Enrollment Strategy

A successful social media strategy means more than having a blog or a twitter feed. It’s one thing to have the tools, but using them correctly—that’s the key.

Our recent playbook, “10 Social Media Do’s and Don’ts for Higher Education Enrollment Success,” talked about the value of social media as recruitment tools. We struck a chord. Many of you asked me for more specific advice on making these tools work.

So, welcome to the advanced course! Admission Lab’s latest playbook, 4 Keys to Putting Your Higher Education Social Media Strategy into Action, outlines a winning strategy for social media. You develop it around these elements: channel, reach, credibility and sustainability.

This free Playbook explains how to match communication channels to your messages (for example, sending tweets about upcoming campus events). It looks at how to build those relationships that are so important to extending your reach. You’ll also learn why student-generated content is pure gold and why your strategy must be current, consistent and controlled.

I could go on, but instead, please download the Playbook. Learn how to get social media right. Admissions Lab

With half of students quitting college before obtaining a degree, advocates of data-mining say using computer algorithms and analytics could be key in fine-tuning a student’s college education, thus making them more successful. It may also improve teaching, they say.Analytics methods are already used in the classroom for course management. Those tactics analyze a student’s work and participation and help create classroom discussion. But colleges are turning to these methods to help students sele... ...continue reading The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 2011

Steve Nelson cringes when he hears college counselors characterize schools as first tier, second tier and so on. Humans and institutions are too complicated for the reputation game, according to the head of the Calhoun School in Manhattan. The chase to get into these so-called top-tier schools often hurts students, both those who are rejected and accepted, Nelson said....continue reading

Anticipating the annual slowdown in applications over the Thanksgiving holidays, the enrollment management staff at the University of Dallas brainstormed ideas to spark interest and maintain application flow. The result was a Cyber Monday promotion. “We didn’t know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised by the number of applications we received,” said Mary Parker, Senior Assistant Dean of Enrollment Management. “We had applicants who indicated that they had bee... ...continue reading

As public universities face falling state funding and their own budget woes, they’re forced to look for new ways to generate revenue. The answer? More schools are going out of state to recruit students for the higher tuition, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Plus, they say the geographic diversity helps student learning and bolsters the university’s reputation.
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Despite calls by some for private colleges to become more like businesses, two higher-education scholars say such a move would hurt institutions in a column in the most recent issue of Harvard Magazine. Instead, they highlight what they see as the “unique, durable and adaptable characteristics” of higher education. Not a call for complacency, instead they advocate for adaptation.
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For too many colleges, their email strategy is simply an HTML version of their traditional snail-mail campaigns. Instead, colleges should be using email to create personalized conversations with prospects. Our 6-page Playbook, Email is Still King: 5 Tips for a Killer Email Strategy, explains how to have real conversations by perfectly blending technology and people....continue reading

For many high school students interested in the arts, shelling out an extra $20K a year for a special arts school is a major decision. According to Daniel Grant, the author of several books on the arts, the answer might be summer camps. Grant recently wrote about how summer camps help tip kids in favor of art schools by offering them a taste of the intensive classes.
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Even in this plugged-in digital world, face-to-face interactions can be the deciding factor for prospective students. Are you making the most of those interactions? In our first Playbook, Recruitment & Admissions Event Strategy Success in 8 Simple Steps, we share our best practices garnered from decades of experience. This free, 4-page Playbook will help you design, build and execute your most successful events ever....continue reading

Some colleges aren’t requiring students to submit standardized test scores with their admissions applications anymore. Officials at DePaul University in Chicago made the move because they say scores don’t correlate with classroom performance, but graduation rate statistics paint a different picture....continue reading