Student surveys improve campus

Long gone is the time when potential students had to write individual colleges and universities in order to receive information about the school. This process for gathering literature about the school, the community and campus life would take weeks and even months only to receive generalized information controlled by the school.

Enter the World Wide Web and the Information Super Highway through which that information can be obtained in a matter of seconds and just as fast is the ability to view student feedback.

One such website is College Prowler, a type of search engine for students looking for potential colleges.

"It gives students a chance to read reviews from other students," said Ricardo Rosales, a Chemical Engineering major.

Rosales said there were no reviews about Del Mar College on the website, so he was asked by College Prowler to obtain information by inviting students to participate in a survey about the school.

"The survey is pretty broad. They ask a bunch of different things," said Rosales. "We've been getting pretty good input."

The questions pertain to student and campus life, professor-to-student ratios, transfer credits, online courses and student organizations and other topics. From the information gathered, a database on College Prowler will be used to provide reviews and ratings for other students interested in DMC. All feedback is provided by students.

"The response has been mostly positive," said Rosales, "although, there have been a couple of remarks about not knowing what's happening on campus such as student events, or the cafeteria being a little too small or the registration process being a little difficult."

Rosales said, "On the other hand, all the respondents were satisfied with the professors and the way the campus is kept up."

The deadline to fill the survey is September 29 so that Rosales can write his review for College Prowler. The data collected from the survey will also include statistical information that Rosales collected from DMC administrators about enrollment and the makeup of students enrolled at the college. Once he puts it all together, he will submit it for publication on the website.

"With my input and with the student surveys, College Prowler will be able to help other students who may be looking for a change," Rosales said. "Maybe somebody in Dallas is looking for something closer to the beach and a good accredited school at the same time; they can find that on the website."

Rosales said no personal information will be sold to third party websites and no spam will be sent to any participants' e-mail.

"The only information you receive is only what you request information on," Rosales said.

Anyone interested in participating can do so by going to collegeprowler.com/survey. All participants are automatically entered for a chance to win a $1000 scholarship.