| How to Figure Out if a College is For You If You Don’t Have Time to Visit |
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My neighbor is a senior at Valley Regional High School in Deep River and, like many of his friends, he has narrowed his search down to two colleges. One is in Trouble is he doesn’t have the time or the money to visit either school. So what’s a student to do, particularly when he wants to take advantage of applying early? Go online and read the school’s newspaper every day for two weeks, and you’ll learn more about that school than if you had flown there and spent an overnight. Schools are selling just as students are selling. Schools want you to see only their most attractive sides just as applicants want schools to see their most stellar accomplishments. College newspapers let you get under the college’s hood. Student reporters make it their business to spotlight what’s not working for students (food, dorms, classes, security, cost) as well as the quotidian affairs of student life. Read a school newspaper cover to cover (sports, movie reviews, editorials, ads) for a couple of weeks and you’ll feel like you already moved there. So out of curiosity I took a look at the University Michigan’s daily newspaper, The Michigan Daily, because I’ve never been there. The lead story on the morning that I looked was about senior quarterback Chad Henne, who had been scratched from the upcoming Saturday game against Notre Dame due to injury. Freshman quarterback Ryan Mallett was slated to debut. The next most prominent story that day, which happened to be September 11, was headlined, “Panel Discusses Racism on Campus, Forum Takes on Ignorance, Hip-Hop Culture.” Daily News Editor Chris Herring wrote that “Racism exists at the University of Michigan – that much was clear in a panel discussion last night that took on topics like cultural ignorance and whether people have a responsibility to defy racial stereotypes.” Panelists discussed a “ghettofied” theme party that had recently taken place on campus. It was reported to be similar to the “Living the Dream” party at The lead editorial focused on September 11, and disparaged the handling of the war. After presenting its perception of the War on Terror it concluded, “The elements we sought to destroy are now stronger than ever. ” A column by Robert Soave entitled “Good For Michigan” applauded the decision to move Michigan’s presidential primary to Jan. 15 even though it had “plunged the world of Soave, who seems destined for primetime, went on to say that “some pundits are predicting the collapse of the entire state primary system and politicians are already sharpening their legislative knives to reform it for 2012.” He then made the case for why this was good for James la Terza, a student and an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, wrote a dispatch that was aimed at debunking the perception that the War on Terror was being fought with an all-volunteer force. He used himself as an example. First his active duty was extended by six months in His harrowing experience brings immediacy to a series of fiery issues that students can discuss with someone who has been there. “Panic in the Street” by Lisa Haidostian provided a Seinfeld glimpse of life on campus. “A bit after midnight last Wednesday,” she wrote, “the power went out in my house. As I was about to embark on a hunt through the house to find out which of my housemates had decided to employ one too many hair appliances and blew a fuse, I heard shouts from outside. “We were not suffering alone. A chorus of infuriated shouts rang out on “I could resume watching Zoolander at last.” Start reading college newspapers. They focus on issues that are pertinent to students, staff, and administrators as well as offer candid looks at college life. |