Thursday, April 30, 2009

Getting the Word Out

As I'm sure you've guessed from the last blog post, we're trying to get the word out about our website right now to a lot of high school counselors.

Currently we're adding some new features and over the next few weeks will be doing some major updates to the website so we're trying to get as many future college students and the people that work with them to check it out as possible.

What's in store, you ask? Well, among the many things, immediately noticeable will be a new page devoted only to videos where you can scroll through the various college videos that schools have uploaded. It will look a little like Youtube, but be devoted only to colleges.

Sorry for the brief blog post, trying to keep up with the programmer! Check out the website in the next few weeks and watch for changes!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

What would your high school do with $1,000?

That's the question of the day!

Fix the copier? Take all the teachers and staff out for a picnic? Create a new scholarship? Bring a performing arts group to the school? Replace some desks and tables? Buy a sports team some new equipment? Have the most rockingest post-prom party EVER?

Do you have a few ideas for your high school? Good!

Now, high school counselors, teachers and other staff... have you signed up for the Anycollege.com High School Member Drawing? It's free to enter, there are some other perks (i.e. get some swag for your office) AND if you win the drawing you win $1,000 for your high school! There are two drawings per year, and once you're entered you're in on all of them! (We have occasionally drawn a counselor who totally forgot they signed up... oops!)

Students- tell your high school teachers and counselors about this! Do you have something you think your school could use the money for? Tell them!

How do you sign up?
Just go here: www.anycollege.com/hsmembers and you can learn all about the contest as well as the information on becoming a Free High School Member!

Good luck! Next drawing is May 15th!

Questions? Email us at mail@anycollege.com!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A College Contradiction

This issue is one that has puzzled me for a long time because it's one that puts both the college and the student in between the proverbial rock and hard place.

How does a college balance the fine line between "come to our school and you'll have a wonderful career" and the reality of "you can get a college degree here but that doesn't entitle you to anything afterward"? Because if colleges advertised with the latter, more realistic statement a lot of practical thinking people would wonder why in the world even go to college... and if you push the initial statement only then you will set your students up for certain disappointment.

I recall a student who called me when I was working in admissions who asked what he could expect to make upon degree completion. I told him it would depend where and if he was hired in the field, an answer he wasn't too happy with. He then pressed on, asking if there was a range that could be expected, and if it was too high on your resume if that was deterring employers from hiring graduates from the college I was at. (It turned into a bit of a strange phone call...)

That was when I first started thinking about this paradox of college- and not just the one I worked at but of the whole idea of college. It is a reasonable expectation when one graduates from college to think one will find a job in the chosen field. What I have often heard from students I worked with was disgust at still having to start at entry level positions with entry level pay- despite having a bachelor's degree. They had had the less reasonable expectation of graduating and walking off the graduation stage right into a well paying job doing exactly what they had always dreamed of doing.

In a perfect world it would work like this... but unfortunately our world isn't quite perfect. So at what point do you start introducing the idea of having to still start on the bottom rung and work up with the college degree in hand? Naturally it's hard to recruit that way- though you have to be careful not to go overboard with what's said there on the positive side- but I truly can't imagine anyone would attend Debbie Downer University who says "You can come here, but who knows how long you'll wait to get a job in the field making less than you made at your college job!"

In addition to when is this idea introduced how do you do it without sounding like you're contradicting everything that the student initially thought (whether it was said or not) about the university and disillusioning them about the school that seemed perfect coming in? It's definitely a tough call and line to walk for the college career counselors. This isn't to say that no students do find jobs or that it's impossible... but sometimes the reality of the time between graduation and finding the "real" career job can get a little murky at the beginning of a college career.

What has been your experience with job prospect expectations upon graduation? What are yours? What was your experience after graduation?

Monday, April 27, 2009

Virtual College Fairs?

I am fascinated by this idea, but to be honest with you I don't know that much about them.

