Posts Tagged ‘colleges and facebook’
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
My College Guide has witnessed amazing changes to higher education in the 20 years that we’ve been doing this (hello, Facebook Class of 2014 Facebook Pages or 101 College Blogs) – especially in the way that incoming students can get involved, get connected, and know what to expect!
Marquette University
We love the way Marquette University points out the differences with a spoof on a popular TV commercial using actual MU alums. Can you guess which one? We spoke to David Murphy, Senior Director of Brand Marketing, at Marquette University to get the back story. We just wouldn’t be us if we didn’t!
We dig the Marquette Alumni Reunion videos — it reminds us of one of our favorite commercials (if you can like a commercial)! Where did the idea come from?
Actually, I like commercials. In my past world in advertising, I created them for twenty-five years. The Alumni videos are derivative of a fairly popular approach that has been used on television by many advertisers…you might be thinking of one in particular.
How long did it take to get this video made start to finish?
There was about a week or two for pre-production. This includes concept meetings with Advancement members, research of the generations and writing the scripts. For the actual production it took one day to cast talent, one day to shoot, two-to-three days to edit, color-correct and score the music.
What’s your favorite Marquette U video so far?
Tough question. My top three favorites:
The wacky world of Danny Pudi
Jesuit 2.0
How the Search Makes us Who We Are
You can also see the difference between the Marquette University Class of 1980 and 1990 and the Class of 2000 and 2005 on YouTube – there’s even Alumni Reunion Weekend Video Outtakes. We’re told to expect more YouTube videos in the fall: we’ll keep you posted! Note to future students: high-fives are apparently out and the fist bump is in, at least according to the clever videos by the talented folks at Marquette University. Watch Marquette Reunion Video: Students Then and Now: ’60s and ’70s on YouTube or below.
Tags: alumni, Choosing a College, College Life, colleges and facebook, Colleges and Social media, colleges and youtube, facebook, marquette university, youtube
Posted in Choosing a College, College Campus, College Life, Fun Stuff, Social Media | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
Like the sound of “study abroad” but aren’t sure about the whole “abroad” part of it? My College Guide presents to you Winter at Westminster at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. This has to be one of the most unusual study abroad alternatives My College Guide has seen so far — for starters, it takes full advantage of the conveniently located Wasatch Mountain range.
Courtesy of Westminster College SLC
So maybe the last thing on your mind right now is cold, snow-filled Winter – but when that blazing sun and heat disappears — you’ll definitely want to turn back to this one! Winter at Westminster sounds like a good fit for snow-loving, ski-wearing,snowboarding daredevils.
As with any typical study abroad program, it doesn’t matter what college you regularly attend (you can be from anywhere) – you simply have to apply as a full-time visiting student! But it just wouldn’t be college if there wasn’t some work involved! W@W students do have a full course load Monday through Thursday – but Friday and Saturday? That’s reserved for fun!
Johanna Daley, the Associate Director of Communications at Westminster College, spells it out: “In addition to their academic schedule they participate in Winter at Westminster activities and events (back country skiing/snowboarding, yurt camping, avalanche training, guest lectures, bobsledding, and more) and are given passes to the Canyons and Snowbird or Alta [snow resorts]. Many also take advantage of the internship program and get internships in the winter sports industry.”
She says that, “The program is for any college student with a love of skiing and/or snowboarding. They don’t need to be advanced, but they need to have a reasonable amount of experience on the snow…and a novice would not be able to participate in all the activities (like back country days).”
Courtesy of Westminster College SLC
Westminster College is also partnered with the US Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) and is the official educator! Daley elaborated, “About 37 of their (USSA) athletes are Westminster students and 14 of them competed in the 2010 Olympics.”
One Westminster College SLC freshman student, Bryon Wilson, even snagged a bronze medal in Men’s Freestyle Moguls at the 2010 Winter Olympics!
