23-2-2010

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

This

week, we visit four Web sites where students can learn about higher education

in the United States.

Cappex.com - c-a-p-p-e-x - matches

students with colleges and universities. Students create a profile about themselves

and their interests. The site then suggests ten to twenty schools.

But

Cappex President Chris Long says that there are no guarantees of admission. The

site is free to students. Cappex sells advertising on the site to schools and

companies.

The home page of CollegeClickTV's website

CollegeClickTV.com has thirty thousand videos of

students answering questions about their schools.

GIRL: "I would recommend honestly taking

Statistics 263 with Professor Alexander. He's absolutely wonderful, the class

is a great class to take and I really enjoy it."

SECOND GIRL: "I chose this school because it's in the city and it's really

great and the communication school is actually, I think, ranked in the top

five?"

BOY: "Yeah."

SECOND GIRL: "It varies every year but it's ranked really high. And all

the colleges. And you get like a really great, well-rounded education. And the

kids are really cool. You meet really fun people."

BOY: "I came here because I didn't get into NYU."

Schools

pay CollegeClickTV to come on campus. But founder and president Glenn Pere says schools do not approve or reject any comments. That does

not mean the site will use whatever students say; Glenn Pere says they must

give reasons for their opinions.

Zinch.com

has video profiles produced by students themselves. Co-founder Sid Kromenhoek says it is a place where students can show their abilities and talents. The

company says more than six hundred colleges pay to use the site to search for

students. More than five hundred thousand high school students have profiles on

the site.

Finally, we come to Unigo.com. Unigo offers college

reviews, videos and other content created by students. Features include "unofficial

campus tours" and advice for dealing with the recession - oh, and of

course, dating on campus.

The free site,

supported by ads, has a team of full-time editors. The site was launched to the

public last September by a start-up company led by its twenty-six year old

founder. Jordan Goldman says the site is starting with two hundred fifty of

America's top colleges and will add more.

Unigo, Zinch, CollegeClickTV

and Cappex are just some of the sites for college searches on the Web. Others

include MyCollegeOptions, CheckMyCampus and PrincetonReview.

And that's the VOA

Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign

Student Series continues next week. The series is online at voaspecialenglish.com.

I'm Steve Ember.