How many students attend? Do parents get involved? Or could this be coordinated through a school where the entire junior and/or senior class can participate? If you were at a high school would you be open to an event such as this?

Or would this be something that primarily took place in the evening or on a weekend to accommodate students and parents being at home to log in?

Then, how much can the computer handle? What's the level of user friendliness that needs to be there? Obviously it needs to be fairly intuitive but how complex can you go with it?

And... what's the level of personalization? Can students make an "avatar" (computer image) of themselves to "walk around" in? (Yay quotation marks!)

So, if you've participated in one of these (I believe College Week Live has the biggest one) will you let me know about your experience? Was it cool? Did you get everything out of it that you liked to?
Counselors... is this something your school would participate in? Colleges, are the students who visit your virtual booth responsive?

So much to learn...

Friday, April 24, 2009

Finals!!!

It's almost that time of year again... finals are looming up for many students, both college and high school.

For high school seniors I have seen an interesting phenomenon in that sometimes these last finals can get blown off if the student is already accepted at the college of his/her choice. Yikes! I know "senioritis" may have kicked in full time at this point but it will be worth it in the long run to hang on for these last few exams.

Why? First, keeping or increasing your GPA may make you eligible for additional scholarships whereas tanking on your last semester/trimester/quarter could take away some money that your school was going to give you. Also, you need to consider if you ever transfer down the road (I know it seems like it will never happen right now but who knows three years later what will be going on!) you very well may have to send in your high school transcripts again, and you don't want to show that your last stretch at the high school did not go so well.

College students, you hang in there too for many of the same reasons!

How to get through it? That varies of course from person to person, but here is what I recommend:
1. Keep the goal in sight.
2. Keep it in sight but don't freak out about it. I've seen many students spend more time freaking out about the test than preparing for it. I'm pretty sure the test won't bite you (unless you're working with animals, then all bets are off) so you'll be fine.
3. Go outside for a little bit. While I don't recommend studying outside due to the distractions go outside for a walk, bike ride, etc. and do something active for a bit. I'm very adamant about the "outside" factor in this.
4. But try to stay away from the computer and video games when you're trying to concentrate for a test. Wondering what your girlfriend's Facebook status means during the exam or while you're prepping for one isn't going to do either of you any good.
5. Remember that in a few weeks this will be all over with!

Then, go do something fun!

Humourous side note: Spell check just tried to change "senioritis" to "senoritas". And people wonder why I don't trust spell check! Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Grammatical Notes

Forgive me, I have to air this out because it is driving me crazy. I have two major pet peeves with grammar: unnecessary capitalization and homonyms. Take note for scholarship essays!

There is no Reason to capitalize random Nouns that are not proper nouns while writing a Sentence. (See?) Please refer to the capitalization rules at: http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp

Then there are homonyms. They sound alike but are not spelled alike. There, they're, their... you're, your... those are the biggest ones that I see being confused and none of them have remotely the same meaning so they are not interchangeable.

Here are four pages of these words, their definition and rules as to when to use each one if it is confusing (i.e. except and accept) http://www.grammarbook.com/homonyms/confusing-words-1.asp

Why does this come about, you ask? I see them quite frequently on Facebook status updates. Yes, it's "just" a social network, but I believe when many people can see you using grammar incorrectly it kind of looks bad for you. Sure everyone might be doing it, but wouldn't you want to look a little more educated? I also get them quite a bit in requests for scholarship applications, and it makes me worry a little bit that the reliance on computers has taken away the understanding of some of these grammatical rules.

I recall once a letter a friend sent to me to ask why it got such a negative response when she was coaching a youth cheerleading league. It was a letter to the parents of the children asking them to bring the children on time and prepared, and to be at practice every week. It had a fairly angry tone as she was quite exasperated when writing the letter. However, there were so many grammatical and spelling errors in the letter I had to send it back to her and tell her that I would have pulled my child out of a league in which a coach sends out a letter like that- not for the content or what it said but for the gross errors in the writing of the letter itself which reflected terribly on her.

