Speed-selecting a college

"We want them to service themselves as much as they would like," Mr. Head says. "Eighteen-year-olds are accustomed to this. If we don't provide it, they will search for a college that does. They expect it of us."

Even websites that appear slick to faculty and administrators aren't necessarily appealing to an Internet-savvy generation that grew up using personal computers, surfing the Web, and visiting sophisticated commercial sites with interactive features.

Jess, who attends Marietta High School in Marietta, Ga., is preparing his application to submit online. So any school that doesn't accept online applications won't get one from him. More schools offer this feature. But Jess notes he would also like to check his application status online, a feature most schools still do not offer.

Lush photos and bland descriptions just make him yawn. What he yearns for is solid interactive content that is specific to his needs: pre-law and political science. If a website is disorganized or text-laden, or offers no way to apply online or take a virtual tour, he may click away and never return.

"Some websites had a lot of information so general it was a waste of my time," Maddox says. "They would say, 'We enroll the best students around and offer a diverse campus.' Cliché comments like that are a turn-off. It's more helpful when they offer specific[s]."

That's why people like Gary Guyton are in business. As president of LiquidMatrix, a higher-education website developer, he knows only too well that he has just a few seconds to connect. So he strives to make a personal, if virtual, connection.

"My mission is to try to engage and endear these students" to the college though its website, he says. "Students want to determine, 'Will I fit?' Our software will spotlight students at the college from the student's own hometown and with the same interests."

For Cal State Chico, Mr. Guyton's company this spring installed sophisticated software that personalizes the website to the individual visitor to make the visit a one-on-one connection. A visitor to the admissions part of the site is first invited to "personalize your experience." It doesn't take much: a few tidbits such as a name, e-mail address, and one or two extracurricular activities, for starters.

From then on, the website recognizes the visitor and offers information and contacts geared to his or her interests. Masquerading as a prospective student, a Monitor reporter put in his name and e-mail address. He listed English and art history as prospective majors and volleyball as a possible extracurricular. The results were fairly dramatic.

Right away the site goes to a firstname basis with "Welcome, Mark!" But it doesn't end there.

Student profiles pop up. First on the list is a woman who has a minor in art history. Then come short articles detailing the exploits of the volleyball team - as well as an award won by the student newspaper that might interest a future journalist majoring in English.

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