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Table of Contents
Background ............................................................................ 5
Findings ................................................................................ 12
Recommendations ............................................................... 23
Appendices
Survey ................................................................................... 26
Experiment ........................................................................... 36
Many parents rely on college counselors during the college application and
decision process. However, some were frustrated with the services their student’s
high schools offered. We believe having specialized NAICU college counselors could
provide families with information about private education that they may not have
had access to otherwise and may lead to higher enrollment in private higher
education. Similarly, we suggest the NAICU creates an Instagram account to
highlight their beautiful member schools. In both of our primary and secondary
research we found that perspective college students often use social media as part
of their research before choosing a school. Campus representatives could also be a
great method of spreading the NAICU’s message. Campus reps would be
responsible for creating content highlighting their particular school for Instagram.
This program would easily build an incredible Instagram for the NAICU as well as
building awareness on college campuses and through social media followers. There
is also great potential for high school senior reps. These can be current high school
seniors interested in a private higher education. Through training, they could be
taught how to answer their classmates questions about private education as well as
drumming up interest.
In both our primary and secondary research we found that the financial obligation
of a private higher education scares many families away. We believe that the NAICU
should have a scholarship program. Highschool seniors would apply to the
scholarship with a resume as well as an essay. The essay should focus on why they
would like a private higher education and why it is currently unavailable to them.
This would be a great tactic to not only draw positive attention to the NAICU but to
also make a huge difference in some students' lives.
We are doing research for the NAICU in order to increase awareness of its existence
as well as the positive impact that this organization has had on private, non-profit
higher education across the country. The NAICU as a whole has been a major
partner with these universities with regards to making private higher education
more accessible to everyone, as well as allowing those who may not have seen
private education as an available option to see the flexibility that private colleges
and universities have.
Also, while the mission statement for the NAICU is available on their website is
available, we believe that the clarity of this message could be enhanced. This
statement is one that should be relatively understood with regards to what the
NAICU should do. A clear mission statement says the purpose of a brand or
association, while also explaining a deeper meaning and drive to complete this
purpose. Adding this second layer to the mission statement will create a more
human aspect to the NAICU that we believe is crucial for adding to its impact and
awareness across all demographics.
Strengths: Weaknesses:
- Transparency of the - Lack of organization history
organization - Lack of clarity on what the
- Understands current updates organization actually does to
and information within the field achieve their goals
- Current target audience - Lack of awareness/presence of
receives messages well organization
Opportunities:-
To expand messaging to larger Threats:-
target demographic 2025 class size drop
- Raise awareness among - Student debt crisis
prospective students and parents - Smaller private universities are
- Find unique way to market and not doing well
advertise schools with larger
available budgets
Our group wanted to gain insight into the tactics used to narrow down college options,
how do people find their alma maters? Phoenix Branding wanted to find out and looked
at secondary research, conducted expert interviews, experiments, a focus group, and
collected a survey to see how people treat their college decision process and what
behaviors they engaged in. We felt it was imperative to find what people actually did
before making their choice and how they prepared for their choice such as visitation,
councillor support, online research, advertisement attention, and other actions that
determined their college choice.
It was also key for us to see young people’s and parents opinions of private colleges and
public universities. Our client being NAICU and fighting for the desires of private
institutions, it was important for us to understand the recent college prospect’s initial and
final interpretations on the differences, advantages and disadvantages of private and
public organizations. Doing this allows us to appropriately recommend our client to
highlight private school’s strengths and strategize its weaknesses best to its target
audience.
We began the online survey with four nominal demographic questions so that we
may gain perspective on who and where the respondents are. The survey then
follows with questions that were formed for validity and reliability. It begins with
interval questions that include styles like the likert scale, such as number five, and
the semantic differential scale, such as questions four and six. Interval questions
allows for respondents to specifically measure their level of agreement with the
stated prompt which helps us as researchers define the consumers psychographics.