So again, while not everything is of the magnitude of that letter or scholarship applications I think it is good to get in the good practice of knowing these grammatical rules and using them consistently... after all, you never know who is reading your Facebook status or Tweets!

PS- Are you following us on Twitter yet? www.twitter.com/anycollege

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What if my major turns into a nightmare??

I just read an excellent advice column written to a student who had switched majors and was now not happy in the second one either:
http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/04/22/what-if-my-dream-major-turns-into-a-nightmare/

I agree with the author in that it's good to know that sometimes it happens in your junior/senior year of college where you're burned out on the subject and overwhelmed. I would also agree with the "don't jump!" advice given... it's totally worth it in the end.

I would compare my undergrad experience a little bit like a marathon, which I've done a few of (on skis). It seems like a great idea when you're starting out. There is excitement, anticipation and and the feeling of rising to a challenge. This feeling lasts into the race for a few kilometers where it feels like you're flying and could do it forever. Then comes about mid race where you're starting to get a little tired but keep plugging through because, hey, you're halfway!

After that, about 3/4 of the way in I start to wonder why in the world I thought doing this was a good idea. It's not fun at that point, everything hurts and I swear up and down at that point I will never do this again. But I keep going. And going. And going. Then I get into the angry part. I HATE the race and the course and my skis and that harmless tree over there. They're all conspiring to make me miserable. And then... miraculously you can SEE the finish line. I think the last 50 meters or so of the race are truly the longest because you are pushing so hard and it seems like the line stays the same distance away.

Suddenly, though, you've crossed the finish line.

And then, as you start to recover and look back you realize how great the experience was. And what funny things happened along the way. And how it really wasn't so bad. And, most importantly that YOU DID IT!

I think back to my undergrad in much of the same way. Though for the first two attempts for me as soon as the burn hit I jumped ship and tried another college all together. Hindsight, being 20/20, that was a pretty dumb idea. This isn't saying that I screwed my life up, but it's just saying that really I should have reached inside to that part where it's about toughing it out and, well, toughed it out.

So will all of college be a dream and a great time? No, probably not. But will it be worth it when you've made it through? Absolutely! Only instead of a big banner that says FINISH (which I think colleges should have) you get a big stage and a handshake from the president. Still pretty cool...

Friday, April 17, 2009

Applying Online For Free?!?

This concept has been around for a while now so I did some looking into it yesterday and it really surprised me how many schools do this. The college I am attending for my master's program had this, and frankly at the time it appealed to me because of how expensive it was to apply to grad school. For students wanting to apply to multiple colleges the multiple applications can really start ringing up the dollar signs at $30-$75 a pop to apply. Ouch.

So some schools are bucking the trend and making their online application completely free of charge.
Do a quick search on our website and look up these colleges:

Simmons College
Concordia University (OR)
Clarke College
Central Methodist University
Aquinas College
Averett University
Silver Lake College
Hamline University
Regis University
Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology
Ranken Technical College
Viterbo University
Ouachita Community College
Unity College
St. John's University (NY)
Green Mountain College

Totally free to submit an application to these schools. There may be a lot more but this was just on a quick sweep through our member colleges on the site, and what I could find on the first page of the online application.

What I wonder is if this will cause students to apply to schools they may not have or may not be as interested in... I wonder how many attend a school because of being able to apply for free. What I also wonder (I'm very curious today apparently) is how much extra work this might cause an admissions department to weed out students who just applied online because it's free... I don't know. I can't imagine applying to a college I wasn't interested in just because I could, but then again I've seen what my younger brothers who are in high school do when they're bored!

What do you think? Would you submit an application to a school you're not terribly interested in just because it's free? Do you wonder too?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

All or Nothing- Or, a Pedagogical Ponzi Scheme

Please, please please go read this blog about access to technology in classrooms, and take the time to read the comments.