Want more? Check out the Winter at Westminster online video contest entries, the W@W Blog, or the Winter at Westminster Facebook Page for an insider’s view. While My College Guide may not understand all of the W@W jargon, like Gloobs, Noodlers, and SPORS, one thing is for sure – this might just be a college snow-lover’s dream come true!
Tags: colleges and facebook, Colleges and Social media, facebook, johanna daley, salt lake city utah, skiing, slc utah, snowboarding, study abroad, w@w, westminster college, westminster slc, winter at westminster
Posted in Choosing a College, College Campus, College Classes, College Life, Fun Stuff | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Heading off to college? There are a lot of changes in store for you – and your college of choice not only understands – they want to help you through the process! Colleges want your transition to be as pain-free as possible — which is one of the many reasons behind “Welcome Week.”
IndieNate / Nate Buchman
Welcome week is a week-long period filled with events for new freshmen students – and sometimes even their families. It’s a way for a college or university to get their new freshmen class to interact, get to know one another, create a few friendships, and receive a healthy dose of that good old school spirit!
Sure, some incoming students may have connected early to college classmates via Facebook or Twitter but you can be sure that there are plenty of others who don’t know a soul: and that’s okay too. Everyone who is there actually wants to be there!
Everyone chose that particular college for a reason and everyone is just as excited and nervous about moving away from home as you are — which is why colleges created Welcome Week – a great way to get comfortable and settled in at college (before the rush of class begins)!
Sikachu! / Prem Sichanugrist
There’s a lot of ground to cover before you trudge bleary-eyed to your very first college class. You need a student id, to buy college textbooks, register your car (if any) or even your cat, and move in to your dorm or off-campus housing! You need to learn your way around campus, where to go and what to expect (part of which you may already know if you read My College Guide at all – and you should!).
There will be a lot of activities, free food, and plenty of ways to get involved! Some of the activities may seem a little silly but that’s part of the fun! College isn’t all philosophical talks and deep class discussions.
Relax, participate, and get to know these people around you – you will be sharing classes, the cafeteria, library, and dormitory with them, you might as well get to know them (and maybe even befriend a few) sooner rather than later.
Tags: college dorms, college housing, college welcome week, colleges and facebook, Colleges and Social media, colleges and twitter, facebook, Preparing for College, Twitter, welcome week, what to expect
Posted in College Life, Fun Stuff, Housing | No Comments »
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Social media and higher ed makes My College Guide happy – especially when colleges decide to let students get involved! Ottawa University of Ottawa, Kansas, is the first university to have a student group in charge of creating its official videos. The eight students responsible for Braves TV come from a variety of majors: communications, business, education, and even undecided (See? It’s okay not to know right away!) – even the student body president is involved! We talked to Annie Noll, Ottawa University’s Social Media Specialist, to see how a project like this began!
So this is a little unusual! We hadn’t heard of any student groups put in charge of creating videos for the official college Facebook page…until now! How did this get started?
I came up with the idea for Braves TV in the Fall when I was watching The Hills. Not joking. MTV showed a preview for a new show, The Buried Life, about these four guys who complete life goals from their bucket list. I was looking for a way to spice up our Facebook Page. My idea was that Ottawa should have a group of students whose purpose is to complete challenges — like off a bucket list (10 things they want to do at Ottawa before they leave) to show what life here is really like. Braves TV started off that way and then it morphed into something really unique.
Why Facebook? Why not a different social platform?
YouTube and Facebook are married in our world. Ottawa University is on Twitter and a few other sites, but nothing has the power right now that Facebook and YouTube have. It will be our social media home base to quote Chris Brogan.
We’ll just have to keep watch for their latest upcoming video – what they have agreed is their absolute fave so far: a lip sync/flash mob to Don’t Stop Believin’ in the Ottawa University Cafeteria! It will be interesting to see how other colleges and universities pick up on this idea!
