How to Spot Fake College Reviews (and Read Real Ones Properly)

By the StudentReview team. Updated 2026-09-26.

Online reviews can be the most honest source of information about a college, or the least. Bunches of glowing reviews posted in the same week are a common sign of organised reviewing, often a college asking a batch to post during admission season. These checks help you tell the difference.

Signs a review may not be genuine

Many 5-star reviews posted within a few days, followed by months of silence
Generic praise with no specifics: "best faculty, best placements, good infrastructure"
Reviewer accounts with a single review ever, or accounts that gave several competing colleges 5 stars
The same phrases repeated across different reviews
Reviews that read like the brochure

How to read genuine reviews

Read the 1 to 3 star reviews first. They tell you what goes wrong and how the college handles it.
Look for patterns across several reviews rather than reacting to one angry or ecstatic one.
Check the date. A review from five years ago may describe a different hostel, curriculum or placement cell.
Separate problems with the college from one person's branch, batch or bad luck.
Give more weight to reviews from verified students.

Check beyond reviews

Ask for the placement report with company names and the number of offers, and compare it with the data the college submitted to NIRF.
Confirm the approval of the exact program with the regulator.
Talk to two or three current students directly, for example through the Alumni tab on the college's LinkedIn page.

How StudentReview handles this

Reviewers can verify with their official college email to earn the Verified Student badge. Personal email providers are not accepted.
Names are never shown, and reviews publish in batches so the timing cannot identify anyone.
Near-identical reviews posted on the same college are flagged for a human moderator.
Colleges can reply publicly, but cannot pay to remove a genuine review.
Rankings adjust for the number of reviews and require a minimum number before a college is ranked, so a couple of 5-star reviews cannot put a college at the top.