More and more colleges are surfing on the blogging wave to boost prospective students’ interest in their institution by supporting and promoting a few hand-picked freshman bloggers.
Simmons College does it. Furman University and Alfred University , too.
By reading these blogs, high school seniors and their parents (as well as anybody interested in what could be a kind of college reality TV) can follow the life of these current students turned into their college’s online ambassadors.
As reported by Lisa Leigh Connors in The Christian Science Monitor, Jim Shaynak, senior associate director of admissions at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa explains that, “it’s a trend, and more and more institutions are finding the need to present their schools not just through marketing materials, but also by showing real student experiences.”
Bucknell University doesn’t use blogs, but an entire web section, Year in The Life, that features six students’ personal essays about the major milestones of their freshman year.
What about editing?
“We’re taking a little bit of a risk – a big risk – because we’re giving them that flexibility,” says Greg Carroll, vice president of marketing and public relations at Furman in Greenville, S.C. “One of the most effective things we’ll tell them is, ‘Just remember that your mom is reading this, your friends, your relatives.’
I guess that piece of advice works for every student blogger (well, any blogger, actually).
Blogs are usually very well indexed by search engines, and anybody (including grand ma’) can google your name and get their hands on your latest posts.