Why this Article is God Awful

Connor Sullivan

This article was written in a way that demonizes College in general, without openly criticizing it. Menand goes on and on about facts and theories that are clearly biased one way, but does not himself take a stance. He starts off by making a humorous remark that; “At a certain appointed hour, the university decided to make its way in the world without me, and we parted company.” This is a decorated way of saying he got fired. Anyone can fluff up a statement and make it sound better. This reading may have touched on various disagreeable topics, and I have deliberated it to be of questionable quality. Translation: This article sucks. Right off the bat we know this “critique” is done by a fired professor, already giving it an uneven standing. I would trust this any more than I would trust Charlie Sheen with dating advice or Ann Coulter with…anything. He then goes on to lull the reader to sleep with fact A, Theory 1 and 2, and Professor X. One fact in particular that bothered me was “In 1962, students reported studying for an average of twenty- five hours a week; the average is now twelve to thirteen hours…In a University of California survey, students reported spending thirteen hours a week and forty-three hours socializing and perusing various forms of entertainment” He never fully says this is a bad thing, but the manner in which it is written says volumes. The problem I have with this is the way he values school work. This fact is meant to scare the reader but I think it should be celebrated. Of course being able to do the work is extremely important, but that is not what life is. College is about preparing you for the real world, but who says that means being glued to a desk? Life is about connecting with people, not being force-fed facts about useless garbage. This article would hold everyone to the same standard and expect the same from everybody. There isn’t a test (including his C.L.A.) that can be made to fit everyone’s strengths, so why judge everyone by one. Differences should be celebrated. Not condemned. If someone is bad at math they should try writing. If they are bad at writing, try history. A society that utilizes everyone’s strengths will be the strongest community possible.

Moles and Pandemics

I attempted to locate a book quote to open up my post on the internet, as I don't exactly have access to every book I have ever read stored in a secret compartment in my dorm room (yet). One site comes up not as advertised by google, but merely at the top of the results. I click and look at the site, which is pretty much a carbon copy of sparknotes, and not only do you need to pay for a membership, but multiple advertisements popped up, blocking my view of the computer screen.

This is sad. Very very sad. It doesn't, however, stop this from being true. Money doesn't make the world go 'round, but it sure helps out. And people will go to great lengths to get money. The incidents regarding the false college advertisements were definitely no mistake for this reason. Misleading the public like this for the sole purpose of earning more money pushes beyond self-love into selfishness, as it deprives people of information with deception. At the same time, an unfortunate truth exists where those with money tend to float above the law. Luckily, in this case, the money doesn't seem to be exempting the site from their lies, and they're mildly taking responsibility for their actions. If what they were doing were any more profitable, there are high chances that they may have tried to patch things up with money and tell all parties involved to forget what they had learned and what had happened.
At the same time, laws pertaining to the internet can be hard to enforce, even with extreme technological aid. One cannot be everywhere at once, scanning constantly for validity and content. This is part of the reason why these sorts of advertisements and their activities slip under the radar. For example, internet hacktivist organization Anonymous has leaked insane amounts of documents from multiple websites, politicians, and organizations (most of them for good causes, like against Qaddafi and the Westboro Baptist Church). Yet have any of them been caught yet? Perhaps, but the vast size of the organization and the anonymity of the realm of the web make the complete termination of the association an impossible feat. This, unfortunately, is the case with the dishonest and greedy on the internet. You can whack one mole, but five more will pop up in other little cracks of the web.
Yet can people really tell the difference, like the claims near the end of the article? Sure, we manage to scroll down to avoid the advertised links, but marketing is like a supervirus, constantly mutating to continue to infect the public. People must be starting to realize that advertised links to fool people don't work, hence my stumbling upon the sparknotes wannabe site (called bookrags, yeah, don't go there) for a quote to open up the post. At the same time, I can only hope our logical antibodies can learn how to spot these stealthier hidden ad-traps. The best we can do is try to adapt with the disease and legally strike as much down as possible.

