College students use blogs to unite,promote

Dozens of colleges — including Amherst,Bates,Carleton,Colby,Vassar,Wellesley and Yale — are embracing student blogs on their websites,seeing them as a powerful marketing tool for high school students,who are less interested in official messages and statistics than in first-hand narratives and direct interaction with current students.

MIT’s bloggers,who are paid $10 an hour for up to four hours a week,offer thoughts on anything that might interest a prospective student. Some offer advice on the application process and the institute’s intense workload; others write about quirkier topics,like warm apple pie topped with bacon and hot caramel sauce or trying to set a world record in the game of Mattress Dominos.

Not every admissions office has been so ready to welcome uncensored student writing.

“A lot of people in admissions have not been eager for bloggers,mostly based on fears that we can’t control what people are saying,” said Jess Lord,dean of admissions at Haverford College,which plans to add bloggers this spring to help admitted students hear about campus life. “We’re learning,slowly,that this is how the world works,especially for high school students.”

“Blogs can certainly help humanise the process,” said Art Rodriguez,senior associate dean of admissions at MIT.