Following this, the survey delves into ratio style questions that allow respondents to
provide relative value and definitive answers in relation to context. This is shown in
question number ten which asks the survey participants to distribute ten points
amongst the different qualities of colleges based on importance. Our survey
questions were constructed strategically to gain insight on what respondents value
in a college education, what their perceptions on private versus public higher
education is, and to gauge their general feelings about college education. Within
our survey we made it imperative to use a wide variety of questions so that we may
get our respondents to think about similar questions with different perspectives.
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Experiment
In order to depthen our research perspective, our team conducted five individual
experiments over the week of November 24, 2019. Our experiment participants were
mothers of current college students and soon to be college students. We initiated
our experiment by showing the participants several college promotion videos from
different types of schools, including private, public, and community colleges. After
every individual video we asked our participants their general feelings on the video
such as what compelled them and what distracted them. The answers from the
questions asked about the individual videos gave us insight on what a well done
promotion video consists of and what characteristics deter parents of students from
that college. At the end of all video showings, of which there were five, we asked our
participants four questions about the general characteristics and feelings of college
promotional videos. This helped us identify common themes, what values were
prominent in the video that should stay, what values were not addressed, and the
overall feeling towards the question; do college promotional videos work?
11
40% of students turn down their first choice schools due to financials.
Average tuition for a private school in the 2018-2019 school year was $35,676
compared to in-state public universities and colleges with an average tuition of
$9,716 while out-of-state averaged at $21,629.
Private schools offer more scholarships, sometimes leading to privately educated
students having less debt than publicly educated students.
88% of parents consider the availability of financial aid to be a very important
factor when deciding on a school, compared to only 74% of parents who think
student graduation rates are very important.
71% of parents say that paying for higher education is the second largest
investment in their familial financial life while 30% say it is their largest financial
obligation.
Students use social media of a school to help aid their decision during the
college process.
Sports can have a major effect on enrollment rates. (see charts below)
12
Meet Lisa
TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE
CREATED BY
PHOENIX BRANDING
This profile was created to help the NAICU become more aware of their
target audience and to gain a deeper understanding of them. Lisa was
created to demonstrate one of their most important target audiences,
middle class mothers.
DEMOGRAPHICS GEOGRAPHY
Lisa lives in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her husband commutes to
Age: 48
New York City by train for work. With a population of over
Gender: Female
24,000 people, she does not know everyone but has developed a
Household Income: $78,000
close community in her neighborhood. Most of her neighbors also
Life: Married with two children have children around the same age of hers and they have grown
One 8th grader and one 11th grader up together. They have been carpooling to school and soccer
Race: Caucasian practice together for years. There is also an elderly couple who
Religion: Christian lives on her street. Her children take turns mowing their lawn for
Social Class: White collar, college educated them. While Lisa does not like the chilly winters. she did not see
moving to a warmer climate to be an option as her extended
PSYCHOGRAPHICS family lives in the Northeast.
13
Meet Lisa
TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE
MOOD BOARD
Not relating to brands, these images further explain Lisa looks like and things she enjoys..
14
Meet Lisa
TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE
HYPOTHESIS
Lisa knows more about her kids than anyone else. She has high hopes for them and has a
large influence over their lives. While her kids might not admit it, they really value her
opinion. This makes her an extremely influential person in the college decision process.
Reaching Lisa can be key in exposing a larger group to the idea of private higher education.
Her and her fellow mom friends chat constantly and by exposing just one of them to the
idea, they could potentially expand it to their entire friend group. Lisa is an avid Facebook
fan and has a large network of friends on the site. She has also just began using Instagram
after one of her children created an account for her. A great way to expose Lisa to a new
idea is through Facebook. If done the right way, she might even share a post and further
spread the message of private higher education. Her Facebook friends include high school
and college friends who also have children around the same age as hers. The NAICU does
not need to reach every mother in the world, by targeting Lisa's, they will spread the
message within a community for you.
Once her kids are in college and she gets rid of the minivan, she will secretly miss it
Sometimes when she is home alone during the day, she likes to have a few glasses of wine
She smoked cigarettes in college but would never tell her children
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16
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"What would they do if we were struggling, how would they offer us assistance? I would
want to know further than like academic help, what services do they have for mental
health?