Fascinating.

What a tough question. If one classroom has the opportunity to get additional technology should the school turn it down because all of the classrooms can't get it?

There is another part of this question though that has not come up for debate from what I could see in the comments. It is this: if the school CAN get the equipment but cannot use or maintain it because of existing facilities then should they turn it down?

Again, another tough, tough question.

I particularly enjoyed one comment about the first part of the question (the "fairness" part if you will...) - "Maybe we can’t help all the students, I guess that is an impossible dream. But if we save a class, that is 30 students who will go out and effect 30 more each. Those 900 will save others, it’s exponential. Maybe it’s a pedagogical Ponzi scheme but if we don’t start with a single one, then we still stay at zero forever. "

I think I agree with the camp of "If you can get it than do so, it's better to help 5 students than none." Plus, as many of the commenters pointed out having is not using or using effectively. Simple personality differences in teachers and teaching styles may make some teacher adept at using this technology whereas others may not. Really, is it that beneficial to have a smart board in a classroom of a teacher who will just use it as a replacement for the old fashioned overhead projector and not do anything new with it? And this isn't to say teachers haven't and are not doing now brilliant things with that overhead projector- but there simply are some people who are better suited for the technology than others.

However if you're in the classroom or the teacher or the parent of a student in the class who doesn't get the technology and who is able to use it would it be frustrating? Absolutely!

Again, this is a tough question. I wouldn't want to be an administrator in one of those schools that is facing this question, but I'm sure it's probably pretty common.

Teachers? Students? Counselors? What is your experience with this? Where do you fall?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

College Slogans

I need some help here. I keep coming across colleges who are using the same admissions slogan. And there have been quite a few of them.

"Start Here. Go Anywhere!"

And I keep seeing it!! So do me a favor, will you please? Add as a comment here any school that you know who uses this slogan that you've seen. I think we're going to find a few.

Then... food for thought. Do you think they know other (many other) schools are using this too??

**********************
Part II, totally unrelated. Just read a FANTASTIC article that I have to share. I'm wrapping up my master's degree thesis so this hit home with me:
http://trc.ucdavis.edu/bajaffee/NEM150/Course%20Content/dancing.htm

Excerpt: Everyone knows that today's college students cannot write, but few seem willing to admit that the professors who denounce them are not doing much better. The problem is so blatant there are signs that students are catching on. In my American history survey course last semester, I presented a few writing rules that I intended to enforce inflexibly. The students looked more and more peevish; they looked as if they were about to run down the hall, find a telephone, place an urgent call and demand that someone from the A.C.LU. rush up to campus to sue me for interfering with their First Amendment rights to compose unintelligible, misshapen, sentences.
Finally one aggrieved student raised her hand and said, "You are telling us not to write long, dull sentences, but most of our assigned reading is full of long, dull sentences."

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Virtual Visit

I was presented with an interesting idea last week that after pondering I believe warrants a blog post. (Note: this was supposed to be yesterday's blog.)

The idea is this: To go green on your campus visit just do the virtual visit rather than going to the campus in person. This decreases your carbon footprint by not driving/flying to the college, eating out while you're there, etc. and if you just hop on your computer you can see the campus just as well.

I'm not 100% sure I'm on board with this.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think the idea is great as far as a more environmentally friendly option AND a way to see the campus without spending the money. In these harder economic times it may not be financially viable to physically go to the campus if it's 200 miles away for some families.

However, from what I've seen on the virtual tours I've taken of colleges you will have a few general impressions that can be said on any college campus:
1. The sky is always blue and it's always sunny.
2.The grass is always lush and green on the many green spaces on campus.
3. You can stroll along the fairly empty sidewalks between classes.
4. The other students are all amazingly good looking.
5. Campus is spotless.

