(1888PressRelease)
February 28, 2009 - "Students writing reviews on our site are more value-conscious about their programs than they were when we launched in September," Henry said. "They are more critical of programs that don't bring them the value they expect for the price-tag."
Henry cited a recent RateYourStudyAbroad review of an Australian program as an example. "It became apparent then that their questionnaire was only a marketing resource to bring out glowing responses," wrote the reviewer, "peterdellapenna". They seemed focused on "future brochures instead of addressing problems and assessing genuine feedback [of the study abroad program]."
Henry and John say that the recession has not stopped students from writing reviews of their study abroad programs, and that interest in study abroad still feels strong.
Said John, "I think there's still a lot of interest -- student newspapers at Syracuse University, Davidson College, Brigham Young, Santa Clara University all wrote stories about our site in January. I don't think they would have done that if study abroad was in some kind of precipitate decline."
RateYourStudyAbroad.com is the largest source for peer reviews of study abroad programs offered all over the world. It has been featured in several college publications since January of 2009, informally endorsed by the Institute of International Education, and attracted a growing base of student interest.
Contact: Henry van Wagenberg (henry ( @ ) rateyourstudyabroad dot com) or John Henry (john ( @ ) rateyourstudyabroad dot com)
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