Student scores with Web design

When College junior Jasson Cohen created his own World Wide Web page freshman year, he didn't realize that the techniques he was fooling around with would allow him to go into business for himself. But Cohen has come a long way from "cutting" and "pasting" pictures of his family and friends between classes. Today, he and Wharton junior Michael Friedman work for Dominion Design LLC, a company they created, designing Web pages for small and mid-level businesses. And as businesses of all sorts scramble for a "web presence," there is a high demand for college students knowledgeable with Web site design. Engineering junior Jerry Miley said he was working for a company over the summer when an executive asked the employees if anyone knew how to design a Web site. "No one knew how," Miley said. "I had some experience from my home page at school, so I was in the best position to do theirs." While as little as three years ago professional Web site creation was limited to a small minority fluent in various computer languages, recent editions of software like Adobe Photo Shop and Netscape Editor have made it more accessible. The technology available at many schools makes Web site design particularly easy for students to learn. "We're already familiar with the net when so many people who haven't been in school haven't had the chance to get involved," Friedman said. And as most universities now provide free internet access to their students, having college students design websites is attractive as a less expensive alternative to hiring professionals, Friedman said. "There's no rent, no health coverage for employees, no salaries, no insurance, no benefits or accountants," he said. "We can charge much less than a regular company because of this and that brings people to us." But even the lower rates bring in a pretty penny. "Sites range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $30,000," Cohen said. "I've made as much as $10,000 working on a site." Cohen said that such figures could be deceiving, however, as creating a Web site that would bring such a price is hard, time-consuming work. But Friedman noted the flexible nature of Web site design makes the industry appealing. "It fits a college student's life-style," he said. "It's not 9 to 5 and computers can be on all night. You can work on the sites whenever you have the time."