By Jeremy Tiers, Vice President of Admissions Services
3 minute read
No matter how good you and your colleagues are at storytelling and making a logical case as to why it makes sense for a student to consider or choose your school, there are two opinions that are almost impossible to change when it comes to their mindset.
The first one is fairly obvious – their major or academic program of interest. You either have it, or you don’t. Number two and the focus of this article continues to be one of the most overlooked reasons that students don’t choose your school:
Your location.
When students are doing their college research they come up with some vision for the kind of town and area they want (or don’t want) to go to school in.
If your school is in a small town and the student is looking for a city setting, they’re probably going to tell you “no” in the end. If your college is in the northeast but they really want to go to school in the south, they’re probably going to tell you “no” in the end. If they want to go a little farther from home, but your school is only a 30-45 minute drive away, in the end they’re probably not coming.
To be clear, I’m not saying those things will never happen, but I am telling you that 10 years of Tudor Collegiate Strategies data says they’re fairly rare.
So, if we know you’re unlikely to change a student’s mind, and we also know that the majority of this generation is hesitant to straight out tell you that the location of your school isn’t a good fit, it’s imperative that you uncover these potential problems early.
The first thing you need to do each year with new inquiries or prospects is assume that all of them are going to have some kind of unspoken objection or question about where your campus is located. Pay special attention to students who live a few states away, and those who have grown up in an opposite environment than you offer (i.e. city vs. small town, or cold state vs. warm state).
Ask every single student one or both of the following questions:
“Why does our location seem like it would be a good fit for you?”
“How do you feel about where our school is located?”
You can also ask, “What kind of college location do you feel would be the wrong type of place for you?” As I’ve shared in previous articles, It’s often easier for students (or any of us) to talk about what they don’t want or don’t like.
If the student stumbles over their words or offers a very generalized and basic answer, versus a well thought out one, that’s a red flag. Proceed with caution and be sure to ask follow-up questions so you can figure out if your school is actually high on their list or just one of many.
Ask, listen, assess and move forward accordingly.
If it’s hard to get them excited about your location then they’re probably going to tell you “no,” or ghost you and not tell you anything, in the end.
If you’d like to talk more about something I said in this article, let’s do it! Send me a note at jeremy@dantudor.com
And if you found this article helpful, please forward it to someone else on your campus who could also benefit from reading it.