"I would want to know what they want from their students. What are their expectations,
and what a student needs to do to excel at that school. Is the school just trying to push
students through to graduation or are they really invested in you as a person and your
individual goals."
"I would want to know what they want from their students. What are their expectations,
and what a student needs to do to excel at that school. Is the school just trying to push
students through to graduation or are they really invested in you as a person and your
individual goals."
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Stockport College was a favorite for 2 subjects but the least favorite of 1.
Student voices in the videos are essential.
There is no cookie cutter mold for a perfect video, Stockport's video was very different
from the others and participants liked that.
Videos that highlighted community and growth were the most well received.
Too much professor and faculty voices did not help the mothers image their children
at the school.
Facts are important, but should not be the basis of the video.
Below is a word cloud based on the repetition of words throughout the experiment.
19
When asked if they wished they had more say in the college process, all of the mothers
answered yes. In reality, they are aware that this is not a decision they can make for their
child. However, parents often feel like they know best for their child and this continues into
the college process. One participant said, "I would love to be able to pick a school for my
child but I know that is not how this works. In the end, I just want my children to be happy,
safe, and positive members of society.” Even though they wish they had more control, they
seemed to realize that this was their child's choice and they were just there to guide them.
20
Pertinent Information
Through our extensive primary and secondary research we highlighted certain particular
points of emphasis throughout our findings. Many of these points related to each other and
helped us connect our theoretical predictions into evidence based claims through our
research. These findings served as our basis for creating recommendations to NAICU.
One of the biggest information needs going into the research for this project was to find
out how involved most college students’ parents were in their children’s college decision
process. Through our survey responses and secondary research we found confidence in
that mothers will largely be involved in the decision of where their child goes and more
often than not it is understood that the parents will be paying for at least some of their
child’s education.
Given how important a guardian can be to the decision of a child, we put a lot of emphasis
in the views and wants of the parents. We deduced through our secondary research, expert
mom experiment, and expert interviews that college promos work and are underutilised
by colleges. Many of the moms were impressed by these videos and many students agree
that college promo videos work. For some reason they are being undervalued and not used
smartly enough by any sect of colleges. It is also important for us to equally highlight the
different values of the schools not just focus on one area as we learned from expert
interviews.
More research on moms concludes that mom friend groups can be key in the production
of new ideas to these mom friend groups to eventually influence their children and their
child’s college decision. Through our research we found that infiltrating one mom per
friend group is only essential because our findings show that moms connect with each
other and share about the college decision process how it relates to each other kids and
friend’s kids differently.
It was also clear through survey findings and focus groups that people, specifically students,
perceived private colleges as more expensive. Students also tend to use their resources
around them and gather information from those with relations to them such as their
guidance counsellors, parents, friends, and mutual friends alike according to secondary
research. We believe NAICU should defend these weaknesses and embrace these strengths
amongst their target audience playing a key role in directing new traffic to their
organization members.
21
Similar to the alignment of limitations for our survey and focus group, our team had the
same limitations for our expert interviews and experiments. This limitation was that we
were only able to interview and conduct our experiment with mothers who have children
in private universities. This presents a large margin for bias in our findings which impacts
our ability to recommend ways to expand the consumer demographic for the NAICU.
Furthermore, only having access to mothers limits our perspective on what fathers or other
guardians of students may believe. With a lack of knowledge beyond a mother’s
perspective on private higher education, our data fails to represent the beliefs and values of
fathers or other parent figures in a student’s life.
22
Recomendations
Hire Campus Representative:
We recommend hiring both high school senior reps and college student reps to promote
the NAICU. This will help students and parents understand who the NAICU is and what the
association does. By having reps on campus, it will give allow the NAICU receive more
attention and interest with students, parents, and faculty.
23
Recomendations
Create Promotional Video:
Based on experiment research, promotional videos are a great way to showcase each
university and the experiences each bring for students. The NAICU would benefit from
creating promotional videos to enhance who the association is, what the NAICU does, and
how students and parents can benefit from the association.
