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.Com Down: A survey of sites for studentsBy Justin Chen
What is the bored Yalie to do after waking up from a nap on a lazy weekday afternoon? Strike up yet another desultory conversation with the suitemates? Perhaps. Do the world a favor and empty the rancid miracle of super-compacted filth still affectionately referred to as the "trash can?" No comment Get on the `net? Definitely. In fact, with distractions like e-mail, instant messaging services, mp3s, and those pesky porn sites that keep inexplicably popping up on the screen, it's no surprise that the average Yale student spends so much time in front of the computer every day. Several savvy Internet companies have taken note of the presence of college kids on the net and have acted quickly to cash in. From free online class notes at www.versity.com to discounts on trains, contact lenses, and long-distance phone calls at www.studentadvantage.com, the World Wide Web is quickly becoming the place to turn for all your college life needs. The Yale Herald has taken a look at some of the most prominent websites vying for college students' attention and reviewed them based on their content, offerings to students, academic usefulness, and other features.
Some of you may remember that at the beginning of the year, Student Advantage was selling memberships outside of the Bookstore. For those who didn't get a chance to hear it then, StudentAdvantage Incorporated is a company "dedicated to serving the needs of college students through its leading Membership Program and the StudentAdvantage.com Web site." The "Membership Program" is a fee-based system. Once students join, they become a part of "a community of over one million student members who receive benefits including ongoing discounts on products and services offered by over 40 national partners, including leading corporations like Amtrak, AT&T, Foot Locker, Greyhound, Staples and Tower Records, and 12,000 partners in local markets." These discounts, not surprisingly, are all geared toward students; with savings of up to 15-20% on train tickets through Amtrak, for instance, transportation to and from college can be much less taxing on one's pocket book with a membership to Student Advantage. Sadly, many of the other discounts are useless in the popular-chain-devoid New Haven. Like many other websites tailored to fit the needs of college students, StudentAdvantage.com has expanded beyond merely offering discounts; now, a visit to the website can yield information on internships and job opportunities, study abroad, health and nutrition, and even dating and relationships. According to the site itself, StudentAdvantage.com offers "content, community and e-commerce for college students," and it "provides a vast array of student-interest content, spotlighting careers, education entertainment, health, news, living, sports, and travel, and has become one of the leading student destinations online." A StudentAdvantage.com membership costs $20 per year. Becoming a member is relatively easy. Just visit the website, type in some information about yourself, and charge your credit card over a secure server. Membership also entitles one to a web-based e-mail account, a "full-feature address book," a "daily, weekly and monthly personal calendar," and 15 megabytes of online storage space "to save and easily access papers, research notes, etc." Before you are compelled by such features, though, note that Yahoo! or Netscape, among others, and Xdrive, fill all these needs. And cheaper phone calls are to be found with online free calling services.
Versity.com "aims to be the primary destination site of college students by understanding the desires and values of current and future students and delivering useful study tools to the Versity academic community." Established in 1998, Versity.com has joined the ranks of fledgling web-based companies that target specific college-student needs—in this case, the need for high-quality lecture notes and "study forums across all academic disciplines." Despite its relative youth, Versity.com has already compiled an impressive listing of collegiate affiliates, including Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Caltech, as well as many other state and private universities. Yale, however, is not among the colleges represented on the site. Versity.com boasts representation by "35,000 classes on 88 campuses with more than 55,000 sets of notes online." The notes provided by Versity.com are all furnished by students. Dubbed "Class Research Coordinators," or CRCs, these students "are responsible for taking high quality notes of what was presented in class and submitting them within 24 hours. Additionally, they document class events and announcements as reminders for other students." CRCs are compensated with "a base salary and significant incentive-based bonuses." Requirements for the position include organization, "ability to work independently, computer proficiency, a minimum GPA of 3.0, and the ability to post notes within 24 hours." Versity.com also offers other positions to interested students nationwide. For instance, Versity is hiring "Campus Operations Managers," or COMs, who are "highly motivated and entrepreneurial students who manage Versity.com's operations on their campus." These COMs are responsible for "hiring, training and managing a team of Class Research Coordinators and Marketing Representatives, developing and implementing campus marketing strategies, and generating excitement among fellow college students." Unlike Studentadvantage.com, Versity.com has not yet sought to expand its services too far beyond its original vision of "delivering useful study tools to the Versity academic community." Its main goal is to provide high quality lecture notes to students at a wide range of universities. In addition, Versity.com hosts a "Knowledge Center," in which lecture notes from "top courses" in various fields are represented, key topics for different subjects are examined, and visitors to the site are invited to start "discussion topics," or forums for student discussion. Registering at Versity.com is free, and it allows you to create a personal account at the site. Once registration is complete, users are part of the Versity.com community and can send instant messages to other members with the same interests or who attend the same university.
