The Evils of False College Advertisement

Everyone, at some point in their life, had to go through the arduous process of finding the right college to go to. Unfortunately, there are people in the world who take advantage of this opportunity and mislead prospective students. These “for-profit” organizations, like the CollegeBound Network, intentionally create false advertisements using Google and other search-engine websites to redirect prospective students to the sites the organizations want them to see. As a result, some students are tricked into applying to the wrong school.

In my opinion, CollegeBound Network and other organizations like this are despicable. It really is amazing to see what some people will do just to make a quick dollar; falsifying ads for schools just to make $25 from their clients. Which leads to the more despicable act: there are colleges that allow, and even PAY, for these false leads. What’s even worse is that there are schools like the University of Arkansas that have inadvertently fallen prey to these ads, and are potentially losing student applications because of this.

There needs to be a secure and efficient way for schools search-engines to monitor their ads to make sure that they do not get redirected to a “for-profit” college. Maybe have teams of computer techs analyze each college ad and the destination for the links to see whether they go to the right college or not. Maybe find a way to shut down the servers of the “for-profit” websites so that prospective students cannot travel there. It doesn’t matter what is done, just something needs to be done to protect the students and colleges.

However, one interesting point is brought up at the very end of the article. Mark Rosenberg quips, “With the Internet, people are lazy, and if they get to the wrong Web site, and it’s good enough, they don’t leave.” Unfortunately, these kinds of students are only sustaining the web sites with their laziness and stupidity. As a result, they are ruining it for the students that actually care about their college education.

Overall, I believe that false college advertisements are ruining the college experience for every student, whether they care or not. Something needs to be done to stop web sites and organizations like CollegeBound Network from operating. Otherwise, even more students will become victims of this growing epidemic.