Posted by
Rit Fuller on Tue, Feb 14, 2012 @ 10:45 AM
In a word, YES. A quick Google search using only the words 'college rankings' yielded
4,380,000 entries. From Fortune to Forbes and US News to Newsweek, everything from the quality of food to the accessibility of faculty is ranked somewhere, using some methodology, with the goal of (supposedly) providing information and (definitely) selling magazines.
No, the question is not 'do rankings matter,' but rather 'to whom do they matter?' A recent article in USA Today (Colleges obsess over rankings; students shrug, February 6) cites a national survey of college freshman by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute where students are asked to list factors affecting their college choice. National magazine rankings came in #11, behind factors such as cost, size and location. The USA Today article goes on to quote the director of the UCLA survey, John Pryor: "It seems to me that who cares most (about the rankings) is the media." Pryor goes on: "Second would be college presidents and development officers. Way down the list seems to be those who are actually trying to decide where to go to college."
To me, the bottom line for my colleagues in the business of engagingm recruiting and enrolling students is that rankings do matter. But your focus needs to be on those things where you can truly make an impact, like intentional, relevant and strategic outreach in your student recruitment and Admissions Marketing efforts.
Take a look at our free white paper, Admissions Marketing Best Practices, for some ideas that might spiff up your student recruitment efforts. You can also review our newsletter archive, and subscribe to these informative newsletters if you are not already doing so.
Posted by
Bob Mootz on Tue, Feb 07, 2012 @ 08:47 AM
Since Apple's "Reinventing Textbooks" announcement in January, there has been much discussion in the publishing and academic communities, not all of it supportive. One concern had to do with the intimation in Apple's licensing agreement that Apple owned the content for books in the program. That concern disappeared last week, with the removal of the offending language. The new language gives Apple sales exclusivity for the iBook format, but leaves content ownership with the content provider.
That leaves the discussion about the effectiveness of printed versus electronic (interactive) textbooks, and there seems to be solid evidence that interactive textbooks can deliver superior educational results. An article in The Economist reported on a pilot study carried out for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a textbook publisher based in Boston, that compared the performance of two groups of children over the course of a year at the Amelia Earhart Middle School in Riverside, California, saying "A control group used the traditional Holt McDougal Algebra 1 textbook, while an experimental group used iPads with an interactive version of the same coursework. At the end of the year, 78% of pupils using the interactive text scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the California algebra test, compared with only 59% scoring likewise with the standard textbook."
There is certainly reason to believe that these types of results could be achieved at all levels, including at the college/university level. And as more elementary and secondary schools begin using digital books and tablet computing (it seems inevitable that this will happen), we are likely to see improved student performance.
What we will also see is a change in student expectations at the higher ed level. They will expect those institutions to follow suit. If they don't, students will probably feel they are taking a step backwards.
If your institution is already experimenting with the use of tablet computing in classrooms, either in addition to or in lieu of printed textbooks, it could be a signicant market differentiator for you in your student recruitment and admissions marketing efforts. Be sure to leverage it!
Posted by
Rit Fuller on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 @ 12:09 PM
I am sure there have been more articles written and headlines grabbed by focusing on the increasing cost of higher education than at any time in my three decades in this profession. The crowning blow came recently when President Obama joined the fray, literally exhorting (threatening?) America’s colleges and universities to do something about their escalating costs, and enhance access and retention, or the federal government would aggressively intervene. As you might expect, higher education leaders are somewhat taken back by attacks from Washington DC, especially when most are seeing cuts or, at best, stagnant allocations from their state governments. Public and private institutions alike are almost universally having discussions on campus that include such disparate themes as: How can we improve net tuition revenue, while attracting better students, filling our classrooms and dorms, and improving access for underrepresented minorities? How do we justify increasing costs above the CPI, while our labor and health care costs soar, and our students demand more amenities? When is gapping, or allowing our students to borrow unlimited sums the wrong strategy, bordering on immoral?
If you are reading this blog, you probably are in the enrollment field and have your own take on these issues: nationally, regionally and most importantly, at your institution. Your role is to be informed, and, if your position allows, to be at the table for these discussions. As the one responsible for much of the revenue dynamic, you also need to do everything possible to be sure your college or university makes a very clear value statement to the prospective students and parents in your pool. “Why us” is a question you, your staff and everyone who interacts with potential tuition-paying families must have a well-thought out answer for. Your print pieces, emails, website and every other communication vehicle must make the case--in 2012 more than ever.
Posted by
Bob Mootz on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 @ 12:37 PM
Last week, we held our 7th Annual Admissions Roundtable at the Sheraton Conference Center, Framingham MA. We were extremely pleased with the turnout--40 Admissions professionals from 21 institutions!
We also had terrific presenters, all experts in their respective domains, and good interaction between attendees and speakers. We were very pleased with the outcome, but realize there is always room for improvement. So we are already thinking about how to make next year even better. One "must-do" is to provide more time for discussion of trends and issues and sharing of best practices, perhaps with a panel of Admissions professionals.
Photo: Our President, Lynn Edwards, chatting with attendees.
