Jordan Goldman, a 23-year-old from Staten Island, New York, talked his way into the wallet of a Park Avenue businessman over eggs one morning and is now on his way to taking a chunk out of the published college guides. Goldman's brainchild, www.unigo.com, was recently launched to give prospective American university students and their families a chance to read real college reviews free online as an alternative to the traditional college guides that have been the only source of information on US universities until now.

He said there were 15 million potential students and 35 million family members involved each year in choosing a college they hoped to attend yet very little information was available in the lucrative but outdated student guidebook system.

"This is an investment of between $50,000 and $250,000 and people are getting a couple of pages in a guidebook to base their decision on," Goldman said.

Unigo is a student-focused guide and networking site that represents a sample of all students in colleges across the US. All class years, faculties, races, sexual orientation and political persuasion are covered. A Chinese-American, female soccer-playing English major at Brown University is likely to find someone like her in the guide who can offer advice on her experience at that university, Goldman told University World News.

Paid students spent about six months researching the colleges before the guide was launched. There are currently more than 35,000 entries on unigo.com and they are made in survey style texts, free-flowing commentary, photos and videos.

Students now volunteer information and also use the site as a platform - which could make the site's content mushroom. "If the students have a problem, instead of staging demonstrations to administration they can submit their issues on the site for it to gather momentum that way," Goldman said.

Currently, unigo.com is supported by advertising and sponsorships that are "non-intrusive" for students - he prefers companies that will give back to students via contests or scholarships. The next six months could see the site go global with non-American universities being added, possibly starting with Canada.

monica.dobie@uw-news.com


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