Guide gives U. a thumbs-up

When those who usually are graded do the grading, how does the University of Utah stack up? Pretty well, actually.

The 2003 edition of College Prowler, a publication that gives prospective college students a student's-eye view of an institution, shows that the Utah school gets high marks on the majority of the measurements taken. For instance, the Utes who were polled were very complimentary of the school's safe campus, transportation factors, student housing both on and off campus and relative absence of drugs and alcohol.

Diversity? Not much here, the students said, giving this category the only really poor grade at D+. On-campus food got a barely-passing C-, but there are plenty of victuals to be found off campus in the near vicinity, the respondents said, so there's little danger of starving while pursuing a degree. All the other categories rated a B or better.

College Prowler is the brainstorm of Luke Skurman, a Pittsburgh businessman who learned in his own search for a compatible college that the standard sterile descriptions of schools across the country didn't give him much to go on. As a high school graduate in San Francisco, he began the hunt and, based on the catalog his mother had given him, settled on Wake Forest University in North Carolina. But when he arrived at the Winston-Salem university for a look-see, it wasn't at all what he wanted. Ultimately, he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

But the experience gave him a great business idea: polling students to determine what a school had to offer beyond the standard catalog descriptions that tell what the school does but not necessarily what it is like. Now, he has his own company that is producing more than 100 individual Prowler editions describing as many schools. There is a growing market for the guidebooks among school counselors and high school students who are beginning their search for higher education, a company release says.

The guides are based on online interviews with current students and look at such things as local atmosphere, opportunity for dating and night life (U. males rated only a B, the women B+,) the quality of faculty, athletics, availability of computers — even the local weather. Direct quotes support the grades given.

The U. survey indicated that most students were satisfied with their experience in general. The low mark in diversity is not surprising in a state that has not historically had a very diverse population. Comments reflected the long-standing Latter-day Saint/non-Latter-day Saint perceptions that are common in all Utah life: