Insights on Admissions Marketing

Finally back to the office, home from last week's NYSACAC conference. Saw all sorts of folks I hadn't seen in a long time, played lots of bocce and golf, and had a great time. Already looking forward to next year!

Two quick points I wanted to highlight:

1) Attended an interesting workshop on blogging with James Tower's Darren Wacker. James Tower is an internet marketing company that does a lot of work with colleges and universities, and we had a good discussion on student blogs: what's good, what's bad, and what we should all be doing. We're in the process of overhauling our student blogs, as we've had a few students graduate, so look for new things there this fall.

James Tower, in conjunction with NRCCUA and Noel Levitz, does marketing surveys of students that definitely impact what we do and how we market our schools. Their "E-Expectations" survey is one of the reasons why you're starting to see more and more schools turn to bloggers to add a little extra value to the search process. Word is that the 2008 data should be out at the end of June, so I'll address it then.

2) One of the workshops offered (one that I didn't get to attend, unfortunately) was about increasing communication between high school guidance counselors and admissions officers. We're ultimately both working toward the same goal -- getting students into college -- but we're both often too busy to take the simple steps toward that goal.

One of the big pieces of my job is visiting high schools. I spend just about every day from mid-September to mid-November on the road, visiting three or four schools a day. Often I get a nice reception and a meeting with a counselor and a few students. Sometimes schools go the extra mile, and I remember those schools (Daniel Hand HS in Madison, Norwich Free Academy, Hamden Hall Country Day School, Fairfield Ludlowe, Loomis Chaffee... the list goes on). Ultimately, those students get the best of me; I look forward to coming back every year.

David Mammano, from Next Step Magazine, addresses this from a trade show perspective in his blog. Unfortunately, there are schools out there that, as David says, "make you feel like a leper," or at least a pharmaceutical salesperson. We know those schools. In fact, we college reps all know those schools. And sometimes we don't go back.

I don't want to come across like I'm cheating the students out of some phenomenal experience by not visiting their high school. More and more students are finding what they need online anyway; there are plenty of schools where I see no students when I visit, but I still get a half-dozen applications. But ultimately, when the time comes for a counselor to argue on behalf of a student who might be on the admissions borderline, or who might have extenuating circumstances, it's nice to have someone you know, someone you've met, someone who you can contact and feel like you can make that connection.

(I know this was all over the place, and they weren't exactly "quick points," but hey, it's not a proper blog post if it doesn't ramble, right?)