Of the millions of domains worldwide, about 99 percent are unspeakably bland, bereft of content, and even slower-loading than most drop/add lines at registration. But the truth is simple: any site must have a real reason for existing and should offer information that will inspire students first to go there, then to come back.

In our “America’s Best Student Web Sites” competition, Student Leader and co-sponsor Macromedia are highlighting outstanding achievements. This year’s competition attracted over 150 nominations. Here you’ll find the top sites, ranked by a star system, and most importantly, an excerpted explanation of why they’re superior. At our web site, http://www.studentleader.com/, you can find expanded coverage, including the complete reviews, judging criteria, and links for each site recognized here and for other noteworthy ones.

National Organizations

ResidentAssistant.com
http://www.residentassistant.com/
For a resident assistant, there’s no better site to find useful resources and guidance. The strength of ResidentAssistant.com is its content. Here you’ll find everything from “icebreakers” and team-building games to job listings and grad school programs. “The main goal of ResidentAssistant.com is to equip residence hall staff members to better serve the students they work with,” says Webmaster Dan Oltersdorf of Florida State University. The site offers several resources for res life groups to communicate with each other, including discussion boards, several discussion lists, and an advice section where RAs can post their experiences and tips for other RAs to learn from. A res life bookstore, in collaboration with Amazon.com, serves as yet another resource for RAs to find answers to their questions. The site also produces a monthly e-mail newsletter that currently has 5,000 subscribers.
Interesting features: The  “Humor” section shows that RA life isn’t all work and no play. RAs can tell their embarrassing tales or simply laugh at a joke or two.
Negatives: At first, the home page appears jumbled. The links could be organized in a way that looks less cluttered. However, the site does offer search functions to aid in navigation.

PreDentistry.com
http://www.predentistry.com/
PreDentistry.com may have a limited audience—students interested in applying to dental school—but the site provides all the info a dental student needs. “While providing specific information on applying to dental school, this site also offers links to specific dental related websites,” says Sean Willcutts of Boston College in Massachusetts. The tips on how to apply to dental schools, and the list of schools world-wide are especially useful to students. With numerous links to other dentistry-related sites, PreDentistry.com is a good starting point for anyone in the field. Along with Amazon.com, the site also offers a bookstore for those studying for dental school. The design is clean and well-planned. With a nice color scheme and good use of Flash, PreDentistry.com focuses as much on the look of the site as it does the content.
Interesting features: The “What is Dentistry” features interesting articles on the history, future, and present state of dentistry. Who knew that dentistry dates back to 3000 B.C.?
Negatives: There isn’t any contact info listed. Although questions can be emailed to the webmaster, Student Leader would like to see more detailed contact information.

CritiqueMe.com
http://www.critiqueme.com/
Started by New York University students, CritiqueMe.com gets 3 stars for being a solid site with a lot of potential. For a fee, you can send a paper to the experts at CritiqueMe and have it checked for grammar, clarity, and style. “All students need different types of feedback, so we offer a range of critiquing services,” says Vikki Matalon, webmaster. The service is open 24 hours-a-day, and even offers a “Rush” service for anyone close to their paper deadline.
Interesting features: The site offers critiques of poetry, fiction, and even foreign language papers.
Negatives: Although the site has a lot of potential, several key components are missing. The critiquing procedure is unclear and buried within the site. A more descriptive mission statement needs to be placed on the main page. Also, the site should have testimonials from students who have used the service.