24
Recomendations
Make NAICU Scholarships:
Based on our survey and secondary research, we conducted that private universities are not
affordable for most families. The number one answer to our survey question was that
financials can be a major factor when picking a school. By creating NAICU scholarship
programs, it will allow for students and parents to have a choice in going to a private
university and sending their child to a private university without the burden of financial
obligations. An essay based scholarship on “why you think a private education is for you
and why it is currently not accessible to you” would be the questions students have to
answer in order to gain a certain amount of scholarship money.
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Appendices
Intro
This survey is intended to gauge your honest opinions about
higher education. The survey is completely anonymous. We
are looking for a diverse group of college students. Please
answer the following questions as honestly and accurately
as possible, there is no right or wrong answers. Thank you
for taking the time to take our survey, it will take about 15
minutes to complete.
General
Are you a current college student?
Yes No
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1. Do you believe your student will attend any form of higher education?
Yes No
2.
How many colleges do you think your student will apply to? (fill in
answer below)
___________
3.
What type of higher education is your student looking at? Select all that
apply.
4.
If it was solely your decision, what type of higher education would you
pick for your student?
Other: _______________
5.
Rank the following characteristics by what you think is most important
when choosing a college. (1-6, 1 being the most important)
Cost Sports
Opportunities
General Notoriety
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7.
Private universities are.. (place a check in the appropriate dashes)
a. Expensive - - - - - - Cheap
b. Better- - - - - - Worse
c. Beautiful - - - - Ugly
8.
Public universities universities are.. (place a check in the appropriate
dashes)
a. Expensive - - - - - - Cheap
b. Better- - - - - - Worse
c. Beautiful - - - - Ugly
10.
When choosing a college, what are the most important qualities? You
have 10 points to distribute however you see fit.
Classes
Apperance Cost
offered
Study abroad
Community Notoriety
programs
Post grad
Sports
General
oppotunities
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to participate our survey. You
time is greatly appreciated.
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201-650-0628 | Elon University
&
Focus Group
For this focus group, the goal is to better understand the
college selection process from the perspective of current
college students. I want to know what types of schools they
looked at, which type they chose to actually attend, and
what was important to them during this process. Students
are one of the most influential opinions during the college
decision process aside from parents. I also hope to find out
more about the financial aspect of higher education. For
example, who is paying for the majority of their education,
do they have loans, and how much of a factor was the
financial aspect during their decision process. Through the
two planned activities, I will ask these questions as follow
ups to the more obvious questions that are directly related
to the activity.
Intro: 1 minute
Hello all, thank you for taking the time today to participate
on our focus group. There are no right or wrong answers
here, the only thing we care about it honesty and to hear
from all of you. While this session is being recorded, it will
be transcribed and then video will be deleted. The transcript
will be kept anonymous. Before we begin, I need you all to
read and sign the consent form as well as answer a brief
questionnaire. Are there any questions?
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Yes No
0-1 2 3 4 5+
30
Activity 2: 16 minutes
Activity 1
Pretend the current college application process does not
exist. Instead, students are able to interview colleges and
ask whatever questions they would like and the school must
answer honestly.
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Expert Interviews
By conducting expert interviews, we hope to gain further insight into the
minds of mothers of soon to be college students. The college decision
process is not just a daunting and scary process for students, but also
their parents. In these interviews, we will be specifically looking at her
concerns. By looking at her concerns, we will be able to see where the
current college process is lacking in support. From there, we will be able
to better make recommendations for the NAICU regarding ways to
support parents during the college decision process. If the NAICU is able
to properly supporting parents, they may be more likely to want to send
their child to a private university. Listed below are some example
questions.
1. What part of the college decision process is the hardest for you?
2. What part of the decision process do you think is hardest for your
child?
3. Do you feel like you agree with your child on views of higher
education?
4. Do you feel like you have all the information you need to help your
child pick a college?
6. Who in your life do you feel like you can turn to with questions
regarding the college decision process?
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1. What part of the college decision process is the hardest for you?
2. What part of the decision process do you think is the hardest for your
child?
3. Do you feel like you agree with your child on views of higher
education?
