Most colleges belong to at least one consortium and many colleges are members of multiple consortia. So one project would be to track any given college's participation among the consortia it's a member of. If you find a full college profile with lots of pictures on one consortium website, while on another member website you find just a phone number and address, you can guess that college values the one consortium's participation over the other and all the inferences that go with that.

Another thing to look for on a college consortium website is a high profile member with a low profile. If you see a big, name-brand college on a consortium website and there are few pictures, very little information about the college and some is obviously dated, while other members have up-to-date information [like comprehensive fee schedules], lots of pictures and information, then you've identified a "brand name slacker" college that is likely very, very self-satisfied behind its ivory towers and all the inferences that can go with that.

If you see an off-brand college [i.e. "never heard of that one"] and its information is dated or simply not there and there are no pictures, then that college is likely in the ever-growing category of "in crisis." This means that while they belong to a consortium, they don't have the time or resources to provide even the most basic up-to-date information for that consortium's website for any variety of reasons, and all the inferences that can go with that.

But, if you see another off-brand college, and it has lots of pictures on the consortium's website, lots of up-to-date information posted, you can safely infer that this campus is thriving.

And, if you see a brand-name college on a consortium website and it has lots of pictures, lots of up-to-date information, then it probably lives up to its past reputation.

So it basically boils down to a few, easy metrics to look for: picture count, picture quality, up-to-date posted information and quantity of information. If there is plenty of all those, then that campus is most likely thriving.

-Tim Corwin
June 2009