October 02, 2000|By Lisa Guernsey | Lisa Guernsey,NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Thomas Lipsmeyer, a high-school senior with a talent for the tenor sax, plays in every instrumental ensemble in his school and practices nearly five hours a day. So when he decided that he wanted to go to a college with a strong music program, he applied the same discipline to the college-search process.
He logged on to the Internet, searched online databases for colleges with music majors and came up with 30 that seemed to match his criteria. He visited their Web sites, scanning for photos or news stories that would show devotion to the subject he loved. He pored over online statistics of placement rates, data that told him how often a college's graduates found jobs.
After months of research, he narrowed his choices to three, including two colleges he had never heard of when he started.
"I don't think I could have done it without the Web," said Lipsmeyer, who attends Parkersburg South High School in West Virginia. "I probably would have selected West Virginia University and just gone there. I wouldn't have heard anything about other colleges because they were out of state."
But not everything about the process worked to his liking. As he did his online research, some sites asked him to fill out registration forms and disclose his e-mail and home addresses.
"Ever since I did that," he said, sounding annoyed, "I've been getting an awful lot of mail about opportunities to join the Army, Navy and Air Force." Was this something he was interested in? "No," he said without hesitation.
College-bound students across the country are experiencing the same mix of euphoria and frustration. Many rave about how the Web is making the search for a college easier than ever.
No longer do students have to sit in a library flipping through college guidebooks (most of which are in the reference section and cannot be checked out). No longer are they dependent on their parents and guidance counselors to point them to a particular university.
Using online software, students looking for a college can enter preferences such as location, cost or size, and they can instantly receive lists of colleges tailored to their criteria. Of the several Web sites that offer search software - Including Embark.com, Collegeboard.com and CollegeQuest.com - many enable students to conduct side-by-side comparisons, store the information in personalized online lockers and click on a few buttons to send e-mail requests for information.
On their Web sites, colleges often provide an in-depth look at academic departments and student clubs. Many offer e-mail chats with professors and students. College newspapers maintain Web sites with archives of stories about life on campus. Articles, rankings and virtual tours abound - and all are free.
"The power has shifted to the student when it comes to research," said Phil Dunkelberger, chief executive and president of Embark.com.
But in coursing through the online terrain, students are also finding its pitfalls. In many cases, the Web sites are free because they are supported by advertising and e-commerce partners.
And if free Web sites do not display much advertising, they make money another way: They collect contact information by using registration forms and then sell the students' addresses to colleges and sometimes to commercial entities such as banks, long-distance companies and textbook shops.
In most cases, the registration forms allow students to opt out of such marketing, but to do so, a student must erase a check mark next to a statement like "Yes. Please pass my name to companies that can provide me with information that can help." In many cases, students do not realize that by leaving those boxes checked, they may be opening the floodgates of print or e-mail advertising.
CollegeQuest.com, a site run by Peterson's, a large educational publishing company, says it may disclose a student's contact information to "carefully selected partners" unless the student declines. CollegeLink.com, a site that offers search services and electronic college applications, does the same.
Offline, the same "opt out" marketing technique is used by the College Board; anyone who registers for the SAT is also signing up to receive marketing from colleges. Officials at the College Board stress, however, that they do not give or sell those students' names to commercial enterprises.
With the outpouring of college information comes another problem: the outpouring of college information.
Unless students search using specifics, online software programs will list hundreds of matches. Several guidance counselors said they are finding themselves in more demand, not less, as students and parents ask about colleges they had never heard of before they saw them online.
Just as the Web has made medical patients both more informed and more confused about health-care options, some high-school guidance counselors say it has done the same for students and parents.