Because of all-out human greed, I never was able to get the real quote that I wanted to use, so this won't be exact. I do recall vaguely a character named Julia stating that she "follows the little rules in order to break the big ones" in Orwell's famous novel, "1984".
Oh, how true it can be.

Can ads be trusted?

The Internet has created an easy and effective way for people to advertise products. Companies spend tremendous amounts of money marketing over the web. I would like to think that most of these ads are legitimate. However like any other opportunity to make money there are always people trying to “beat the system.” Unfortunately the people being taken advantage of are kids, only a year or two younger than I am. High scholars trying to figure out the best fit for them to spend the next four years.

This made me think, can you really trust the ads you see every time you navigate to a new site? This article makes me think not. Even the colleges can’t contain the false advertisement of their own schools. Don’t get me wrong I don’t expect them to be able too. The Internet is too big; it would be impossible to monitor each ad. On the other hand something needs to be done about this problem. Jerry Slavonia said, “I think the Department of Education has done a better job cleaning up search results than Google has.” Since the ads are posted on Google I think that needs to change. Google makes tons of money by companies advertising on their site. They have rules about advertisements but obviously need to do a better job enforcing them. If schools continue to see their advertisements being used to advertise other colleges they wont continue to post the ads. That would hurt Google, the companies advertising, as well as students. Searching for colleges on the Internet is a great way to learn about schools. Only if you’re getting what you search for. Kids need to be skeptical of the ads, and search engines they use when looking at colleges. This article is a great example how the Internet is very convenient but not always very accurate.

Google Ads and What Not

Im personally nowhere near surprised that google has false ads. Advertisement is all over the place and chances are that some things you read will be false information. I understand why people say that "It's disturbing" to get the wrong information with a college app because most kids are already freaking out enough about applying to college but at the same time its kind of expected that potential students should be aware enough to figure out what sites are real.

If people are applying, they should probably know how to tell whether or not the information they're looking at is legitimate. Although it is irresponsible of advertisers to say things that are false. If someone is looking for college, they ARE going to be stressed, and that shouldn't be taken advantage of, but what do we actually expect of people who make ads to receive money.

In society there are always faults. Ads being one of them, I wouldn't worry about it so much, there are more "surprising" things.

False ads + education = poor ethics

Advertisement is everywhere. Its on TV, on the radio, in the newspaper, set up on billboards and posters. All advertisement has the same purpose of luring a bystanders attention and gaining them as a potential customer. When I read the article about the “false ads” in college searches, it really made me ponder on the value of advertisement.

Where is the bottom line for ad agencies and advertising? Advertising is an aspect of marketing, who’s main objective is to promote a company’s image. However, where is the ethical and moral limit on such ads? Morgan Spurlock the creative spark behind “Supersize Me”, recently made a movie titled “The Greatest Movie Ever Made” The movie was about product placement and advertising. I can draw many connections between the text and the movie on multiple different levels. For example, he travels to a school in Florida that has a budget so low that they sell advertising spaces on their school buses and school TV. This stuck me in the same tone as the false advertising on behalf of the CollegeBound and CollegeSurfing. Its hard to fathom that colleges pay thousands of dollars on search engine ads to begin with, however when other companies fake these ads in order to steal attention and focus from their audience, its a little frightening. One would think that the institution of college would be one unaffected by moral fallacies such as inappropriate ads, however that seems entirely untrue. Unfortunately, I believe this all boils down to greed. Companies trying to squeeze that extra cent out of the consumers, to hook that one unexacting person into the program, hoodwink that one extra student onto your site. To me it all seems basically immoral and unethical. In a perfect world, I would love to have this practice expelled, however in reality, we all should just try to be more perceptive of practices like this around the world. It still is really sad that as consumers, we always have to be on high alert of a scam. Is no-one trustworthy anymore??

Faulty Ads

When reading this article I was both amazed and not surprised at all. I was astonished because it is crazy that people actually put so much time into scamming people. If that sort of thing happened to me when I was applying to college, I would probably decide to not go to that college and go to a different one instead. The people that put that much effort into tricking people are probably just going to end up digging themselves a bigger hole.

