Gluten Free Travel Blog

Gluten Free At College -- Adding Another Dimension to the College Search Process

BLOG HOP, DAY 9: So your son or daughter is starting the college search process. This is a stressful enough time for him or her -- and for you. Now add to it the fact that you'll have to put colleges through an extra filter: which ones can best serve gluten free students. The question is...do any of them really know what they're doing?  And if so, are there ample choices to make mealtime an enjoyable experience, not just another boring meal of the same "safe" options? 

It is with these questions in mind that our sister website, GlutenFreeTravelSite, recently began welcoming reviews of college dining services, submitted by students on gluten-free diets. Gluten free college students follow the steps for Submitting a Review as they would for a restaurant, store, hotel, or resort, but they choose "college" when prompted for the type of establishment they're reviewing.

 By adding colleges as a choice of venues to be reviewed, GlutenFreeTravelSite gives college students a way to share their feedback -- both positive and negative -- with current and prospective students who follow gluten-free diets. You can view the colleges reviewed thus far on our Gluten Free College Reviews page, which is organized in alphabetical order.

Our goal is to get reviews of as many colleges on our site as possible so students evaluating different colleges can get peer feedback on the “GF friendliness” of each institution they are considering. 

You can help us by forwarding this post -- and spreading the word to encourage all the gluten free college students you know to submit reviews to GlutenFreeTravelSite. That way, we can help as many gluten-free teenagers as possible as they embark upon their college selection process. 

Please share your thoughts in a comment below -- and receive one entry into our giveaway of a $25 P.F. Chang's gift card, to be selected at random from all entries received by May 18, 2012, the last day of our Blog hop. Each person is allowed one entry/comment per day for each of the 10 days of posts (May 7-11 and May 14-18), for a total of 10 entries on THIS Blog. You have the same opportunity for entering a total of 10 times for the giveaways on the other 9 Blogs listed below. The giveaway is limited to U.S. residents who are 18 years or older. The Giveaway begins May 7, 2012, and ends at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on May 18, 2012. No purchse is necessary. Odds of winning are based on the number of entries. The winner will be randomly chosen and contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond, a new winner will be randomly chosen. 

Would you like to get more great gluten-free tips on baking, dining out, and kitchen tips? Check out today's posts from other Blog Hop participants: 

Getting Started - Linda at The Gluten-Free Homemaker 
Resources – Wendy at Celiacs in the House
Eating Out – Heather at Gluten-Free Cat
Frugal Tips – Janelle at Gluten Freely Frugal
Cooking – Carrie at Ginger Lemon Girl
Baking – Jules at Jules Gluten Free
Kids – Lynn at Lynn’s Recipe Adventures
Lunch Boxes – Tessa at Tessa the Domestic Diva
Shopping – Laura at Gluten Free Pantry

GlutenFreeTravelSite Gives College Students a Place to Review the Availability of Gluten-Free Food on Campuses

Our sister website, GlutenFreeTravelSite, just announced the addition of a feature on its site that enables gluten-free college students to review colleges and universities for their degree of "gluten-free friendliness." Reviewers simply follow the steps for Submitting a Review as they would for a restaurant, store, hotel, or resort, but they choose "college" when prompted for the type of establishment they're reviewing.

By adding colleges as a choice of venues to be reviewed, GlutenFreeTravelsite gives college students a way to share their feedback -- both positive and negative -- with current and prospective students who follow gluten-free diets.

If you'd like to stay in the loop about new gluten-free college reviews as we receive them, please "Like" us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or sign up for our free monthly e-letter (or do all three!). We plan on sharing news of new reviews though those channels. Of course, you can always Search Reviews of colleges by going to our Search/Mapping page and entering the town or zip code of the college in the search box. If that college has been reviewed, it will come up in the search results. 

But please be patient...since we just launched this feature of our site, reviews may be limited for a while. But you can help us speed things up...

If you know any gluten-free college students, by all means, please encourage them to submit feedback about the college they attend. It is such a HUGE help to other students, especially those embarking on their college selection process. These students have a whole other dimension to think about when it comes to campus life.

Some helpful information to include in a review would be...Does the dining hall stock plenty of gluten-free options for its students? How good are they about food handling and avoiding cross-contamination? Do they have an area for "self-serve" food preparation? Are there other places on campus to get gluten-free meals, and if so, what would you recommend? What is the process prospective students should go through to best articulate their needs before starting school? 

You can read a review of Georgetown University from a the perspective of a recent gluten-free graduate here. And don't forget...you can always search gluten-free reviews of restaurants located near your campus or check out the Gluten Free Restaurant Menus list of chain restaurants offering gluten-free menus on GlutenFreeTravelSite. 

For more information on GlutenFreeTravelSite's announcement, see their Press Release.