IU adds video to site to help prospective students

IU has added itself to a new Web site that offers prospective college students the ability to explore a desired university without actually visiting it. 

YOUniversityTV is a Web site described as “an interactive, immersive virtual environment dedicated to colleges and all of those individuals wishing to discover more about them,” according to its Web site. 

The idea is to provide the prospective student the opportunity to look into the academic and social happenings of a particular college campus via the Internet. 

YOUniversityTV launched April 14. It is essentially a continuously evolving Web site, Kathleen Rojas of YOUniversityTV said.

IU got involved with YOUniversityTV for a variety of reasons, said Larry Gonzalez, director of admissions at IU. 

Gonzalez said this could be a potential variable in the successful promotion of IU, as many students who might not have been initially able to visit can see some of the University’s highlights. 

“We were approached at a conference,” Gonzalez said. “We also realized the potential for some great free advertising. Other Big Ten universities were also participating in YOUniversityTV, so we decided to follow suit.”

There are a plethora of elements in YOUniversityTV. It offers users the ability to create a personal profile, list of friends, messages and photos, a personal blog and continuous film updates in a section called the “YOUTORIUM.” The “YOUTORIUM” is a very active and popular place, both Rojas and Angelo Kotzamanis, co-founder of YOUniversityTV, said. 

“More than 1,700 videos were posted in the first month,” Kotzamanis said.

The Web site is free to anyone, and there is also a networking section called “YOULIFE,” which allows participants to communicate with other college-bound students, current students and alumni, Rojas said.

“The feedback has been incredibly positive,” Kotzamanis said, as several high school students have already contacted YOUniversityTV expressing how helpful it was in the college decision-making process.  

YOUniversityTV gives statistical data on more than 400 major universities across the country and analysis and observations from various professors, students and admission officer employees, thus giving participants a more complete understanding of the university, Kotzamanis said.

“The idea for the creation of YOUniversityTV was drawn from the realization that there was a need for this sort of thing,” Kotzamanis said. “In Web 2.0, it’s all about Web sites and videos in the search process for potential college students. We essentially saw a void that needed filling.”