At the same time time this does not really surprise me because I feel like these people are more selfish and are only concerned about getting the college's name out there and they do not care how they do it. Google should really be covering their tracks a little better by cracking down on these websites that are advertising false information. Not just because it is the right thing to do but also because it reflects badly onto Google.

does this really surprise you?

After reading this article, I got into a discussion about it with a few friends. They were all genuinely surprised that scams like this exist. What bothered me, however, was that I wasn't surprised..not one bit.

People are inherently selfish, we've had endless discussions on this in class. People also love money--it's a huge fascination for many. Combine the two and you have a recipe for scams and get-rich-quick schemes.

The fact that this so prominently exists should disgust me..and to an extent it does, but it's too prominent. At this point it's pretty much interwoven into our society. We almost just have to accept it because there's no way it'll ever change.

I hate that it comes to that. I always try to be optimistic and stick to the belief that if there's something you see wrong going on you can change it, but that's not realistic. There's always going to be self-interested people taking advantage of whoever they can in any way that they can.

So the fact that scams like this exist sucks, but they're always going to be out there. At least as long as people are stupid enough to fall for them. 

Colleges+Google+Ads= Gullibility

I find this issue relatively unimportant, the fact of the matter is if you are trust some random website to send your information without checking the credentials of said website, the blame is also very much on you. Another thought that comes to mind... why wouldn't you just find the actual website for the college and send you shit in that way. To me it seems this is mostly a problem for the lazy. I mean I'm one of the laziest people I know and I wouldn't even go about finding a college in such a way, it just doesn't make much sense to me... I would send my information in the mail before I went to a 3rd party website to apply to a specific college.

But maybe I'm missing the point. While I do believe that the individual is partially responsible for "falling" for this scheme, I also believe the people who created these sites are pretty much scum. The fact that the way they choose to make money is by fooling unsuspecting high school graduates into believing they're sending they're four years of scholastic labor to the school of their dreams essentially, but are redirecting them however to schools that pay them to do so is completely ridiculous. These people aren't any better than paparazzi, both make their money by exploiting those who are most vulnerable to exploitation. Those who apply for colleges are basically throwing in all their cards for the mere chance to be accepted to these educational juggernauts known as colleges. It's incredibly daunting, and the fact that people use this opportunity to fool them into giving their hand to someone they had not intended on is quite distasteful.

This article also brings up the point that the colleges basically pay these sites to do this, and for that I would have to say the colleges are the worst offenders of them all. If you need to trick people into applying to your college, to me that reflects terribly on them. What student would be happy going to a college they had never intended on going just because some assholes forwarded their application to a completely different school? Colleges that do this must be really self conscious or completely corrupt.

Nevertheless, if there is anything this should teach you it's that you can't trust everything, especially if it's on the internet... even more so on google. Do your homework before you trust some random website with your future and realize there are people out there who will do anything for money.

Colleges Fight Google Ads

Ads are everywhere.  Anywhere we look we see an advertisement for something, but when it comes to the Internet, it is upgraded ten fold.  Within five minutes a surfer can be bombarded with thousands of different ads having to do with anything from colleges to Burger King.  With all the confusion, how can any normal person be expected to filter through the fake ones to find the “real” ones?  In this article, Mark J. Rosenberg points out that, “With the internet, people are lazy, and if they get to the wrong web site, and it’s good enough, they don’t leave.”  I know that for me this is absolutely true, and I’m willing to bet that most other people are the same way, especially when I’m not specifically sure about what I’m searching for (like a prospective college search).

The sometimes grueling, and usually frustrating, task of searching for the right college is only made more difficult by the faults mentioned in this article.  College’s pay to put their ads on search engines with the certainty that it will bring them back business in the form of potential students.  The problem comes in when these college ads mislead students to thinking they are sending their information to one school, when in fact it could be going to multiple, unrelated schools.