Tags: annie noll, braves tv, cafeteria, Choosing a College, choosing a college major, College Life, colleges and facebook, Colleges and Social media, colleges and twitter, colleges and youtube, don't stop believin', facebook, flash mob, ottawa university, social media, videos, youtube
Posted in Choosing a College, College Classes, College Life, Fun Stuff, Social Media | 1 Comment »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
College isn’t all fun and games…except when it is! The arrival of Spring on many college campuses isn’t just about the dreaded final exam and Spring Break – it also means Zombies! Yes, we mean zombies: brain eating, fast moving, zombies – and Nerf gun carrying, bandana-wearing human counterparts.
Urban Gaming Club
Humans versus Zombies or Zombies versus Humans, has one simple goal – outlast your opponent! Zombies have a specified pre-determined life span – it could be an hour, 48 hours, or an entire week, depending on your college. They can be as simple – infect as many human players as possible – or as complex, (plots, missions, scavenger hunts) as game organizers decide!
Zombies turn humans into zombies by tagging them – humans, however, can defend themselves: marshmallow guns, balled up socks, or Nerf guns, which stun a zombie for an agreed upon length of time (usually 15 minutes) before it’s back to the chase! If Zombies don’t tag a player within the agreed upon time…they die (again). Whichever side ends up with the most players…wins!
Does that sound fun or what? It all started at Goucher College in 2005 and now – it’s everywhere! Ithaca College plays twice a semester, Purdue University, Penn State University also play a great game. There’s also Dakota State University and Bowling Green State University…seriously, this game is played across the country! Check out this SUNY Geneseo article from the student newspaper, The Lamron, or the University of Missouri’s Maneater about previous Zombies versus Humans games!
PrincessFroglips/Jane Dominguez
Thanks to Facebook and Twitter – it’s easier than ever to find and discover a game! A University of Florida student set up a Gators Humans versus Zombies Facebook Page, there’s also the Zombie Defense Corp at the University of Central Florida and the University of Georgia Facebook Page. The University of Washington had over 550 people who confirmed their attendance to yesterday’s game via Facebook. Or you could get your zombie fill by checking out Gus on Twitter, a man trapped in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse (really, now we’ve seen everything!).
When all else fails – keep tabs on the bulletin board at your college for upcoming events. There might be a gaming or social club at your college of choice that is responsible for organizing large scale events – so be on the lookout and find out how you can get involved. Spring or Fall – colleges are playing and, thanks to social media, you might be able to find out easier than ever.
Have you played Zombies versus Humans? Do you know of other colleges or universities who play or are getting ready to begin a new game? Do you have any tips for new players? Share them in the comments section below!
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Tags: bowling green state university, college campus, college events, College Life, college of choice, colleges and facebook, dakota state university, facebook, gaming committee, goucher college, humans versus zombies, hvz, ithaca college, penn state university, purdue university, student newspaper, SUNY, Twitter, university of florida, university of missouri, zombies versus humans
Posted in Choosing a College, College Campus, College Life, Fun Stuff | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
lukeamotion/Luke Pickard
Colleges sometimes have really unusual college mascots – or, possibly even more unusual — no mascot at all! That’s the case with the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss retired Colonel Rebel, their controversial southern gentleman mascot, back in 2003 — and haven’t had one since!
But a mascot is in the future for Ole Miss students. Tuesday, February 23, 2010, University of Mississippi students voted online as to whether or not they wanted a voice in choosing the new mascot – or if they wanted to leave it in the hands of college officials. The result? UM students voted yes — well, 2,510 students voted yes with only 856 voting no.
Students selected to serve on the Student Mascot Advisory Committee will begin developing a new mascot, keeping the school colors (red and blue), and the name “Ole Miss Rebels” which only leaves the question – what (or who) should be the next University of Mississippi mascot?
Students, alumni, and the Twittersphere in general have been tweeting all sorts of hilarious mascot suggestions but the favorite by far is currently none other than Admiral Ackbar – yes, you read that right: the Admiral Ackbar of Star Wars fame! The Mon Calamari and his catch-phrase “it’s a trap” has been appearing everywhere: on his website, Facebook page, Twitter account, and is suddenly one of the high ranking search terms on Google!
