Prospective students looking at Kent State can now click their way to the university.

Students using EMT Connect, a new online service offered by the Admissions Office, can set up a Web page designed to their wants and needs concerning Kent State, said Allan Carroll, associate director of admissions.

Prospective students have had access to EMT Connect since July. The admissions Web site contains a link to create a personalized Web page at the top of the site. That link takes the student to an evaluation page to register a freshman interest home page.

A student enters three prospective majors and areas of interest and a Web page is created containing all the information he or she is interested in with all the links at Kent State.

The information is collected in one concise page and can be accessed and changed whenever the student wants, Carroll said.

“This gives students a way to simplify Kent State’s Web site, to personalize it,” Carroll said. “It really is hard to search a Web site as large as Kent State’s to find exactly what you are looking for.”

Students will not be overwhelmed when looking for a specific major or link because it will all be on the personalized site, he said.

General links to specific Web sites of the departments appear under a small content block of information giving students access to that part of the university.

If a student wants to know more, it links them to the place where that more is, said Mark Ledoux, assistant director of admissions.

Admissions is applying what research says and accommodating to how prospective students are doing things. Students and parents are now using the Internet to start their college search, Carroll said.

Most students are not linked to Kent State at all. Most of them haven’t even applied yet and some never will, Carroll said. But this is a way to get the students who are interested a portal to find the information they need.

“The Web site is the first thing they see,” Carroll said. “Students are certainly able to call or walk in, but our main offer is to use this EMT product.”

It’s one additional service admissions is offering, Carroll said.

The links connect students to the best Web sites to further their investigation.

It’s set up like the front page of a newspaper, Ledoux said. The outline has headlines, stories and pictures.

“It’s a combination of what we think they need and what they want to know,” Carroll said. “It’s a way for students to gather information that they are selecting themselves for the most part.”

This Web site helps market Kent State, Ledoux said, in addition to more traditional services such as viewbooks, letters, brochures, e-mails, programs and daily tours. Each service offers the same message and is designed to get students to campus, Ledoux said.

The Web page will change as certain dates and events happen for prospective students. As the students go through the admissions process, information will change keeping the students updated.

Contact student affairs reporter Missy Pollock at [email protected].