Of course, especially for bigger schools it is hard to monitor the Internet to verify that anything with their name on it is legitimate.  The article argues that it is mostly the fault of the search engines themselves for not being more careful with their investor’s information.  I agree that the blame should be put on companies like CollegeBound and Vantage, but I believe that The Education Marketing Council and the Department of Education could play a bigger role in fixing these problems by better enforcing the rules that already exist, or by making newer rules with little wiggle room.  I think that certain search engines that have been problematic in the past should be avoided by colleges looking to advertise themselves, and that if all of these factions were able to communicate more clearly and truthfully about their intentions with each other, there would be fewer problematic instances. 

Prospective Tech-no game- Fresh

Prospective Tech-no game!

I can honestly recall a time when I had to do my own college research, all of the ups and downs included. All of these Google ads are so misleading, say I would Google a small college then I click on what school I like and it would just instantly send me straight to an Ivy League school, or a big university’s web site. That’s where the fraudulence comes into play, the falseness of advertising. Personally I feel as though you cannot trust the internet anymore now and days. As a current college student I am majoring in Legal studies and I just recently did a court case involving the four “traditional” invasions of privacy torts and the common law. Say u go onto a website that may have you fill out your name, address, telephone number, likes dislikes in what college u wish to go to and what major you are interested in…once you press that SUBMIT button it gets hacked by other college advertising companies, that when u expect a list of colleges you asked for to come in the mail, u get the total opposite.

Let not just focus on the false College advertising for a minute, not only does colleges and their search engines mislead you, you also get other ads daily on the internet , like this morning I wanted to play a game online and a “you won a prize of an xbox360!” popped up. Silly of me I click on it. Every ad u see can have a downfall somewhat, that’s why you have to wear a safe guard every time you are online, and if you click on the wrong thing u may get a virus.

Thanking God above I did not get too much screwed over on my college research, my high school actually had a college placement center for all juniors and seniors. That’s how I was introduced to the greatest school ever. Some schools do not do enough advertising to prove their greatness or put their college on the storefront window. I actually like that I never came across Champlain College in my research. If it was not for my high schools college placement I would have been a lost soul going to a college that I barely knew, but it seemed as though I was really wanted because they sent me a lot of mail weekly. I am happy, because I wore my safe guard researching.

Beware, Some Are Just In It For The Money

The article, "Colleges Fight Google Ads That Reroute Prospective Students", from The Chronicle for Higher Education, gives us a clear picture of all the college scam ad's that are out on the internet. I know that i have experienced this first hand.

When i started searching for colleges in my junior year, i had no idea what i was looking for. I had no idea where i thought i wanted to go to further my education after college. So i started with search engines. I can clearly remember going to one site and quickly jumping to others from that one. And then soon after receiving emails, letters and phone calls (which now, even in college I still receive) from random colleges that i had never seen or heard of. Some of them being for-profit like mentioned in the article. What I find most interesting however, is that so many colleges, when told their trademarks and names were being used to draw people to other college search sites, they had no idea.

I feel that most colleges, being places of intellect and higher education, trying to attract more students to their schools, would be on top of that type of situation. I do know however, that it is hard to track everything that is being put on the internet and that anywhere at any time someone could be using you’re or in this case, certain college’s information for their own benefit. But still, colleges that truly care about attracting students and keeping people interested in their school should know how their name is being used, where and when. It isn’t just the searcher’s responsibility to notice when they’re being scammed, it’s also the places they think they are actually inquiring about.

Which brings me to my final point; people need to be more aware. They need to do research themselves in these matters. There are plenty of legitimate sites out there to help prospective students looking to further their education. The warnings are out there, between this article, this blog, information given to you in school and etcetera. People just need to keep their eyes open and their minds aware that not all sites are there to really help you that they are just in it for the money.

google ads and more

we have all seen these traps and some of us have even fallen into them. a harmless looking site asks for our information to then give it to an organization that we are trying to connect with. i personally saw these sites when i was trying to get in contact with an international school. I never gave them my information, and i also never thought about the damage that giving them my information could cause. while i surf the web with out a care i have never stopped to think about where my information is going when i give it to a site. although the example that is given in the article is annoying for colleges and prospective students it is, in comparison to what they could do with the information, harmless. what concerns me more is that the site in question could of just as easily sold the information to people trying to steal identities. while on the internet it is hard to remember that although sites may seem trust-able and like they want to help but you don't know the people who set them up or what they plan to do with the info they are given. it may end up being something like just selling it to another college or (what i personaly more concerned about) they could just as easily sell it to a random person who would then know: who i am and where i live.