If you weren't able to attend, here are just a few highlights from our presenters
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The presentation by Jeff Kallay of TargetX about the Campus Visit Experience was a high point. He offered great insight into how to market and conduct a stellar campus visit experience. He pointed out, "The best recruiters are your current students. Happy students and parents spread the word and save us money. This helps define best fit students, who choose you as their first or second choice, love your school, graduate from it, and stay active as alumni." He recommends training and empowering your student tour guides to be master storytellers, and to make sure that you pay attention to aesthetics--how does the campus appear to parents and students? Only once chance to make a good first impression!
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Joe Bellavance from the New England Regional Office of the College Board did a great job of explaining all of the data that is available for your student recruitment efforts and how best to use it to meet your enrollment goals. He also pointed out common mistakes that are made, that can unnecessarily limit the universe of potential students you are marketing to.
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Rit Fuller, Enrollment Consultant, offered ideas about how to monitor your competition and access interactive online data tools. He also pointed out the importance of Admissions officers being able to concisely and fully answer parent questions aboout student debt loads, a big concern these days. Do you know the average debt load for your institution?
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Carl Bradshaw, LtCol(R), US Army, explained the Yellow Ribbon Program and shared detailed information about how best to approach veterans as potential students.
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Dennis Chyba and Brian Winters of Adceio presented great information about social media trends. Do you have a Facebook page yet for your institution? Chyba pointed out that if you don't create Facebook pages, others will create them for you. A good Facebook page can make critical information easier for prospective students to find.
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I wrapped up the day with a discussion of innovative recruiting strategies and techniques. Did you know that 39% of mobile phone users between the ages of 12-17 own a smartphone? Are you leverating this technology to get the best student recruitment and student retention results? It's where they live!
We are happy to speak with you further about the topics covered during this educational session. Just drop us a note or give us a call. Or visit AMM EDU on Facebook!
bmootz@ammedu.com, 215-205-3769.
Be sure to subscribe to our blog as one more way to stay current with rapidly evolving trends!
Your student recruitment efforts have been successful, and your new freshman class is enrolled. But how do you ensure that you can retain these hard-won students through graduation?
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, approximatley 57% of first-time students who sought a bachelor's degree or equivalent and enrolled at a 4-year institution full-time in fall 2002 completed their degree or its equivalent within 6 years. How does your institution rank?
This is certainly an acknowledged issue for colleges and universities. What they are doing about it is another discussion. Have you updated your retention strategies lately? Simply holding freshman orientation or seminars is probably not going to cut it these days. While these are "social" events, and it is generally acknowledged that social integration into the university environment is critical to student retention success, today's students have an entirely different definition of "social," and that is usually spelled F-A-C-E-B-O-O-K.
Sure, you have a Facebook page for your institiution, but have you set up a Facebook environment specifically designed to help new students better integrate into your social and academic structure? Let's face it, Facebook is where these students are hanging out, where they are comfortable, and to the extent you can integrate into their Facebook experience, you have a greater opportunity to engage them, from the beginning of your student recruitment efforts, through enrollment and on to graduation.
Not only can you keep the dialog going, but it is a place for them to go to get questions answered, keep updated on what's new, and generally tighten their relationship with your college or university. It is also very likely that post-graduation, they will still be using Facebook, or something similar, and the dialog continues as you keep alumni engaged.
Make sure you engage student ambassadors in this process as well. While students like the feeling of having a close relationship with their school administration, they also want to turn to their peers for advice, guidance and insight. Student ambassadors are a great way to address that need.
As we begin 2012, it is a good time to review your social media strategy, from student search, through enrollment and retention. Can yours benefit from an update?
Posted by
Bob Mootz on Thu, Jan 05, 2012 @ 11:50 AM
Just read this great article from Inside Higher Ed about the community college flap in California, and it offers lots of food for thought about student enrollment and student recruitment practices.
It's no secret that California, like many states these days, is facing a huge budget crisis, and its network of colleges and universities is bearing its share of the brunt of these shortfalls. In an effort to hold costs in line and to drive a "completion agenda," the Legislature created a task force at the community college level, tasking members with finding ways to improve student outcomes and improve workforce preparedness.
One task force recommendation, not yet implemented as of this writing but under consideration, is the root of the big to-do, and that is giving enrollment priority to students who are most likely to earn a degree or certificate. This primarily means graduates of local high schools. City College of San Francisco already has a pilot in place, and 2010 results show that "fully 98 percent of 323 incoming students from local high schools who took advantage of priority registration returned for their second semester--a big retention gain from the previous average of 75%."
The report calls favoring of students with larger numbers of credits a "perverse incentive for students to enroll in classes, even if they do not further their educational objectives, simply to gain a higher place in the enrollment queue."
For four-year schools, there are a couple of important messages here:
First, if your student recruitment efforts are returning too many candidates (nice problem to have), this approach suggests another data point in the ranking of qualified students. Secondly, from a student recruitment and admissions marketing perspective, graduates of these two-year programs that participated in the priority enrollment program may be good candidates for your student recruitment efforts.
What do you think? Is this type of rationing of access to educational resources appropriate? What would you do differently? I encourage you to read the full article, and would love to hear your thoughts.
