By Matt SpectorThe Daily Northwestern
A new Web site venture by three McCormick sophomores aims to bridge the gap between college applicants and prospective schools by gathering information from a direct source – the students themselves.
Launched last week, thatsmycollege.com is an online forum for high school students who are starting the college search or who are looking for information on prospective schools. Students can post questions on electronic message boards and create personalized profiles.
McCormick sophomore Chirag Sabunani, one of the creators of the Web site, said the site is different from similar web portals. On sites such as CollegeConfidential.com, he said, students cannot put a “face and a name” to people who share the information and answer questions.
“(On CollegeConfidential.com) you’re under an alias, and if you look at the forums, it’s pretty disorganized,” said McCormick sophomore Patrick Wong, thatsmycollege.com’s designer. “Finding the information you want in a streamlined fashion is difficult.”
Each of the 29 colleges on the site has its own page offering basic information about the school, and where students post questions in categories ranging from campus sports and living costs to the social scene and activism.
After registering, users create a profile where they can list their contact information and post to any of their college’s discussion boards. Students can personalize their pages with a profile picture and information about their hobbies and career aspirations.
Since the site’s launch on April 16, the creators have been receiving requests to add colleges to the site. The creators said they have seen the site growing in ways they had not predicted.
“A lot of people just signed up from other schools and that came as a really pleasant surprise,” Sabunani said.
Users from other colleges can send in an online form, and the site’s managers will update the site with a page for the users’ schools. The site’s creators said they want to keep the site small during the first testing stages and slowly expand its audience.
“At first we just want a base of college students who will provide info about their schools,” said McCormick sophomore Lingyu Xie, one of the site’s creators. He said each college’s network will continue to grow over time.
Sabunani said the site will grow through input from student group representatives. Student organizations, such as Lambda Chi Alpha, BLAST and InNUvation have already advertised themselves on NU’s discussion board. Users can make better choices because they will get specific information straight from the source, Sabunani said.
“Through (thatsmycollege.com), applicants will be able to make easy decisions as to (which colleges) are their right fit,” he said. “All it takes is a little bit of effort.”
Reach Matt Spector at [email protected].
