StudentAffairs.com - Website Review

This site, compiled by US News, offers students and parents information on how institutions of higher education "measure up". It includes a search engine for various types of schools (and snapshot information on most), a "College Personality Quiz" that helps students match types of institutions to personal characteristics, and additional financial aid and admissions resources. It also provides a grade calculator and course scheduler that can be used by students or by college personnel to organize and monitor students' schedules.

This specialized website explains and provides rankings of both liberal arts and public higher education institutions. It also provides extensive information for students who use specific criteria to select an institution by breaking down and comparing statistics. In addition, the site offers financial aid and other admissions-related resources and statistics helpful for students and families.

Although the US News Admissions site is congruent with its other pages, it is somewhat busy and difficult to follow. The large amount of text, animated advertisements, and numerous pages of links to rankings can be confusing to follow. However, the colors and layout give the site a business-like appearance that is, as mentioned previously, similar to the sitès other pages.

The majority of links on the US News site are internal rankings charts and snapshot information. All of the links function smoothly and banners on the bottoms of several pages assist navigation back to the homepage. However, the text banners are somewhat confusing and are not as clear as they could be which makes it difficult, at times, to find the previous page without using the back button on the toolbar.

Although the US News site offers rankings and comparative data on institutions, this information can not give a student the entire picture of an institution. There are good links to financial aid information and other resources. However, this website should not be the only (or even the primary) tool for a student who is deciding on an institution. In addition, admissions professionals can use this site to see how their institutions compare (according to US News) to others. This site may be a good one to browse as a resource but should not be used without other information or websites.