CommenTATE

The class of 2011 is looking outstanding.

It includes a College freshman who blogs under the alias The Frosh Prince on Making It Count’s Year One: A College Blog, owned by Monster.com. That’s hot.

I ran into him because I chill in different common rooms during the evenings at Hill College House. I talk about random topics. I hear crazy stuff. I’m curious about what kind of stuff people do - who knows, maybe I’ll run into someone working on the next Facebook. Last week in a common room, I mentioned blogging. This freshman claimed he also blogged. I lucked out because I wouldn’t have known otherwise: The Frosh Prince must anonymously blog his freshman year due to legal issues with Monster.

Let’s see if he can stack up to some of his competitors. Universities across the nation have recruited students to blog their college years. Johns Hopkins. Cornell. Dartmouth. MIT.

Right now, Penn doesn’t sponsor students to officially blog on their college life. But, wew should follow suit. Prospective students love these blogs — Johns Hopkins declares student blogs “helped the university boost applications by 31 percent over two years.” A fast paced blog from the “Social Ivy” would reveal a freshman’s thrill of attending this academic super power while immersed in the streets of Philadelphia, where it seems every other car is blasting Soulja Boy.

We need to harness this new communication technique. Penn could receive more than just a rise in applications. The blogs would be a booster engine to rising Penn’s name recognition. Unlike Cornell and Dartmouth, we’ve got more than just classes or clubs.

CommenTATE appears every Monday and Friday.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 1:36 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.