4. Do you feel like you have all the information you need to help your
child pick a college?
5.Do you feel properly supported in the process?
6. Who in your life do you feel like you can turn to with questions
regarding the college decision process?
7. Do you wish you had more/less say in the college decision process?
8. Who do you think if your most valuable resource when it comes to the
decision process?
9. Who do you feel is your child’s most valuable resource?
10. Is there anything you wished you had known prior to this process?
34
A promotional video for the NAICU as a whole will clarify their values,
their mission, and how they are achieving it. It would also allow them to
highlight some of the schools within the association. This part of our
primary research will be conducted in order to produce a thoughtful and
complete recommendation to the NAICU about the potential of a
promotional video and if they take the recommendation, what
information is the most essential to include.
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Experiment Procedure
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmFo5bYlHIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTIbIcYaIb4&t=21s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1e11lsrSvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YTxE2ZbFF8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjl0Y__e0H4
Procedure:
Show a mom each video. Between each video, have her talk about how it
made her feel, her favorite parts, and her least favorite parts. Record the
conversation to transcribe later. Once we have collected all of the best
quotes, we will be able to pull out common themes.
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Beyond their three-year term, the chair of the board serves a fourth year, and the immediate
past chair of the board a fifth year, with vote. With the exception of the NAICU president, all
officers are college or university presidents. The vice chair, secretary, and treasurer are elected by
the board of directors from the members of the board. The election of the chair and vice chair is
ratified by the membership at the annual meeting. Upon completion of his or her term, the vice
chair becomes the chair.
Officers of NAICU:
The Chair
Vice Chair
Secretary
Treasurer of the Board of Directors
President
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Committees: There are 7 committees within the NAICU that specialize in certain areas of the
higher education field.
Executive Committee: Elected by the NAICU board, the Executive Committee consists of the
officers, the past board chair, plus the chairs of the four policy committees described below and
two at-large members.
Audit Committee: The Committee oversees the Association's financial accounting process,
internal controls, independent auditors, conflict of interest policies and other related matters.
Committee on Policy Analysis and Public Relations: The Committee identifies issues affecting
independent higher education and suggests priorities and strategies for research and public
relations activities to enhance public understanding and support for private, nonprofit colleges
and universities.
Committee on Student Aid: NAICU seeks to ensure adequate funding for the core student aid
programs. The Committee sets the Association's policy agenda, including federal funding issues
and examination of options available to students for financing their college education.
Committee on Tax Policy: NAICU promotes a tax policy that helps families save and pay for
college, and private colleges fulfill their distinctive missions. The Committee is responsible for
setting the Association's policy agenda in the tax arena, including: maintaining federal support
for the federal tax benefits for students and families, while protecting the tax-exempt status of
private colleges and universities, the independence of their endowments, and incentives for
charitable giving. 39
The main concern of prospective students is most evidently, the cost. In fact, 40% of
students turn down their first choice schools due to financials (US News). The average cost
of tuition for a private school in the 2018-2019 school year was $35,676, which is
significantly more than the tuition at public universities. In-state public universities and
colleges had an average tuition of $9,716 while out-of-state averaged at $21,629 (US News).
A prospective students main concern about attending a private school speaks for itself
But, those students would be wrong to see such numbers and assume that a public
university is more affordable than a private. In many cases, a private education is much
more affordable. The affordability of private schools is closer in reach than perceived as
private colleges often offer general financial aid. Additionally, independent universities
offer a large amount of financial help through scholarships and grants. Due to private
colleges and universities being run as non-profit organizations, they receive funding in the
form of public subsidies, tax breaks, and grants. This allows for more freedom in using
these resources, whereas a public university faces many restrictions on where their money
goes since they are funded by the government (Adastra). Essentially, more money is
available to give students financial aid at a private school. This indicates that while the
upfront cost of a private university or college is higher than a public college, many
40
Another important finding of the research done shows that finding a bargain cost for a
state school is becoming much more difficult. During the Great Recession, tuition at both
private and public colleges and universities spiked as affected by the economy. Currently
state spending on public education is at a historic low since the 2007-2008 school year.
