How many of you have lived through the college admissions process?

-By Ann Byne

I recently followed my nephew’s search with great interest. It’s been quite awhile since I went through it with my own kids and I was curious how things had changed since the Internet and new media. Not to mention that as a strategic design agency it was research that we could share with our own higher education clients.

Researching the college marketplace through CASE, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The New York Times to name a few, the funniest or saddest quote I read (depending on your perspective) was from an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “What Admissions Officials Think,” by Eric Hoover.

“My success,” wrote a male admissions official at a public institution, “is determined by the decision-making prowess of 17 year-olds.”

Yikes, not a great position to be in.

Wanting to dig deeper, we conducted our own tri-state survey on line contacting a few high school seniors we knew going through the process. Through “viral marketing” efforts (you know, the internet’s version of “word of mouth!) they forwarded our survey on to their friends who forwarded it on to their friends and so on and so on. Their comments confirmed some things we all know; yet some were quite enlightening. Who'd ever think that a teenager in 2008 would hate getting emails?

"Who’d ever think that a teenager in 2008 would hate getting emails?"

Well, it’s not hating getting one email, but try 200 on any given day from colleges they’ve approached for basic info. and may not even want to attend!! They still like holding brochures in their hands but when they receive it in the process became crucial. The first few received at College night or mail had a positive impact, but towards the end of their search they were crying Uncle and dumping materials into the garbage left and right. Not great for the colleges or the environment.

Students today are spending a lot of time visiting sites not affiliated with any particular college. Favored were campusdirt.com and collegeconfidential.com. Lots of great info can be found but some quotes on these sites can be brutal. Example: “Dorms are crowded, old, and in need of renovation. Dorm students are forced to pay for a large meal plan, even if they do not use it. Many hidden costs.” A disaster if you were the college mentioned!

One school we’ve been in contact with has stopped producing and mailing any view books. They direct all inquiries to their web and send e-mails. Have they gone too far?

Have we come to the point that the overabundance of e-technology communications turns off this generation?

So what’s an admissions officer to do?

We heard that kids want real stories, from real students about real life at college, not generic pretty pictures and definitely not in the same old formats. Here’s just a few quotes from our survey.

1. “Too many mass emails. I have gotten at least 200 and it’s quite annoying.”
2. You contacted me by mail “wayyy too much”
3. …”Everything seemed to be the same.”
4. “After the first few months I threw out almost all the pamphlets without even reading them.”
5. “I got the most mail from the schools I cared the least about.”
6. “Sometimes the brochures would be very dry and un-interesting, which turned me off from some colleges that I had been previously interested in.”
7. I want more “personal experience stories.”
8. “Most of them (pictures) look way too posed.”

Some other notable research reports I would recommend:

1. From HS to the Future: Potholes on the Road to College, March 2008
Although this is research done by the Consortium on Chicago schools it has great research on first generation college students many from latino immigrant families.

2. 2008 Moody’s Public Finance, 2008, U.S. Higher Education Outlook
which talks about the dramatic changes expected in enrollment.

And by the way if you were wondering, my nephew will begin at The College of NJ in the fall.