By Jeremy Tiers, Vice President of Admissions Services
2 minute read
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been getting questions from my newsletter community about communicating with unresponsive inquiries – particularly those who visited campus earlier this year.
As you might imagine, there are multiple reasons why a student would ghost a college.
But, in our conversations with thousands of prospective students we have been able to identify four of the most common:
- Your emails and texts sound like mass marketing messages. As I’ve shared before, the overwhelming majority of students continue to indicate that most of the communications they receive from colleges and universities feel somewhat personal at best. That does little to peak their interest and oftentimes they just swipe and delete or completely ignore and move on.
- They’re busy and overwhelmed. Senior year, the college search, possibly a part-time job, etc.
- They’re actually interested but they don’t know what to do first. Remember, fear and anxiety control so many of the decisions that students make during their college search. In a lot of cases they need you to recognize and validate their fear and then create an opportunity for them to engage.
- They’ve decided your school isn’t a good fit and they don’t want to tell you “No”. Gen Z has a very hard time telling people “No.” It’s a lot easier for them to ghost you, avoid the tough conversation, and hope that eventually you just decide to move on.
In addition to making your communications feel more personal, consider creating a short and direct email that comes from their admissions counselor. No hyperlinks or smart button linked to your application, and no “fluff” or bullet points about your school.
Instead, tell the student you’re reaching out to make sure they’re doing okay because you understand how busy and overwhelming everything can be. Then, list a few different options and ask which number sounds most like them (options could include – I’ve finished filling out all my college applications; I’m still doing research and I haven’t started applying; I’m overwhelmed and don’t know where to start). Ask them to reply back today or tomorrow if they can.
Another option would be to create a short text message that tells them what you think they might be thinking. Instead of giving them multiple options, pick one as a way to prompt the student to either agree or disagree with it. Sometimes that’s easier than verbalizing why they haven’t done something or how they feel.
If you struggle to come up with a personalized message, reply back to this email or drop me a note. I’m happy to offer up some quick, and yes FREE, advice.
And if you found this article helpful, please forward it to someone else on your campus who could also benefit from reading it.