Unlike a site such as Versity.com that tries to fill a specific need like class notes, Collegestudent.com is a more general, "all-purpose" website. Initially designed in 1996 by four students at the University of Texas as "an easy way for students to find affordable housing in Austin, Texas," the site became so popular that it gradually expanded to include "classifieds, local news, roommate matching services and university information." The Collegestudent.com website offers "a housing database, professor and class ratings, textbook exchange, classifieds, ride boards, student directory listings, free e-mail, an organizer, local and national news, campus club events, class schedules, chat, personals, Shag Magazine, advice columns, horoscopes, daily music news, university news feeds... and much more, all free of charge." Collegestudent.com hopes to become a leader among "online campus communities." The services it offers are all highly personalized, and encourage frequent visits to the site. Nor does Collegestudent.com only focus on the academic side of college life. The front page of the site, for example, features a "Personal [ad] of the Week," as well as links to articles entitled, "Why I (secretly) Love Ricky Martin," and "Ask Dick! Philanderin' Man." Okay, so maybe the articles aren't exactly triumphs of cyber-literature—for instance, a high schooler's piece entitled "$10 Won't Buy Much for Fashion Conscious" reaches the scintillating conclusion that "[a]s long as people are willing to buy expensive clothes... prices will keep rising and companies will continue to take our money." Nevertheless, these more "social" highlights designed to give a nod to pop culture contribute to the site's goal of creating a community rather than merely providing a static resource for students. Once users have personalized Collegestudent.com, a number of options become available. For instance, when the site is customized for a Yale student, he or she can access information on housing, student organizations, job opportunities, and roommates in New Haven, as well as course evaluations and tutors at Yale. The other feature that Collegestudent.com offers is a "Bonus Points" program. Newly-registered students start out with 15 bonus points, and can earn additional points by "sending email, telling friends about [the site], using the personals, and more." These points can then be redeemed for prizes such as CDs, gift certificates, or even a DVD player.
"College Life Online" is Student.com's self-designated description. Indeed, the Student.com website does contain features relevant to college life; the categories linked on the front page include News, Sports, Culture, Campus, Travel, Jobs, and Fun & Games, much like in a newspaper. Membership to Student.com costs nothing and it gets you a free email account, as well as the ability to "Post to discussions, chat, post cool personals," and "save with special deals." Most of the actual content of the site takes the form of articles on various topics. Student.com also provides one with the ability to tailor the site to one's own interests. For instance, members can specify a city and/or university for the site, and then retrieve information about nearby concerts or exhibits on certain dates, and even what's playing on TV or in the movie theaters in the area. Other than that, Student.com falls short of a site like Collegestudent.com. Many of the links that Student.com provides—including links to the Yale webpage and Yale's various athletic teams—could easily be found by a Yale student. And some of Student.com's other features, including phonebook searches and finding directions to a given location, certainly are not exclusive to the site, but could rather be found at any major search engine like www.excite.com.
With all these websites beginning to run together in a blur of uncreative domain names, something extra is needed to set one site apart from the others. In the case of Studentu.com, this distinguishing characteristic is in the layout—the site is organized as if it were an online campus of sorts, featuring a study hall, library, student union, career center, campus store, and a "study break." The front page is designated "My Backpack" and contains a personalized calendar, address book, email account, weather forecast, and news headlines. The "Study Hall" page features a section on study skills to help the struggling student, as well as more direct resources such as class notes, study guides, and book reviews. Once again, Yale students have been left out in the cold for class notes—but in this case, so are all the other Ivies. In fact, Studentu.com's lecture notes cater to public universities, boasting a list of about 108 schools in total. The study guides are a more general resource, providing basic overviews of a wide variety of subjects including Anthropology, Philosophy, Astronomy, Sociology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Psychology, American History, Economics of the micro and macro varieties, and marketing. The "book reviews" are also geared toward anyone. Although the site boasts, "Boy is `Cliff' going to have a heart attack," referring to the well-known Cliffs Notes series of literature analyses, Studentu.com in reality provides nothing more than a chapter-by-chapter summary and character analyses for approximately 40 literary works. (Instead, take a look at the high schooler-oriented sparknotes.com) The "Library" includes features such as a "Law Review" that summarizes important Supreme Court cases and a "References" section that merely links to online dictionary and encyclopedia sites. The most innovative feature of the Library is a "Road Map" that offers guidance for students at various stages in their college careers. For example, freshmen are instructed in rule #9: "Get to know your professors. Do not wait until the last minute. Take advantage of your professors [sic] office hours. This will help you if you need a couple of points at the end of the semester." In addition, the Road Map section provides "Survival Tips" that include a "College Expense Checklist," information about graduate schools, advice on "Going Greek," and even a short article about the importance of one's GPA during the first two years of college. The "Career Center" is just that—a collection of advice and original articles designed to improve your chances of landing a job. Some features of the Career Center include a "Resume Builder" with extensive information about all aspects of the resume (even a section on "Action verbs to energize your Resume"), and tips on how to be a better interviewee.