None of the things on my list are really that horrible or give a totally false impression of the college, but it makes the school generic. Not that campuses don't keep themselves clean but when 50,000 students take over inevitably there are bits of paper and/or trash blowing around, as well as a LOT of students milling around. Also the green grass makes me laugh- having attended college in MN seeing green grass on campus was something that only happened for a little bit at the beginning of the school year and then again at the very end. And seeing the students milling around or playing football in the green spaces or gathering for whatever reasons students gather is the way you can feel that the college is some place you would like to be or not. Perhaps it's the opposite and there are never students milling around anywhere in real life... either way I don't think you can get the "feel" of a place via looking at some nicely put together marketing images of a college.

Where does this leave the online campus visit? Where I think it has value is when you're in the stage of choosing between 6 colleges but don't want to/can't visit all of them. That could be a major trip (with a major carbon footprint) so if you can get a vague feeling from the online visit and narrow that down to two or three colleges I think that's a good start.

So I'm again a little torn- I see the value of a online campus visit- but overall I never think it should be the final decision when attending a college and it should never ever take the place of actually visiting the college. Just take the hybrid car. :)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Close Encounter of the Strange Kind

Honestly, I had a different topic all picked out for today's blog, but I couldn't just let this experience go from the person who just walked in.

A little background: our offices are quite quiet as we do most of our work on the web and work with most colleges via phone or email. This means very very few people come in to visit who do not have an appointment of some kind here (bringing us marketing materials, applying for a job, fixing something, etc.). My office is the closest to the door and due to our lack of visitors we do not have a "front desk" kind of setup so I typically see people who come in and try to direct them to the correct person/place.

Today a gentleman with a huge bushy heard (his most distinguishing feature) came in and stood at our front counter area, so I asked him if he was here to see someone. Rather than respond to my question he came into my office and asked what this place was, to which I explained that we are an Internet based marketing company for colleges.

"Market... what?" he asked. Realizing maybe I had used some industry lingo and that not everyone really realizes how colleges recruit I explained that we helped high school students find colleges that appeal to them, and help the colleges reach out to high school students who may not have known about them.

After a pause... he says "Oooh. You must have gone to MSUM then." (MSUM= Minnesota State University Moorhead.) "No, I didn't go there." I replied. "Concordia then?" (Again, not really sure why this is relevant... but I feel like I should be polite.) "Nope." again I responded. "You must not be from around here" he then deduced, to which I really puzzled him with my response. "No, I am, but I attended college in Texas for a bit and received my undergraduate degree in Minneapolis."

I'm not sure if this REALLY puzzled him because he thought about it for a moment, said he had been to Texas before, then asked if we had a business card and then told me to contact a school in California where he had lived once because they have a college in that town. Then without saying another word he left.

Quite frankly, I was left a little puzzled from the whole thing. I wasn't sure if he was looking to find out if we are hiring (He was dressed in a button down shirt and slacks) or was just in the building and decided to see what's on the 7th floor, or something else. I was quite confused, especially as he just out of the blue turned around and left without ever really telling me why he was here.

Occasionally someone from another floor sees our company name on the building directory and will come up and say "I'm Jane from the third floor and we were just wondering what you do up here!" but that's about as random a visitor as we ever get.

So today's odd visit required a blog. Anyone have any ideas as to what he may have been looking for or doing??? Oh Mondays...

Friday, April 10, 2009

Two blogs in one day? Must be something!

I couldn't let this go without sharing it:

The Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design has one of the coolest campus visit ideas I've ever seen. If you live more than 150 miles from the college and schedule a visit, you will get a $300 credit on your first tuition bill.

What a brilliant idea- especially with the economy in the tank right now! And with the reimbursement coming on the tuition bill they ensure that only serious students are taking advantage of it to see the campus. It also gets students who may not come to the campus but are very intersted in the school to really consider making the trip. I'm a believer in once you visit the campus you're interested in you'll be 100% sold on it.

Anyway- kudos to RMCAD for a brilliant idea!

A good run!

