By Jeremy Tiers, Vice President of Admissions Services
3 minute read
Throughout the summer I’ve shared multiple articles that contain tips to help generate conversations with this next class of prospective students.
A frequent question I’ve been getting while leading training workshops is, “What do most inquiries want to know about right away?”
Understanding which topics the majority of students are interested in during the early stages of their college search is extremely important.
Before I share that data, let me tell you what most don’t want – A person they don’t know trying to immediately “sell” them and push them to take action.
Whenever you’re recruiting a new inquiry I strongly encourage you to focus more on creating a conversation instead of pushing them to visit or apply. Would you ask someone to marry you on the first date? You could, but it’s not a good idea and you’re not likely to get a “yes.”
The college search is a process and asking a student to take a big next step like setting up a campus visit or starting their application becomes easier when they feel like you’re trying to get to know them and help them figure out if your school has some (or maybe a lot) of the things they’re looking for.
Over the past 6 years, besides a college or university having the academic major or program that a student is interested in, here are (in order) the top three topics that the majority of traditional students want information about next.
- Financial Aid (30.3%)
- Careers related to the major or program they’re interested in (23.4%)
- Student life and activities (18.4%)
All of those consistently rank higher than your dorms and your school’s location.
To make your conversations with new inquiries feel more personal, consider inserting a message early in your communication flow from the student’s admissions counselor that says some version of, “At this point students usually tell me they want information about things like financial aid, careers related to the major they’re thinking about, or what campus life is like. What would you like to see us talk about next?”
Once you get their feedback, remember, you don’t have to tell them everything about a topic all at once. You just need to make whatever you share relatable and helpful, and do your best to learn more about the student’s wants, needs, concerns, etc. Also, don’t forget about incorporating storytelling to help you make your key points and provide that all important current student point of view.
Here are a few talking points to consider for each of the aforementioned topics:
Financial aid
- Explaining that the prices they see on college websites aren’t what most students end up paying.
- Sharing a scholarship chart to give them a better idea what they could qualify for.
- Explaining how to look for outside scholarships.
- Sharing other grants your school offers (ex. visit grant, out of state grant).
- Sharing some of the things your school’s financial aid team can help with.
- Sharing stories of current students who chose to pay more when they had less expensive options.
Careers related to the major or program they’re interested in
- What kinds of careers have recent graduates gone into? What companies are they working for? What’s the average starting salary?
- What internships or experiential learning opportunities could they have as a student?
- What resources does your school have to help prepare them for life after college?
Student life and activities
- What do your students do for fun when they’re not in class (both on and off campus)?
- What are the fun or unique traditions that take place each year?
- What are the various clubs and orgs that exist? And how do you get involved in those?
- How would students describe your campus community and the atmosphere?
One final point if you happen to work in enrollment communications or marketing. Make sure those three topics appear early in your communication flow.
Want to talk more about something I said in this article? Reply to this email and we’ll start a conversation.
And if you found this article helpful, please forward it to someone else on your campus who could also benefit from reading it.