| | Dear Various Universities Across the Country,
Okay, I get it. You're busy educating some of the 'best and brightest' of the country. This is important stuff you are doing. But if you're really educating the best and brightest, why can't you make your sites easier to navigate for prospective students like me? Surely someone must know how to add a few buttons to your site, remembering what it was like to be seeking out a great university or college, who also recalls the struggle to find information about the school on the school's website, and wants to fix this problem.
But no. Not at all. You want me to struggle, to get such a headache that it would take all the drugs in the world to help cause a dent.
I want information about your school. This means that I am quite possibly willing to give you money to have you tell me if you want me to attend your school, and you all really like money(or so the rumor goes. I heard it pays the bills). But can I find a link to request information about your school, so that I can compare it with other institutions? Nope. If I'm lucky, I find a PDF or download of some sort, a sad substitute for the thick paper books I've been getting from other universities. Something that I, as one of the few people who still has dial up, don't really have the patience to download.
Okay, fine, I can't get information. How about some stats on incoming Freshman? GPA, standardized test scores, etc? No, you'd rather just tell me what might give me an edge over other students that are begging to attend your school. You're asking me to write about my hobbies, why I participated in any and all extracurricular activities, those details that might not come across in the application. When I read this, do you know what it makes me want to do? Make up an elaborate but touching lie that both shows you my sparkling personality, and tells you exactly why I would make a good student at your school, like that one time I saved a box of puppies, on the highway, while in a t-shirt emblazoned with your name, and it was on the cover on the state newspaper. And then see how long it would take you to find out I had lied.
So I've given up on finding anything out about your university, whichever one you may be. I can't get stats, or information, or even a decent description of what, exactly, makes a particular program at your school better than another's school programs, other than it's nationally accredited. Um, do you know what that means to most high school seniors? All it's done for me is give me a line to tell people when they ask why I'm interested in your school. Clearly, you are more focused on your recognition than on describing how you got the recognition.
Finally, when you do manage to make it so I can get information on your school through your website(perhaps this lack of links is so that I am forced to listen to you talk about what makes your school so excellent, with no hope of escape from an overly-peppy student?), you ask for my social security number. And, half the time, you seem to get really irritated that I'm not willing to simply give it to you. Have you not noticed the amount of SSN thefts from various institutions across the country? SWITCH IT UP, and try something else. How about a basic registration of my name, address, school year, GPA/scores, and you all generate a number I use with your school, and get to access my College Board Account information, so that I don't have to worry about ID theft in addition to FAFSA and acceptance letters? Is that really so hard?
Apparently it is. I'm going to join the circus, so that they can start advertising that they have some of the 'best and brightest' in the country. Send me a letter when you make your sites more user friendly, and less irritating.
Sincerely,
One Irritable Rising Senior
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| | Posted 7/23/2007 4:43 PM - 24 Views - 6 eProps - 3 comments
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