What do you think? Will Lucas Arts permit Admiral Ackbar to become the new Old Miss Mascot or do you think that Ole Miss students should move on? Do you have a better idea? Share it in the comments section below!
Tags: bizarre mascots, college alumni, College Life, college mascots, colleges and facebook, Colleges and Social media, colleges and twitter, facebook, mascots, ole miss, Twitter, um, university of mississippi, unusual colleges
Posted in College Life, Fun Stuff | No Comments »
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
clintonjeff/Clinton Jeff
College life: the studying, the papers, the finals (eek!), make it tough to find the time to keep up with old friends (let alone new ones!) across the oh-so many social networks. Even before you ever get to college, those campus visits, financial aid forms, and college applications are enough to keep you busy!
Google Buzz, very recently unveiled by Google (we’re talking February 9, 2010), wants to be your one stop shop: upload your photos, videos, and your status all from one place. We’ve all got friends who use Facebook or MySpace but don’t Twitter, who favor Flickr over Photobucket – and vice versa. Instead of signing into all these separate social accounts Google Buzz aims to replace them all, so you have one place to keep track of everything – and that’s the big difference.
Instead of logging in to a bunch of different sites, you simply log in to your Gmail account, hit up Google Buzz, and tweet, upload, and comment away – after carefully setting privacy settings, of course. When a friend responds, instant update alerts are sent straight to your inbox, where all of your Gmail contacts have been automatically imported. You can spend less time finding “friends” and more time hitting the books! While many social networking sites connect: Facebook doesn’t.
You’ve probably seen your Facebook friends grumbling over recent layout changes, but — do you really think they’d ditch their FarmVille or Mafia Wars gaming apps for Google Buzz (especially with rumors of Facebook email in the future)? Facebook was made for college students by college students.
We’ve played around with it and, oh yeah — it’s fun! But, then again, new toys are always fun. We’ll see if it actually sticks. Google Buzz might have potential: it’s all in one place (even on the iPhone and Android) with a familiar layout (um, hello Facebook!). But, after the failure of Google Wave…we’ll just have to wait and see.
What do you think? Does Google Buzz have everything you need in order to keep in touch when you head off to college? Does it entice you to make the Gmail switch (if you haven’t already)?
Tags: campus visit, college campus visit, College Life, colleges and facebook, Colleges and Social media, colleges and twitter, farmville, google, google buzz, google wave, mafia wars, online identity, social media and higher education
Posted in College Life, Fun Stuff, Preparing for College, Technology | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Courtesy of Mari Sheibley
Colleges are evolving to keep up with current technology: they are using Facebook and Twitter, even YouTube, in an effort to keep your attention! The new kid on the block, Foursquare, has been picked up by the University of North Carolina Charlotte, Columbia University, and Harvard University as a fun new way to keep college students involved.
Foursquare is the latest social networking application. The twist? It’s location based. Foursquaresters gain points by checking in at their current location, discovering new places, sharing tips and then some, earning badges and maybe a shot at “mayor.” Mayors can receive sweet discounts at the participating places where they reign supreme.
How are colleges using this to their advantage? UNC Charlotte was the first university in the country to take advantage of Foursquare’s usability, offering promotions and dining info across campus. Columbia University offers a discount through the on-campus movie theater and Harvard University was the first to create a special badge just for frequent Harvard visitors.
Think about it: new students can easily find campus hot spots and potentially save a couple bucks as well (if they happen to be “mayor,” that is). Instantly see where your friends are – maybe cut down on the texting a bit? We’re only kidding.
Just the same, we’re excited by the awesome potential here for colleges and universities who use Foursquare. It could just be a match made in higher education heaven.
What do you think? Is Foursquare another social media fad or do you think it’s the next big thing?
