One student video I watched was a walk down the main street of the college town. Others are reflections on the school's reputation, or on why the student chose one school over another. Another was about a student's biggest freshman-year mistake (he took Classical Mythology, found it boring, didn't do the work and flunked the course.)

I stumbled on a rap video submitted by a student from Clarkson University, which doesn't yet have a review on Unigo, in which the rapper comments on the alumni, the architecture and the weather at the Potsdam, New York, school.

Unigo also contains articles on general topics, such as how to decide what size of college is best for you, and how to get the most out of a college tour.

While the editors ban personal attacks and nudity, they don't bar negative comments. Unigo deliberately seeks out pro and con opinions. Many of the student submissions are enthusiastically positive, but plenty are negative comments on campus social life, the costs, the food, the faculty, the dorms and other topics.

The site feels surprisingly full for such a young venture, but it has some quirks and issues. Coverage is uneven. For instance, Vassar College in New York boasts 117 reviews and 42 videos, while the much larger University of Kansas has only 45 reviews and three videos. Finding the detailed search feature can be clumsy, because it's not obvious on the home page. You can't generate a quick comparison among colleges, and the site lacks any parent-oriented sections, although parents are free to use it.

Finally, there are just loads of colleges that aren't yet included. The first 250 schools were 'seeded,' with months of research and solicitation of student content. Unigo is confident it can get more schools, but only time will tell.

Still, Unigo is a good example of how user-generated content can do a lot to enhance an important topic, and still keep editorial standards.

选择大学时可以对学校进行多种形式的考察，比如探访校园、研究各个学校的网站。不过多年来，众多高中学生和家长只有购买那种大厚本且价格高昂的大学指南，才能同时获取各个大学的综合资讯。奇怪的是，这类指南根本没有网上版本。

不过，现在终于出现了一个免费网站，由全职编辑负责管理，内容由在校大学生提供，真实反映了当下的大学生活。网站提供的资讯不仅仅是文字和数位，而且还有多数学校的大量相片和视频录影，对同一所学校感兴趣或者有其他共同点的人，还可以在网站上建立起小小的社交网路。

也就是说，这是一个YouTube和 Facebook时代的大学资讯网站。

该网站的网址是Unigo.com（Unigo意为“上大学”），其运营费用均来自广告，上网无需任何花费。虽然创立的时间只有短短几个月，却已经涵盖了250所学院和大学，平均每所学校都有几十篇学生创作的评论、照片及视频。借助网站先进的搜索引擎，报考大学的人士可以仔细搜索所有这些材料，找到自己合用的东西。比如，你可以查到有关一位持保守政治观点的亚裔美籍女考生的所有内容。

最近我一直在试用这个网站，感觉很不错。根据我看到的那些学校介绍，我觉得该网站既保留了学生上传内容那种直白坦率的特色，又有足够的专业素质来剔除那些太过偏颇或不准确的言论，在二者之间取得了很好的平衡。

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