There’s certainly nothing new about student blogs – there are millions of them floating in cyberspace. What separates these online journals from the rest of the pack is that they are university sponsored and featured prominently on a school’s admissions pages. These journals are photo heavy and focus on a few events every few weeks. But one has to ask – how real are these journals? And are they simply mouthpieces for the school?

“A kid who is going to see this diary is going to approach it with a healthy skepticism,” says Paul Marthers, dean of admissions at Reed College in Portland, Ore., who is still weighing the pros and cons of a school-sponsored online journal. Some of the difficulties, says Mr. Marthers, are choosing the right people to represent the school, deciding whether or not the diaries are a passing fad, and whether prospective students are going to assume freshmen were “coached” on what to write. —Lisa Leigh Connors —Diary of a college freshman: now accessible online (CS Monitor)

Thanks for the link, Mike.