There are two main competitors that address Stanford Undergraduate Housing. 1. Stanford Housing They have a Stanford website has a very thorough overview of the logistics regarding the application process for housing. It also has summaries of the various residences available, current vacancies, etc. However, it does not address any subjective issues, or the factors that many students use to pick residences. Of course, this is understandable because this is an official Stanford affiliated website, so it cannot write things like "the food at place A is better than at place B". However, this lack of subjective information makes it fairly useless for students who are trying to rank all 73 of their residences. In contrast, my website will have a section for factual information, as well as a separate section for opinions. This way, there will be a clear distinction between the two, but the readers will still be able to glean information on both aspects. In addition, my website will have a section for user contributed feedback, like a forum of sorts. Thus, readers will be able to get opinions from more sources than just me. Just as students use CourseRank extensively to check out which classes are "good", students will be able to use my website to determine which residences are "good". This is something that the Stanford Housing Website cannot do by policy, but I can. 2. Stanford Residential Education This is another branch of the Stanford Housing website that focuses on practical issues within the dorms, such as getting internet access, etc. It also has information regarding some very specific issues that are missing from the main Stanford Housing website. Although I am not clear why these two websites are separated and have distinctly different appearances, they both revolve around factual information. Again, while my website will provide factual information such as how to get internet access, it will also provide opinion columns and tutorials on things like how to organize furniture in a space-limited furniture room. While many students have not even considered this, there are a great many creative ways in which students can customize their dormitories. In this way, my website will provide opinions, in addition to facts, because in the end, students need others' opinions in order to take action. In addition, my website will provide tutorials focused at smaller groups of students, giving certain readers information that would be irrelevant to others. For example, I will have tutorials directed at students of different classes in order to account for their different situations. A rising freshman will probably have more general questions about the Draw than an upperclassman. Likewise, an upperclassman will be more concerned about what to do when they decide to go abroad, or take a quarter off of school. By having articles directed at specific sub-audiences, my website will provide a more engaging experience, since I will not have to attempt the "fits-everyone" feat. |