Designing and Implementing an Effective Student Search: Part One
Dr. Douglas Spadaro
President
David Waggoner
Vice President
Premier Communications
Among the multitude of tasks that face college admissions and enrollment professionals, the design and implementation of an effective student search is certainly one of the most important. It not only provides the main pool of prospects for admission, but it is often the manner in which the institution introduces itself to candidates. By providing an impressive “first look,” the search can be key in attracting the caliber of student that best fits with the college’s offerings and objectives. This article will explore the design of an effective search as well as its implementation and follow-up.
Company Background
Premier Collegiate Communications was founded in 1992 by collegge administrators who recognized the need for specailty communications in the admissions arena. Mass marketing techniques were viewed as ineffective as they often did not reflect the quality of the institution, the personal nature of the admissions process, nor the importance of each potential candidate. In response to these issues, Premier pioneered the use of personalized communications via multiple channels along with a consistent schedule of communication tailored to each student. Premier provides its customers with a unique combination in admissions marketing as we are able to design, produce, and physically or electronically mail all of the communications required by college admissions professionals, This provides a “one-stop shop” for admissions where the responsibility for the effectiveness of communications is concentrated in one vendor, rather than spread out among many firms that often have competing goals.
Premier’s President, Doug Spedaro, has served as a faculty member and administrator at several prestigious colleges and universities, both public and private. During his academic career, Doug engineered the integration of admissions, business office, and academic systems so as to permit sophisticated analysis of student demographic trends. Prior to entering higher education, Doug has a successful career in private industry in the Information Technology and Financial areas of several Fortune 500 companies. His academic background, along with his business experience, give him a unique insight into the challenges facing higher education, the competitive nature of the admissions process, and the analysis of complex markets and customer data.
David Waggoner, Vice President, has had an admissions career spanning more than two decades. Prior to joining Premier, David served as Vice President for Enrollment Management at a large private university where he developed and implemented an innovative strategy featuring academic award programs based on high school GPA and standardized test scores. This strategy, along with agressive telemarketing and systematic direct mail communication to prospects, resulted in the universituy doubling its full-time undergraduate enrollment during David’s tenure. David has also worked as an enrollment management consultant which afforded him the opportunity to spend time on numerous college campuses around the country. Finally, Mr. Waggoner served as chief enrollment officer at a for-profit institution in New York City where he successfully enrolled record numbers of students.
The diverse talents of Premier’s senior management, the dedication and professionalism of its loyal staff, its ability to design, produce, and send all under one roof, and its superior customer focus and service have resulted in a steady and growing customer base. Premier’s clients span from coast to coast and represent all facets of higher education. Although the majority of our customers are private institutions, we also work with several state universities as well as a handful of “for-profit” colleges. This broad customer base has provided Premier with tremendous experience in all aspects of college admission communication. We are able to draw on this experience to serve our clients with any of their communication needs.
Search Design
The first step in designing an effective search is to clearly define the goals of the enrollment area as enumerated by the college community. Once these goals are defined, they must be realistically assessed based on current student demographics and the insitution’s ability to provide a fit with potential candidates. For example, all of our long-term clients have moved well beyond the basic global search technique to the point where they are systematically refining their search perameters. These refinements include emphasizing specific higher GPA and exam scores, expanding geography, increasing diversity, or implementing new majors and programs. As such, Premier routinely performs “what-if” scenarios for those clients using actual search data.
Once everyone has agreed on the objectives of the search, we then focus on the data sources. The College Board (SAT) and American College Testing ACT must be considered. Both of these services offer the ability to purchase student names withing a month of the student taking the respective test. Additionally, the College Board offers an “all student” option, which creates a standing order that automatically selects student names as they are made available from the tests.
There are also several private student data services that poll high school students on their career interests. The advantage of using these services is that they provide an interim source of student data between regularly scheduled national SAT and ACT exams. They might also be more appropriate sources for institutions that do not require standardized test scores. The disadvantages include the fact that they often include students with no post-secondary plans as well as the fact that not all school systems permit these private firms to poll their students.
It appears as though the college recruiting cycle keeps moving earlier and earlier in the high school career. Both SAT and ACT offer the ability to purchase sophomore high school student names. Several of our clients take advantage of this; however, most continue to start the recruiting cycle in earnest when the student reaches the junior level in high school. Regardless of whether or not you choose sophomores or juniors, you MUST have a communications plan in place to stay in touch with these students after the initial contact. Searching a sophomore student only makes sense if you have a plan to regularly communicate with them throughout the remainder of their high school career. You might even do more harm than good by contacting a sophomore via a search and then ignoring them for a year or more until your regular communications flow begins.
Premier has developed comprehensive communication strategies that begin at both the sophomore and junior high school levels. We have found the key to be the pace at which student contact is made. When we wstart a student in the recruiting cycle as a sophomore, we communicate with them less frequently than if they are started as a junior – but we do communicate. The pace picks up so that in their senior year they are receiving information from our clients in various forms two or three times per month.
Finally, all student search services offer the ability to customize searches based on numerous student parameters such as geography, major interest, sports and extra-curricular preferences, educational goals and grades and scores. Additionally, Premier has developed a search technique that allows us to determine an individual student’s scores and grades directly from the search data. This technique has proved invaluable in offering our clients the ability to discuss specific scholarships and awards available to the student in the initial search mailing so as to catch the student’s, and their parent’s, attention. We have found that the ability to communicate financial incentives at the beginning of the recruiting cycle dramatically improves search results.
Premier has also pioneered the use of using student search parameters specific to the goals of the college and the particular majors offered. For example, one of our clients has an undergraduate program that is unique and nationally recognized. As we design their search, we target a national audience for that program with different GPA and test-score criteria than for their other programs where geography might play the most important role in a student’s college choice. Many of our clients also have as a goal increased diversity on campus. By carful manipulation of the search criteria we are able to meet this objective.
Visit tomorrow for part two of this article: Implementing the Search.