Of all the sites reviewed in this article, Edu.com is the most commercial. In order to utilize the site's resources, visitors are required to register, because, according to the site itself, "marketers are willing to provide their best prices, but only if we prove our customers are students." The registration process is more rigorous than with other websites—users are required to submit a student ID number to authenticate their identity. If no student ID number is available, users must fax in a copy of their student ID for verification. Edu.com sells all manners of hardware and software produced by such quality brand names as IBM, Canon, Adobe, and Symantec. The site also features an online bookstore with college textbooks at discount prices. In addition, visitors to the site are offered chances to join an array of banks, credit cards, and telecommunication plans. The Edu.com site runs with the help of its sponsors—Citibank, Bank Boston, IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and AT&T. Aside from the promises of discounts on retail goods based on student status, Edu.com also offers the "eduRewards Program," in which students receive Rewards Points based on how much they use the site. Points are awarded for registering as a member of Edu.com, referring friends, taking surveys, and making purchases online, and can be redeemed for "CDs, videos, electronics, gifts, movie tickets, gear, [and] music cassettes." Like a Versity.com, this site focuses on one niche of the college student market and does not seek to expand too far beyond its boundaries. Thus, Edu.com does not boast a free web-based calendar, address book, email address, etc., but rather focuses on its business of selling merchandise to students.
This massive website's claim to fame is as "the world's largest college community." The site began as an attempt to "build tools that allowed other students to communicate." Today, it has expanded to not only cover all forms of communication (including the basics like free email, news headlines, etc.), but to also house the "largest student Auction on the Internet" and online discounts on famous stores and brand names. Still, the site was created with communication in mind, and one of CollegeClub.com's main strengths lies in its innovative approach to the problems of communication. For instance, members can check their CollegeClub.com email accounts simply by dialing a toll free number. A digital voice informs you of the number of new messages in your e-mailbox, and it can even read your messages—albeit awkwardly and with some stumbling over words not in the computer's dictionary—back to you. Even more impressively, you can immediately respond to your emails by recording a brief message into the phone, which is then converted into a RealAudio sound file and delivered via email back to the initial sender. Thus, the computer part of the entire emailing process is effectively removed, perfect if you should somehow be stuck without internet access. In addition, CollegeClub.com is host to an extensive instant messaging service, as well as a feature entitled "Who's Online" that allows users to look up other CollegeClub.com members based on locality, interests, and other basic background information. Another of the site's unique features is the ability to look up discounts offered by merchants in your area (based on zip code). In terms of academics, CollegeClub.com is a little weaker. Its only main offering is an assortment of links to sites like www.thinkwell.com and www.learn2.com, but it does not offer much in the way of original, direct academic help.
Bear in mind that this survey is just one person's view of these sites and should not be substituted for some in-depth browsing of your own. Also, a site that may have received many "Fs" based on the grading process used in this article could still be a quality site with a more narrow focus. For instance, Versity.com, a site primarily dedicated to providing online lecture notes and academic resources, scored poorly in many areas, and yet is still an excellent resource for students looking for what Versity.com has to offer. Parting shots Some other sites that were not discussed in this article but also cater to college students include: mybytes.com: This website features many standard offerings such as free email, music samples, chatting, etc. Its "Academic Center" includes many links to different sites on the web, but lacks a significant body of original content. One of this site's innovations is that members can create "hubs," or a web site on mybytes.com complete with live discussion groups, polls, and images. getschooled.com: The name "GetSchooled.com" is unfortunately misleading. Most of this site's original content deals with more social issues like relationships, college life, etc. True there is some information about jobs and scholarships, but those areas certainly are not the primary emphasis. The most striking aspect of this website is its section on cheating. One section reads, "Sadly, every year many students end up getting caught cheating and pay a heavy price. These students did something wrong which got them caught. If you can keep from making the same mistakes that they did, you can screw honor and get the grade you want." Another passage bemoans, "Many people are not capable of lying. It's sort of sad - did their parents not instill in them deceit?" Although this blatant condoning of a traditionally morally reprehensible action may seem shocking to some, it does go to show what a huge variety of ideas are available on the internet today. studentcity.com: This website is ideal for students looking for good travel deals. The site boasts, "If you are planning a college spring break vacation or a high school grad trip, then StudentCity is the place for you." With discount packages for destinations such as Cancun, Montego Bay, Nassau, Negril, and Ocho Rios, as well as information about parties and events at every destination, StudentCity.com is perfectly suited for a moderate to large group of students looking for a place to spend a week or two. Bear in mind that this survey is just one person^Rs view of these sites and should not be substituted for some in-depth browsing of your own. Also, a site that may have received many Fs based on the grading process used in this article could still be a quality site with a more narrow focus. For instance, Versity.com, a site primarily dedicated to providing online lecture notes and academic resources, scored poorly in many areas, and yet is still an excellent resource for students looking for what Versity.com has to offer. Overall, there is a wealth of information and resources for students like you out there, and it is definitely worth your while to check them out.
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