It's pretty cool to see when a collegiate sports team does well how the community rallies behind them, especially in the case of a smaller school.

Quick disclaimer: I live in Minnesota, which I believe means I'm pre-disposed to be a huge hockey fan.

The Bemidji State University Beaver's run to the Frozen Four in the NCAA Men's Hockey tournament was incredible and super fun to watch. Once they upset Notre Dame I think the entire state of Minnesota rallied behind them. Suddenly in places that only vaguely knew about BSU were sporting "Beaver Fever" stuff all over the place. I've never seen that happen with the U of MN Gophers or the UND Sioux. Yes people get excited about them when they do well but it's not the little-kid-at-Christmas kind of excitement that I saw across the entire state with BSU's run to the finals. Even my dad called me earlier in the week to ask if I was going to make it a point to watch the game. (Unfortunately due to work and my commute I only caught the 3rd period...)

Anyway, I thought it was super cool, though a little heartbreaking when they lost last night to Miami Ohio. Don't get me wrong though, this Frozen Four has been super cool with all of these lesser known teams in and not the usual suspects. I think this was definitely a great year for college hockey!

And even though they didn't take the title, I think everyone in Minnesota who followed it was pretty excited about the game and the run to the semi finals. It's cool to see how much a collegiate team can bring together people from all over the place, even some who might normally cheer for another team.

I'm excited for the finals tomorrow...

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Summer sessions = savings?

Similar to another blog post about the three year plan versus the four year plan for a bachelor's degree, I was presented with the idea of taking summer classes to help reduce costs.

I wonder if that is true?

There is the obvious payment of tuition fees, but I have heard (don't know if it's true) that some schools do reduced tuition to attend summer classes? Anyone else heard this?

The other thing I was thinking of was ability to hold a job while you're in school. If you spread out your credits a little thinner each semester/trimester due to taking classes in the summer while you wouldn't have as much time in the summer you would have more time during the course of the traditional school year enabling you to work more hours during that time than not.

I would think, and of course this depends on what industry you work in and the city, but you would be able to bring in more income during the school year by working a few more hours part time all year than by only working full time in the summer.

In addition, while the summer courses tend to be somewhat accelerated (in my experience) the classes tend to be a little smaller and I found them to have a slightly more engaged group of students. This may have only been my observation, but I always liked my summer classes.

As far as graduating sooner, it would depend on how many classes you took over the summer and how that worked into your overall schedule. I still hear of it happening where a student gets ahead of schedule with class completion only to have to wait until spring semester to take that one last class that is only offered in the spring or every other year... etc.

Anyone else have observations on summer classes? Help/hurt finances?

Monday, April 6, 2009

Sneak Peek at Article

Here's an article that's going to be in the member newsletter for member colleges in April. I've blogged about this in the past but here's the "official" article going to colleges:

The Changing Admissions Funnel

There is no doubt that the ever increasing usage of the internet by high school students is changing the way that admissions personnel are able to predict the enrollment numbers for each semester. With college websites getting more and more informative and students becoming savvier about finding information, response rates to conventional methods of recruiting are quickly declining due to many students choosing not to identify themselves until very late in the decision making process. For many of the 2009 Noel Levitz surveys and white papers the focus has been on helping colleges rethink their admissions funnel from inquiry to enrollee to more accurately predict student numbers going into each college session.

Much of this change is a side effect of a good website. Having a website that allows students to not only learn about entrance requirements but also student life and make a connection to the school before ever telling the school s/he is interested can be good and bad for the admissions department. On one hand the school is unaware of the student and cannot reach out to him/her, but on the other hand the student is already making the connection via blogs, videos and other media on the website as well as ultimately reducing the workload in the admissions office. The NRCCUA president, Don Munce said of this change: “Student search must shift from being a feedback mechanism to a brand awareness initiative that uses a multi-year, multi-pronged approach— rather than a single search campaign—to identify and communicate with students in target markets.” (2009) According to the latest Noel Levitz Survey (2009) students are less likely to send in a feedback inquiry based on the information they find on the web, and there has been a 10% increase in the past year to an average 57% of students who do not identify themselves before starting the enrollment process. (Noel Levitz, 2009)

