Lara Wyatt, a high-school sophomore in Hartsville, S.C., loves to sing. She’s performed in 17 productions, playing Ursula in The Little Mermaid, Rizzo in Grease. Soft-spoken and thoughtful, she’s not the kind of 15-year-old who’s likely to worry anyone. Unless you happen to run an admissions office, in which case she might scare you a little. For starters, Ms. Wyatt doesn’t put much stock in websites. When she began her college search last summer, she turned to Tumblr, where photos of Wagner College impressed her. She scrolled through Twitter and Instagram, seeking glimpses of campus life from "actual students," she says, not the ones who appear in videos produced by colleges. "They seem a bit fake, especially if they are smiling the whole time."

September 28, 2015 ・ From Chronicle of Higher Education