My mailbox overflows with thick envelopes and slick brochures. The vibrant color schemes, posed pictures of smiling students, faculty biographies, and positive quotes (about the student life, academics, campus, even the food) provides interesting, though biased, information. Each one details the best features of their respective colleges. In doing this, these college view books often exclude practical, not-so-ideal details: How is everything as perfect as these view books present it to be? How is it possible to get the real picture?

When I began my college search a couple years ago, the first answer that popped into my mind was to visit the colleges I was interested in. And I did visit two prospective colleges, and the city of several colleges in which I was interested in. Yet I wanted more information. College visits are valuable tools, yet they do not always provide the full picture either. The visits were short; and even though I saw students moving into dorms, I felt only one day was not enough to get all the information I wanted about where I would spend the next four years of my life. I also felt I did not have enough time to absorb the onslaught of information garnered from a college visit; I needed time to ponder and reflect.

For this, I checked out college-sponsored websites. College view books present these web addresses in bold print, so they're not easy to miss. I found a mass of information on these sites, including current event listings and the academic schedule, plus course descriptions and virtual guided picture tours of campuses. These provided much of the same information I would have gathered from a campus tour and by talking with students and faculty. In the comfort of my own room, however, I had time to carefully read the material, think about, and weigh it.

But my search was not done. I still wanted more information about the day-to-day, middle-of-the-school year, end-of-semester-crunch-time atmosphere. What do the faculty and students think about their college when they are not trying to influence a prospective student, standing in front of them with hopeful eyes, to apply to their alma mater? What do campus visits fail to reveal and college websites fail to mention?

For this, I turned to websites not affiliated with my prospective colleges. Now let me begin with a caveat: the internet can be useful, but it also can be misleading. I needed to check sites' credibility, and always take reviews of colleges with a grain of salt. Some are well written and informative; others are disrespectful and bizarre. It was important to consider the purpose of the websites and the reviews and statistics contained on them. Are they objective? Or are they trying to influence me in a certain way?

Two helpful sites designed for high school students are collegeconfidential.com and campusdirt.com. On these sites, current students post their reviews of professors, the student life, academics, the campus, and numerous other topics. Now I could find out if the cafeteria food really was as grand as the view books said! I could also find out about lesser-known university quirks, like that little cafe down the street, a perfect student hangout, or where the best place to buy discount tickets to concerts and theatre.

Forums were another great tool in my college search. The topics are endless. I have posted many questions to prospective students relating to my admission application, financial aid forms, etc. Now, as I await my early decision notification from my first-choice college, I still browse websites to rejoice and commiserate with other students, sharing our hopes and qualms. (By the way, many official college websites also have student forums; these are also great sources of information when I have a specific question to ask the board manager, who is a credible advisor.)

All the sources I've mentioned above are useful tools. In the crunch of college application time, losing sight of the true reasons why I wanted to attend a certain college was easy. To maintain my focus and motivation, the internet was indispensable, keeping me informed, updated, and confident in my decisions.

Nonetheless, only I could make the choice of what colleges fit me best. I knew that was my responsibility. Researching over the internet provided a great pile of useful information; and in the end, I felt confident that I could make an informed decision about the next four years of my life. Gaining this knowledge and confidence may take a bit of discipline, some patience, and a lot of digging, but the pay-offs will (I hope) be enormous.