According to the web-based survey conducted with 7,867 high school juniors and seniors, fewer than 10% used MySpace, Facebook, or YouTube to gather information about colleges. Of the students surveyed, 84% used college websites most heavily in their research—and 64% used college viewbooks and college visits. Here’s another interesting insight:
Most students (71 percent) said a campus visit was their most trusted source of information, followed by college Web sites and personal recommendations.
Of those surveyed, 71% said they had done research on colleges before their junior year of high school, with 13% starting in eighth grade or earlier.
This certainly gibes with what we’re hearing from conversations with prospective students and first-year students on campuses we visit. We’re not seeing a declining interest in print: it’s still important! And prospective students are remarkably practical in their use of websites, at least the ones we talk to. From what we’re hearing, MySpace is their space—if they’re not moving to Facebook because they view it as more secure.
Michael Stoner Co-Founder and Co-Owner Was I born a skeptic or did I become one as I watched the hypestorm gather during the dotcom years, recede, and congeal once more as we come to terms with our online, social, mobile world? Whatever. I'm not much interested in cutting edge but what actually works for real people in the real world. Does that make me a bad person?