Top 50 Official University Blogs

Making a commitment to a two- to four-year college degree is much like getting married. If you do not know what you’re walking into, that commitment may fail. Getting to know a college is imperative for success in many instances. This is why colleges open their doors for inspection to new recruits before the college year begins. Now, many colleges are opening virtual doors through blogs that may reveal a school’s perspective on itself and on the world.

One outreach method that many colleges are trying includes the student blog on admissions pages. Students are recruited to talk about their lives on campus on blogs, so new college recruits can read what it might be like to live on campus and attend that college. In other cases, the college dean may provide that outreach, and in other cases still, departments within a college may blog about their activities. In all cases, the blog (short for Weblog, or online journal) provides insight into the college and into the perspectives of the person or persons who write and edit those blogs. Whether these blogs help to retain students in a happy co-existance with the college throughout the length of the degree course is unknown.

But, in an attempt to share such outreach from various colleges and universities across the U.S., we searched for fifty official university blogs to share with readers. We narrowed our search down to those blogs with an “.edu” domain extension to show that the blogs were official and that the writing is at least sanctioned, if not hosted, by the college or university. Also, all chosen blogs were updated within the past month, a choice that showed that the college or university is active in maintaining this type of outreach.

The following list is divided into categories, and each link within those categories is listed in alphabetical order. This method shows readers that we do not prefer one official university blog over another.

Private Colleges

1. Carnegie Mellon News Blog: This Pittsburgh school has offered information on academics, research, student life, athletics and local news since 2006.
2. Cornell: This link takes you to the student blogs in the admissions office corner. While these blogs can familiarize you with the school from a student perspective, Dr. Kathie T. Hodge’s Cornell Mushroom Blog is a favorite among mycologists.
3. Exapnding Horizons: This is Trinity University’s information literacy blog that focuses on library technology and other higher education projects.
4. MIT Admissions Blogs: This is a well-populated student blog list, and MIT also offers a variety of other blogs such as their MIT Grad Blog and their Community Server, which serves up blogs, ideas and questions from and to the MIT community at large.
5. Notre Dame College Blog: This list provides links to students who chronicle their experiences at this private college.
6. Real Life @ Bradeis: This updated blog is provided by students, faculty and staff at Brandeis in Waltham, Massachusetts.
7. Stanford University: Located in California, Stanford allows blogs from students, faculty, staff and alumni, listed here along with tags for easy searches.
8. The Vandy Admissions Blog: Black and Gold bloggers share news, notes and inside information at this blog for Vanderbilt in Tennessee.
9. Tufts University Photography Blog: Tufts provides outreach in various forms, and this photography blog provides one different outlet that might appeal to someone who wants to major in photography.
10. University of Chicago: This link goes to a blogroll, where you can find blogs from students, staff, professors and from the Chicago Press.

Public Colleges

11. Binghamton University Admissions Student Blog: Binghamton University’s Admissions Blog is written by current students for students considering, applying, transferring and enrolling.
12. Blogs at the University of Florida Libraries: This page lists all the blogs offered by the University of Florida libraries and focus on technology as well as library science, news and document projects.
13. Ice 09 Blog: CIRES’ Mark McCaffrey,a featured speaker at the conference, provides updates and insights direct from Denmark. When the conference is over, you can return to the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Climate Change Blog.
14. LSU Libraries Special Collections Blog: While Louisiana State University hosts several blogs, the one that stays updated is this library blog that focuses on its special collections department.
15. Michigan State University President’s Blog: Lou Anna K. Simon offers perspectives from her office, and this university’s libraries also offer items of potential interest to government documents librarians or government information managers in Michigan in the Red Tape Blog.
16. OSU Admissions Blog: Oregon State University imparts some flavorful entries focused upon school activities, news and other information pertinent to students.
17. St. Mary’s College of Maryland Admissions Blog: Although this blog focuses on admissions, it also serves as a gateway to events and other news.
18. The Berkeley Blog: This blog, one of several produced by University of Berkeley, California, provides “provocative thinking” as well as news on various topics from arts to science and technology.
19. UGA Libraries News & Events: While sports plays a big part of the University of Georgia lifestyle, the libraries have a toehold on the blog world here.
20. University of Southern Mississippi President’s Blog: Mary Dayne offers advice, news, event photographs and more on this active blog, which also highlights her involvement with student activities.