Greed vs. Competent behavior

Money makes the world go round.

For those who have it know its power to influence those without it, allowing other domains to be corrupted. That’s where Google Ads plays in part; enabling corporations and institutions to increase their profits margins. Colleges play the same game, where their equation is more students means more money. So to play the middleman websites such as CollegeBound focus on what I like to call the “green standard.” While prospective college students are suffering from malicious assaults against false advertising, corporations profit.

While it’s simple to say that lazy people are allowing themselves to be manipulated, perhaps this process is beneficial. Natural selection through an intellectual process. But for competent individuals navigation of the college websites is second hand. So while Google is supplementing false advertising, it is additionally creating an environment that promotes competent individuals.

So is Google hindering the availability of higher education or promoting the development of competent behavior?

google ads

False advertisements stream the web and the media with regularity in today’s society, and it causes disruption to the production of businesses all over. This article argues that misleading advertisements created by websites like Education Start and College Bound interfere with students search for college admissions, and damage other schools potential to gain applicants. I however, feel very little damage is being done. No one this day in age is dumb enough to “accidently” submit an application to a for profit college that they didn’t intentionally seek out. Due to the cost that accompanies the admissions, the process of searching for a college is a task that requires a great amount of attention and precision. For this reason I don’t believe anyone in their right mind would neglect to recognize a link set up by College Bound or Education Start as faulty. A good majority of us know enough to redirect the search for admissions to the college that was initially requested. So how much damage is really being done? It is a super sneaky and undeniably annoying game that websites like College Bound and Education Start play, but I don’t find it worthy of such a fuss. Because regardless of the issue’s popularity amongst the affected businesses, students, and bloggers like you, it’s nowhere near worthy of the expense of tracking down every false advertisement to be eliminated.

Google Ads Suck!

That’s just it, the title says it all… GOOGLE ADS SUCK!

I agree with the article in so many ways. I get hit with Google ads all the time, not just college ads but also other ads that can leave viruses on your computer. Trust me when I was in middle school I use to click them all the time… not anymore, I swear I broke or slowed down at least two computers just by clicking the ads and getting a virus.

In all seriousness I find that a misleading ad is terrible for the business that it is suppose to be advertising for. The ads that advertise for one college but then lead you to another college are almost like a scheme.  It is ingenious in a way to draw people to another university.  However it is detrimental because the university or college that the original ad was made for.

GOOGLE ADS SUCK! They are the most annoying, in my opinion, things on the internet besides social media, please don’t get me started on that, Google should sensor their ads so that only the ads that are legit and are supporting the business that it says it is supporting.

I cannot help but think that some of the reason why people are miss leaded is because they don’t go to trusted sites such as College Board or Princeton Review. I feel like people should have more common sense to check the website before they check yes. When I was applying for colleges I went to the website and specifically make sure that they are on a legitimate and actually are for the college that they want.


by Sarah Plisinski

Scumbags

To be completely honest, I wasn't at all surprised with this article. The level of greed for attention is growing higher on the internet because of easily manipulating people behind the screen, and colleges definitely aren't the only ones doing this. Clothing companies, phone services, food companies and a broad assortment of other businesses are all taking advantage of advertising online. I'm surprised someone hasn't put a limit on it.

The sad part is, agreeing with what Josh Keller says in the last paragraph, there will always be lazy people on the internet who believe anything they see. Greedy marketers and advertisers are always lurking around the internet pulling these people into their little website traps.

Misleading Google Ads

It was an pretty interesting article and at the same time I learned
a lot from this article. In fact I have found these fake or legit ads
on Google very annoying. I hate it the most when I usually browse the
internet and i see these ads popping up and giving me information
about colleges, clothes, cars, or even houses. it's very annoying and
they should some how put a stop into theses misleading ads.
Furthermore it's sad to see a lot internet users click on these ads and
see what happens. At times these kinds of ads could have harmful Viruses or Trojans
which can be a lot harmful and your PC or laptop could end up in a
computer repair. I have never ever clicked on these kinds of fake ads
and will never. Internet users should be more wiser and smarter
because if they are not they will misleaded by these ads and could end
up with a virus in their computer.

www.giveusyourmoney.haha

When reflecting on the bamboozling labyrinth of American higher education, the film The Shining emerges as a grimly apt analogy. Sure!" says thee, the naive, wide-eyed young spud, "I'd love to stay in your picturesque mountain ski resort (college)!" Before you can say "alpha cum laude" ten times fast, you are being herded around a frozen maze of un-centralized information, predatory recruiting practices and apocryphal sources of guidance on the topic. 

Researching colleges on the internet can be, to those more accustomed with wading in the kiddie pools of the internet, a tangled thicket of confusion. Where does one begin? What information is reliable? How long do I have? Are colleges in New Mexico really made of adobe and staffed by hemp flip-flop wearing new agers?

Questions of such capital importance should, without doubt, be directed to the most credible, reliable and trusted source available. For 90% of prospective students, what is that source? 

The internet. The same place where you can find *&@*#$ and people doing *$%#**. Hmmm..

On the vast plains of the internet, questions of ethical business practices are frequent. Regarding the matter at hand, is Google to blame? Should the heavy hand of government swiftly cut down the offenders? Is that even possible?

Legally, the internet has an element of Wild West economic melee. In such a realm, accountability can be slippery. To hold Google responsible for the misleading ads smacks of singling out a corporate scapegoat. The offenders are too numerous, and Google is a for-profit organization. I can say reasonably comfortably that Google has more interest in making money than ensuring the equity and egalitarianism of the internet. Still, the practice of hoodwinking students into releasing their personal information cannot continue. Furthermore, colleges and institutions empirically implicated in such a scheme should be held accountable. But, to what end, and how?

Yes, it is unethical.

Yes, it is dastardly and low.

Yes, it is somewhat capricious and should be punished.

Yet, the F.C.E.E.C. (Federal Commission of Ethical Electronic Commerce) pronounced (fuh-keek), does not exist.

The measures and consequences exacted so far are lip service to the disgruntled and slighted internet using population. This is, essentially, criminal behavior that can be prevented. The only action that must be taken is this.

Take a delicious Internet Freedom Crisp from the cupboard, break off a piece, and feed it to that ravenous dog in the kitchen….the government…. (thunder and lightning).

False Advertising

I had one question while reading the article it was, “How do people actually fall for these ads?” I understand how you will get linked to the various websites, but for the most part the people online have been using computers for years. Shouldn’t these people also be able to scout out the credible from non-credible websites? As the end of the article says it’s the lazy people that don’t do the research that fall for these fake websites. That isn’t to say that people who are doing research won’t fall for them though.

What I found most disturbing about this article is the part about how the Department of Education made limits to which circumstances colleges are able to buy information about prospective students. I want to know which circumstances these are. I know I got a lot of mail and emails from colleges I’ve never heard of, Champlain being one of them. Although, I did ultimately pick Champlain it does make me feel a little uneasy that my information can be so easily handed out without my knowledge.

I also got a little confused when the article talked about $25 per lead. Do they mean that students pay the money or the colleges? Regardless of who pays though, I don’t understand why anyone would pay? Students should know better than to pay for anything aside from the application if there is a fee for that. Colleges would be better off using this money to sustain the school.

I do get where UCLA is coming from though. The school doesn’t want this false advertising to ruin the reputation of the school. Although, I highly doubt that will happen since UCLA is one of California’s elite UCs. Except going back to my original argument students should be able to distinguish between what the real UCLA website looks like and whatever link appears when you google something. I feel like all parties could ease this situation. Students should become more aware of what they’re looking up, these websites should stop trying to confuse students, and colleges should be more aware of what’s happening online. There is no easy solution to this because the internet is so vast and quickly moving.