Social Network Launches to Help Potential Cornell Students Make Acceptance Decisions
Cornell
University has created a private social network,
CUontheHill, to
help high school seniors who have been accepted for
admission make
the decision about whether to attend the Ithaca, NY school.
About 1,000 students who made the early decision to
attend
Cornell have had access to the site since December, along with current
students
and alumni, and the site has already had more than a quarter-million
page
views.
More than 5,200 other high school students who have
been
accepted but not yet made a decision now have access as well.
Others participating in CUontheHill include Cornell
alumni and
members of the International Student Admissions Ambassadors, Cornell
Ambassadors and CU IMAGE (Increasing Multicultural Admissions and Gains
in
Enrollment). Some of them are tweeting their recollections of their
decision-making
processes as they made the decision about whether to attend Cornell
after being
accepted.
"Basically, we are providing a virtual framework for
a
conversation about Cornell to occur between our students, our admitted
students
and our alumni,” said Cornell Undergraduate Admissions Director Shawn
Felton.
The network also allows the opportunity for
one-on-one and
group chats and messaging. Current students can also upload content
about the
school that can be shared, including photos.
In conjunction with Cornell Days, April 9-20, alumni
will be
encouraged to participate in CUontheHill and videos that will cover
topics admitted
students might be interested in will be available. Cornell Days includes
a
number of events to welcome incoming freshmen with about 1,500 students
expected,
including 400 from underrepresented minorities.
The CUontheHill component of Cornell Days, Felton
said, is an
attempt to include international students who may not have the ability
to
easily travel to the university to participate.
"They want to know what they are getting themselves
into should
they say yes," Felton said, "and we want them to leave with the best
idea, the
best sense, of what Cornell is like."
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.