Researching the California State University System

(a guided internet lesson based on web sites as of July, 2002)

developed by Regina Risi, AVID LA County, Region 11

Activity #1—Finding a CSU that’s right for you!

*Enter

*Click on ”What is CSUMentor?”

*In the gray box in the middle of the screen, choose “What is CSUMentor?” (the smaller version) and read this page to learn the purpose of this website

*Click on “Explore Campuses”

*In the gray box, choose “Matching Assistant”

*Complete the criteria checklist, making your search as narrow as possible. Be sure to put in a major.

*Click on “View Matching Campuses” when you have finished selecting your criteria.

*Answer the following questions in complete sentences on a separate piece of paper.

*How many campuses were you matched to?

*Which campus is closest to where you live? (Hint: Use Map

button on criteria checklist.)

*Which campus is furthest from where you live?

*Which of the criteria is most important to you (besides

your major) and why?

*Which campus seems like the best choice for you and why?

*What other criteria could be added to the checklist to make

this search better or more accurate for you?

Activity #2—Exploring a CSU that may be right for you!

(A continuation of Activity #1)

*Using the list of matching campuses from your search in Activity #1, choose the one that seems best for you and click on the link for that campus.

*Complete “Dr. H’s World Wide Web Worksheet” for this campus using the information at the link.

Activity #3—Comparing directories for college information.

*Enter

*At the top left of the screen, click on “Colleges and Universities”

*Find the link for “CollegeQuest” near the center of the page and click on it

*Use the “Name Search” box and type in the name of the CSU you explored in Activity #2

*If you typed in the name correctly, your search results should yield a link to that CSU. Click on the link.

*This link should take you to Peterson’s summary of this campus

*Using the worksheet you completed for Activity #2, compare the information available on Peterson’s site to the CSUMentor site. Is there anything new or different?

Activity #4—Finding your CSU’s official web site!

*Choose a search engine or database to use (Yahoo, Google, Excite, etc.)

*Conduct a search to find your selected CSU’s official web site. Go to the web site’s home page.

*Compare the information you found on CSUMentor and Peterson’s to the information on the official web site.

*On the same paper you used to answer the questions in Activity #1, explain which site gave you the best information and why.