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.
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