Project helps high school students view college life

High school students interested in attending Sacramento State can now get a virtual snapshot of campus life from their home computer.

Sacramento State’s offices of Public Affairs and Student Affairs recently produced nine short, YouTube-style videos that address common questions high school juniors and seniors tend to ask about the college experience.

The videos are part of a larger project called the Voluntary System of Accountability. The project, established by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), is designed to help prospective college students and their families compare public universities.

“The national project, to a large extent, emerged as a response to calls for increased accountability regarding the characteristics of institutions and students, the cost of attendance, student engagement with the learning process and core educational outcomes,” says Lori Varlotta, vice president for Student Affairs.

Sacramento State began developing the videos in February when the California State University system directed its 23 schools to host the Portrait on their websites.

Each school was required to adhere to a pre-designed template called the College Portrait for most of the five-page project, but had the freedom to be creative in the “frequently asked questions” section. That section features nine interactive “buttons,” and schools could decide what information to assign each button.

 “We decided to go a different route from other schools,” says Ed Mills, associate vice president for enrollment management. “Instead of linking each button to an existing text-based site like other schools did, we decided to start fresh and produce a short video for each button. Now, instead of trying to visualize the college experience by reading about it, students can click on a button and actually see what campus life is all about.”

The stars of each video are Sacramento State students. They cover a variety of topics from applying for financial aid, to living on campus, to student activities. Each video is about 90 seconds long.

Visit the website at www.csus.edu/checkusout/.

For more information on the College Portrait project, contact Mills at 278-6060.