I caught this April 16 article (”College blogs tell it like it is“) when it first came out in newsprint, but this was during my blogging downtime so I just filed it away somewhere to gather dust. I was reminded of it again when TargetX mentioned it in their Email Minute last week.

Remember how I spent all of August screaming at the top of my lungs about how it was crucial that blogs be uncensored and authentic?

> The Power of Public Perception: Colleges use Blogging;
> Authentic? Questioning the value of student blogging;
> Donor dollars trump interests of prospective students in student blogging arena.

and don’t forget the article I wrote for Stein Communications about student blogging…

Anyhow, it looks like the Globe caught on, at least a little bit.

Marcella Bombardieri, Boston Globe 4/16/2007

The message from student bloggers isn’t always pretty, yet college officials say the blogs are worth the risk. High school students can get unvarnished views of any colleges from Facebook, MySpace, or unsanctioned student blogs. They may be more inclined to trust a school they think is willing to show them real campus life, officials say. Plus, the technology gives colleges another tool to help applicants make the best decision, especially if they cannot afford to fly in for an overnight stay.

In contrast to Liu’s, some of these blogs come off as cloyingly cheerful, like a college brochure in modern disguise. “I have always been really impressed with the spirit of volunteerism at our school,” raves a Dartmouth senior.

Still, even the blogs that come off as promotional are often filled with talk of too much work, not enough sleep, and frightening weather. “So, you know it’s cold in Ithaca when your whole body gets so chapped and dried out that you need to apply liberal amounts of PURE VASELINE to your body twice a day just to keep your skin from cracking,” writes Cornell senior Ben Crovella .

“We all have these glossy brochures, and most of them are trying to be as much like Harvard as possible,” said Matt McGann , an admissions officer and blogger at MIT. “We see blogs as a way we can say, ‘This is what a university really is.’ There’s some good and some bad. There is no perfect university, so we want to show a little bit of what makes MIT interesting and unique.”

Matt and the whole MIT crew are really great with their attitude towards blogs, but it’s one that I am not yet seeing reflected nationwide–at least not so far as actions are concerned. “One-quarter of all college admissions offices offer blogs written by students or admissions personnel, according to a forthcoming study from the National Association for College Admission Counseling.” If that study is true, then that’s an exceedingly well hidden quarter. All the same, it’s good to see some mainstream media sources validating what I have been saying for the whole time I have been thinking about college admissions!

Catch the whole Globe article here; I would highly recommend interested persons read the pieces of mine I linked above, too.

: )