Among the many college information websites, several, such as the College Navigator, from the National Center of Educational Statistics, http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ with its extensive enrollment and financial aid information, and the College Board site http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/index.html with its college selection tools and college major research information, are stalwarts. Of course if you're interested in a specific school, its website is a good starting point. Many have links to the school's newspaper, student blogs (one of my favorites is a Dartmouth blogger who explains everything from study abroad opportunities to Dartmouth's "D-Plan", take a look at http://johnatdartmouth.blogspot.com/ ), curriculum details, and the biographies of key faculty. There is, however, a new site worth checking out: Unigo.com (www.unigo.com). Even though it's still in beta, its videos alone can give a prospective student a real sense of the school and the students who attend it. That, however, barely touches the surface.
Walter Mossberger, in his review of Unigo.com in the 20 February 2009 Wall Street Journal, called it a "college-information resource built for the age of You Tube and Facebook." (http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090218/unigocom-gives-everyone-a-say-about-college-picks/ 23 February 2009). Besides a lot of videos, Unigo.com contains forums for general questions you might have about the admissions process and specific questions about a campus. The site has student sponsors on 300 campuses actively soliciting and posting reviews, interviews and information. Founded by a 26 year-old, former publisher of college guides, Unigo.com now claims to have over 15,000 student/contributors. Best of all, because the site is supported by advertisers (don't worry, ads don't interfere with the user experience), Unigo.com is free.
The site contains an easy-to-use, powerful search engine, which can quickly access the information you need. If you're more traditional, and want to search for articles on specific topics, you might want to begin by scanning the topics in the left hand column categories on college admissions, financial aid, internships and jobs, college life, or study abroad.
If you do a search over Reed College in Portland, Oregon, you'll come across: 79 student reviews, 19 photos, and 27 videos. On the Reed initial screen is a summary of the school: "While the workload will drive most students to the brink of insanity, the academic environment at Reed is extremely supportive..." After the summary you'll find a review, compiled by the editors at Unigo.com, which pieces together portions from the student reviews. At the bottom are pertinent quotes from various student reviews.
It's also easy to get basic information about the school in the 'school statistics' section for each college. It contains information on admissions, the student body composition, and when to apply. There is also a quick ranking of the college (from 10, the highest, to 1) by: professor accessibility, culture, intellectual life, campus safety, and several others. The screen also supplies a list of similar colleges that you might want to consider.
The site is not perfect by any means. College coverage is still limited; just over 300 colleges are covered. There are over 3,400 four-year institutions, so it's less than 10% of the way there. As yet, you cannot generate side-by side comparisons of schools. What it does deliver, is current student evaluations of schools in a lively forum of photos and videos. You can also band together with like minded students to review and talk about various schools. If you're considering one of the schools well-represented on the site, like Yale for example, you owe it to yourself to view some video-interviews of current students talking about everything from the recent election to social life. They tell you a lot about a cross section of the students on campus, and what these students consider important. Outside of a personal visit, I can't think of a better way to get a truer sense of a campus.