As 2011 winds down and student recruitment heats up, it's time to consider the role student ambassadors can play in your recruitment efforts. Are you using student ambassadors in your recruitment efforts? If not, now is a good time to explore this option. If you already use them, and I am sure most of you do, consider additional ways to leverage these valuable resources.
Student ambassadors are being used in a number of ways in the world of social media. Of course, they can be of valuable assistance during college visits and other traditional recruitment efforts. But there is much more they can do to help in your Admissions Marketing efforts.
Today's students appreciate relevant and personal communications. Student ambassadors can play a huge role in this regard. Consider having one or more student ambassadors record a video welcome displayed on your web site, touting the benefits of your institution, and what it has meant to them to be a member of your student body.
These video welcomes can also be used on personalized microsites designed specifically for individual prospective students. As you build a library of these videos, you can populate an individual student's microsite with a video of a student ambassador that is speaking about his or her specific areas of interest, whether it be physics or phys ed.
Student ambassadors are also great on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media venues. They can start a meaningful dialog with prospective students that can make your recruitment efforts even more personal and relevant.
Some cautions, however. Be sure to select your student ambassadors and their respective roles carefully. Not all bloggers are great on camera, and not all video rock stars can blog.
You will also want to ensure that student ambassadors understand what is--and is not--allowed in the role. Be careful about censoring, but also be sure that student ambassadors are reflecting the right image for your institution. This requires careful selection and management of these valuable resources.
Materials that are created for one enrollment season can often be used for subsequent seasons and for other marketing purposes. Be sure you have a solid plan in place for how these resources will be used over time.
Social media venues offer a terrific opportunity to extend the role of your student ambassadors and to increase the relevance and effectiveness of your admissions marketing efforts. Make 2012 the year of social media for Admissions Marketing at your institution!
Posted by
Bob Mootz on Fri, Dec 23, 2011 @ 11:36 AM
Neilson reports that t
eenagers in the U.S. more than tripled their mobile data consumption over the last year, sending more messages than subscribers in any other demographic. Teens between the ages of 13 and 17 consumed an average of 320 MB of mobile data per month during the third quarter of 2011, up 256 percent year-over-year--an annual increase larger than any other age group, according to Neilson.
As if we needed to be reminded, this certainly reinforces the common wisdom that teens prefer mobile. The same study revealed that teens exchanged an average of 3,417 SMS and MMS messages per month during the third quarter, averaging seven messages every waking hour. Yikes!
At the same time, voice usage declined. Asked why they prefer messaging to voice calling, 22 percent of teens cite speed, 21 percent point to ease of use, and 18 percent say it's more fun.
Have you incorporated mobile elements into your student recruitment media mix? If not, this study certainly should change your opinion on the importance of adding mobile to the mix as you pursue innovative admissions marketing efforts. This is clearly the environment in which teens spend most of their communications time, and as such, Admissions professionals should be there, too.
Of course, the most effective recruitment campaigns will include multiple channels of communication (including mobile) in a coordinated effort that starts with finding the right lists, qualifying and segmenting respondents, and speaking as individually as possible to each prospective student. How better to keep that dialog going than to be where the students are ... on their phones!
Posted by
Rit Fuller on Mon, Dec 19, 2011 @ 08:40 AM
My first boss in college admissions took great exception to the saying that 'information is power.' It was his strong belief that it is what you do with that information and how you manage it that is the real source of power. And he lived that belief every day.
A recent article in The Chronicle gives every reader access to some very powerful information regarding trends in student enrollment. The ability to access clearly presented, easily understood data, with a mouse-over function by state or by competitor, is a 'must see' enrollment management tool.
Will you leverage the power of this information in your student recruitment efforts?
Posted by
Bob Mootz on Thu, Dec 15, 2011 @ 09:33 AM
Did you attend last summer's STAMATS conference? A highlight was the live TeensTALK broadcast with a panel of 15 college-bound students from the Chicago area. These students emphasized the importance of personalized communications in student recruitment efforts. They want timely, relevant communications and don't want to feel they are just being processed from a list. One student reported receiving 2,400 emails from colleges! Another stated that she was still receiving communications about events that had long passed, such as wishing her well on the ACT.
Students especially appreciated efforts on the part of college Admissions counselors who built personal relationships with them and made them feel connected to the college.
Timing is critical, too. Most of the panel reported that they start thinking about college in their junior year, and that is the best time for colleges/universities to start their student search efforts.
Mail pieces should be personalized, and should reflect specific student interests; these are more likely to be opened, read and retained. Another great idea is a follow-up handwritten letter from the Admissions counselor after a conversation with a student, a nice touch in this all-too-digital age.
But students also want to be contacted via more than mail. Email is terrific if it is relevant and not too frequent. Find the right balance. Students also reported that they appreciated contact on Facebook from their chosen college, and that they use Facebook during the selection process, looking for information from current college students on Facebook “class of” groups and Facebook Pages.
Strategies for success in student recruitment are as dynamic as the Internet-enabled world we live in today. The feedback from these students is a valuable addition to the knowledge base of Admissions Marketing professionals as they continually refine their student search processes.