Christian Colleges

21. ’76 Blog: Colorado Christian University offers a blog with topics that range from abortion to Washington.
22. College Souls: Colorado Christian University (CCU) students learn how to use the Internet to spread the gospel.
23. Gordon College: Notes Along the Way is a Christian Blog sponsored by the Office of College Communications at Gordon. Gordon is a multidenominational Christian college.
24. Oklahoma Christian University: This page holds several active blogs provided by students, faculty and staff.
25. Oral Roberts University: Oral Roberts University is on fire, and they’ll tell you about it in this blog, along with updates for student activities and more.
26. Providence Christian College: Learn more about college life at this California college through these student blogs.
27. Regent University: Located in Virginia Beach, this college also is known for its founder, Pat Robertson. This link takes you to a list of undergraduate blogs, most of which are hosted off-site.
28. The Working Class: This blog is offered by faculty and staff at North Park University, a Christian school located in Chicago.

Business School Blogs

29. Babson: This Massachusetts business college offers a news blog that also focuses on business attributes.
30. Columbia Business School Public Offering: This blog is defined as “a natural extension” of Columbia Business School’s longstanding tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship.
31. Darden School of Business: Dean Bruner provides his outlook from this University of Virginia business school for MBAs, PhDs and executives.
32. Graziadio Voice: This is the business student blog at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management.
33. My IU Careers: Although part of a larger public university (Indiana University, Bloomington), this blog speaks to career development in the arts and science disciplines.
34. Yale School of Management: Members of the Yale School of Management community author this blog, which focuses on business and society.

Law School Blogs

35. George Mason Law Library Blog: This blog is provided by the Law Library at George Mason University of Law.
36. Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog: This blog contains commentary on current issues of law and public policy by faculty members and others associated with Marquette University Law School in Wisconsin.
37. Michigan State University Intellectual Property & Communications Law Program Blog: Expect discussion on issues in copyright, patent, trademark and Internet law.
38. University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog: The goal of the University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog is to promote dialogue among faculty and the larger Law School community, including students, alumni, colleagues at Chicago and other universities and the general public.
39. University of Illinois College of Law Faculty Blogs: Although the faculty blogs off the .edu sit, the University of Illinois (Champaign) does host the faculty listing on site.
40. Weblogs at Harvard Law School: This blog is provided by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University as a free service to the Harvard community.

Historically Black Colleges

41. EagleBlog: This blog belongs to North Carolina Central State University and offers updated news. You also can find first-year blogs from this college, established in 1910 by Dr. James E. Shepard.
42. Paine College Blog: Pain, located in Augusta, George, is a church-related liberal arts college that provides education to future leaders.
43. Philander Smith College Blog: Philander Smith College is a private, residential, co-educational, four-year undergraduate liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist church and a founding member of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The author is Dr. Kimbrough, college president.
44. Theology 1120: This blog belongs to Xavier University of Louisiana, a Catholic university and historically Black.

Women’s Colleges

45. Bryn Mawr Blogs: Students, faculty and staff can produce a blog if they are a Bryn Mawr community member or if they have a Haverford or Swarthmore email address.
46. Mount Holyoke Athletics: This link produces headlines from all athletic blogs. If you want to focus on Lacrosse, you can read blogs from the Lacrosse athletes on another page.
47. Simmons Community Weblogs: This Boston university launched a beta site for Simmons community members to blog, announce events and more.
48. Smith College Blogs: Nominated for the WPMU (WordPress MU) Awards, the blogs at Smith focus on topics such as tech, social news, campus events, H1N1 and Mac users from Smith students, staff and faculty.
49. Sweet Briar College President’s Blog: Jo Ellen Parker is a novice blogger and novice president at this Virginia college. She is using this blog to reach out to students and the public. Several other blogs are offered from professors and students such as Sarah’s Blog, an international relations major studying in South Africa.
50. Wellesley College Student Blogs: Learn about three women’s experiences as students at Wellesley.