Tags: college videos, colleges and facebook, colleges and twitter, colleges and youtube, colleges using foursquare, colleges using social media, Columbia University, foursquare, foursquare badges, Foursquare mayors, foursquare promotions, harvard badges, Harvard University, social media and higher education, social media trends, UNC Charlotte, University of North Carolina Charlotte
Posted in College Life, Fun Stuff | 3 Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Want a head start on getting comfortable and creating connections at college before you officially finish high school? Early decision acceptance students are on it! My College Guide already helped you get in touch with your favorite colleges and universities with our Twitter list — now how about getting connected with your classmates?
We’ve got 51 Colleges with Facebook Pages for the Class of 2014 on our handy list! Current students are sharing advice on everything from which dorm is the most spacious and favorite college courses to tips for getting around on campus and the best local hang-outs. Just remember to use common sense and play nice – college admissions are still watching you!
Did we forget someone? Add your Class of 2014 Facebook Page (or Facebook Group) to the comments section below!
Tags: class of 2014, class of 2014 facebook pages, college admissions, college guide, College Life, college myth, colleges and facebook, early decision, early decision admittance, social media
Posted in Choosing a College, College Life, Fun Stuff, Social Media | 14 Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Twitter, Facebook, really, the whole internet is buzzing with two words: early decision. Who got in, who didn’t get in, and who is still waiting to hear from their school of choice is all anyone can talk about – even our Admissions Guru has been bombarded with questions. Early decision confusion? That’s what we’re here for!
katrinalopez
You can only choose one school in which to apply for early decision because it is a binding contract (not to be confused with early action which is non-binding). Apply by the November early decision deadline (which can vary slightly between schools) to receive “the answer” somewhere between December and January.
Even if you don’t receive early decision acceptance, most colleges and universities will defer your application, giving you a chance to gain regular decision admittance. Simply put, this deferment means that, while you still have a shot at getting into that school, you are no longer bound by the early decision contract. You should definitely apply to multiple colleges, just know that you will have to withdraw the applications to those schools if you’re accepted early decision
When considering whether or not to send in an early decision college app for a particular school, try to imagine paying for that school without any financial help. If that thought makes you uncomfortable (or just downright nervous), you should check to make sure that your application is subject to your receiving the minimum amount of financial aid you’ll need. Otherwise, you might end up getting bound to attend that school regardless of the amount of financial aid offered!
Again, this is a binding contract. Colleges and universities mean business so read that contract carefully! If you do try to walk away, you will most likely be black-listed not only at that school, but at other schools as well, which can severely hamper your future plans. Also, if you then decide to attend a different school, that school might just revoke their acceptance of you if they find out that you broke your early decision contract. Colleges value personal integrity – do you really want to take a chance at severely damaging yours?
But, if you have done the campus visit, taken the college tour, have completely fallen in love with a particular school, and know that it’s your top pick, you might want to consider early decision. Why draw out the agony of waiting if you can receive your acceptance (or not) early?
ambrown
Better yet — Class of 2014 Facebook Pages are popping up daily so new students can get acquainted, network, and form friendships with one another before ever setting foot on campus (keep watch for our Class of 2014 Facebook list, coming soon!). That would go a long way in helping to calm first day jitters!
Early decision = fewer applicants. However, even with a smaller pool of college applications to wade through, the applicants tend to be pretty strong (we’re talking top of their class and super involved) so it doesn’t mean you’ll have a better chance of getting in. Early decision is a huge responsibility. It’s definitely not something to walk into blindly.
So, would you/have you/are you considering applying for early decision? Why or why not? Share you thoughts in the comments section below.
Tags: admission guru, admissions, admissions guru, class of 2014, class of 2014 facebook pages, college acceptance, college admission, college admission terms, college admissions, college guide, colleges and facebook, colleges and twitter, contracts, early action, early decision, facebook, Financial Aid, financial aid packages, financial aid policies, my college guide, social media, Twitter
Posted in College Admissions, College Applications | 4 Comments »
