense of what’s important to students, how they react to different things, etc.
And, it’s a great place to ask questions — glad you’ve discovered this on your own!</p>
<p>What do you click on to find these at various schools?</p>
<p>go to [url=“<a href=“http://www.livejournal.com%22%5Dlivejournal.com%5B/url”>http://www.livejournal.com”]livejournal.com[/url</a>] and search for the name of the school in the box in the top right corner. make sure to change the drop-down menu from “username” to “interest”. it’ll give you a list of all the communities that have that school’s name listed as an interest; one of them should have what you’re looking for. for example, for brown, it would be [url="<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/brownuniversity/“]brownuniversity[/url”>http://www.livejournal.com/community/brownuniversity/"]brownuniversity[/url</a>].</p>
<p>Livejournal has been quite eye-opening! There’s also Xanga, which has blogrings for most colleges, but it’s not as focused a discussion as livejournal communities.</p>