Another effect of the web is the online application. The ease of which this can be filled out and submitted is changing the nature of how they are processed at the college end. Results are beginning to show that the web applicant is a less committed applicant, but this is offset by a larger number of web applicants. Another 18% of the students who begin a web application do not return to the website to finish it. (Noel Levitz, 2009) In this new application funnel Noel Levitz has found a slightly different set of numbers compared to the traditional admissions funnel using conventional recruiting practices. The new average benchmarks for each step in the admissions process they found were: 23% went from inquiry to application, of those applications 68.5% were admitted, and of those admitted 34.5% enrolled in classes. (2009) Looking at this a different way it could be said that in a pool of 100 web based inquiries, 23 applied, 15.75 were admitted and 5.4 actually started classes. (Incidentally, this is close to what many colleges with Anycollege.com are reporting from Information Request results. A school receiving between 90-120 Information Requests in a year can get around 5-6 enrollments from that lead source alone. Depending on the institution of course, this can be more or less- we would love to hear your results!)

In conclusion, much of the conversation in 2009 not only through Noel Levitz but also on blogs and Twitter for higher education admissions and marketing has been on trying to figure out how to accurately predict how many students will actually shake out of the online inquiries or applications. Many of the highly active higher-ed bloggers agree with Noel Levitz in recommending that online inquiries and applicants be subjected into a different funnel than the students who have been conventionally recruited. This seems to make sense, as the students has a completely different sense of the college when they finally choose to make their presence known to the school, and will be an interesting field to watch as colleges adapt to this type of prospective student!


Sources:

Noel Levitz. Retooling the Enrollment Funnel. (2009) Retrieved on March 30th from: https://www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Papers+and+Reports/Campuswide+Issues.htm

Noel Levitz. Fall 2008 Funnel Benchmarks. (2009) Retrieved on March 31st from https://www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Papers+and+Reports/ResearchLibrary/Fall+2008+Admissions+Funnel+Benchmarks.htm

Ruben, Rachel. Blog. (2009) Retrieved on March 31st from: https://www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Papers+and+Reports/Campuswide+Issues.htm

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Insider Lingo

Finally back in the office! Even the dog was sick of me being at home, yesterday she went back into the basement and put herself into her kennel to sleep of her own accord rather than her bed in the living room. (She normally never goes there without prompting unless she has done something bad.)

Anyway- I just read a summary of the new Noel Levitz Class of 2009 E Expectations that they do each year to determine how internet marketing is affecting current high school seniors in their search for a college. (This is one of those really nerdy publications I look forward to reading and comparing to the previous year...)

One of their suggestions was not to use "Inside Lingo" when talking to students. I was reminded of this when at the college I previously worked for I would often hear admissions representatives refer to various programs/segements of the school by initials... "Oh, you're interested in CJ but you're not sure about your FA?" (CJ= Criminal Justice, FA=Financial Aid). The best one though was when I heard one of the receptionists answer the phone right after I started working there- when she was asked to speak with an admissions rep, she asked "An inside rep?" to which she got the response "Well, yes one that is inside would be preferable... do you have admissions reps outside?" Inside Admissions was anyone dealing with students in the immediate locale of the school who could come in to talk about the school rather than via phone... but she didn't really know how to explain this so she told him "We have inside, national or high school admissions, which do you want"... which really ticked the person off because they had no clue what the definitions of each were.

Occasionally I notice there is a difference between schools as well as to how they refer to prospective students... and when I cross lingo between schools they get confused too.

So moral of the story... know who you're talking to and speak their language. It's not fun to be on the receiving end of someone not making a whole lot of sense. Students, any experience with having no clue what your admissions person is talking about?