This means that right now public colleges have a large margin to increase tuition, which is
not the same for their private counterparts. From 2008-2020 the tuition for an in-state
college/university rose 63% (US News).
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10% of the cost total cost of tuition and fees is paid for by parents with borrowed funds
14% of the total cost is covered by students after taking out student loans
29% is covered by scholarships and grants
To know who is paying for a student’s education is to consider who in the student’s life is
making the final decision. Upon further research, an average of 39% of families report that
the student’s choice of college was made entirely by the parents. This compares to the
24% of students who made their decision entirely on their own, and the 30% of families
who say they made the decision together.
Interestingly, the type of school a student attends has a noticeable effect on the decision-
making process. Attendees of community colleges often make the decision on their own
while parents are more likely to decide for their child if the student is attending a public
college or university. Students who attend private colleges and universities tend to share
the decision making process with their parents (Edmit).
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10% of the cost total cost of tuition and fees is paid for by parents with borrowed funds
14% of the total cost is covered by students after taking out student loans
29% is covered by scholarships and grants
To know who is paying for a student’s education is to consider who in the student’s life is
making the final decision. Upon further research, an average of 39% of families report that
the student’s choice of college was made entirely by the parents. This compares to the
24% of students who made their decision entirely on their own, and the 30% of families
who say they made the decision together.
Interestingly, the type of school a student attends has a noticeable effect on the decision-
making process. Attendees of community colleges often make the decision on their own
while parents are more likely to decide for their child if the student is attending a public
college or university. Students who attend private colleges and universities tend to share
the decision making process with their parents (Edmit).
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Secondary Research
44
45
46
Secondary Research
47
Alarmingly, 59% of parents surveyed report that it would be difficult to continue helping pay
for college if “either myself or my spouse suffered an unexpected job loss.” Although many
parents seem to cover the majority of higher education costs, students still may need to take
out loans. 46% of parents surveyed worry that their student may be under-employed or fail to
secure a job that pays enough to cover the cost of their student loans.
Something not many parents seem to be aware off is institutional Refund Policies for higher
education with only 24% of parents surveyed indicate that the college refund policy was
disclosed to them during the enrollment process. Over 60% of parents do not know what
would happen if their child was suddenly unable to continue the school year or how to
refund process works.
48
If a student does have to withdraw, 23% of parents surveyed say that they could not pay for
an additional semester of classes in order to make up for the possible non-refunded financial
losses due to a withdrawal with only 51% of parents say they could afford an extra semester
due to a withdrawal. Aside from tuition costs, parents have to think of other incurred costs
like a damaged laptop, with 48% of parents concerned about these potential added costs.
In regards to parents’ involvement, over 2/3 of parents surveyed report participating in family
events like move-in, orientation, and family weekends. This can lead to additional costs with
40% of surveyed parents saying their students goes to school more than four hours away.
With technology, communication across long distances has gotten much easier and 36% of
college parents surveyed communicate daily or multiple times per day with their student
Public colleges have a larger class size and campus, along with school spirit. Does a student
pick where he or she wants to go to college based on the success of the school's football or
basketball team? Is it a factor in the decision process? A 2018 Washington Post article states
that there was an increase in applications after Auburn University won a football
championship. SEC (Southeastern Conference) college admission departments have noted
that a successful athletic program can increase the number of applications
received.However, most private schools do not have a focus on successful sports teams. This is
one reason why students pick a public college over a private college. J. Leon Washington,
Dean of Enrollment Management at Villanova saw a "22 percent increase in applications after
winning the 2016 NCAA tournament" (Washington Post, 2018). He believes that this increase is
because students want to be a part of that feeling and excitement. Private colleges (like Elon
University) focus more academics and experiences than sports. For example, when students
apply to Elon University, they apply because it's nationally ranked for campus success rather
than athletic success.
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In a study by Inside Higher Ed, they asked 539 provosts or chief academic officers questions
about their university. The anonymous survey asked questions on topics ranging from if they
provide a quality undergraduate education, their undergraduate support services, ability to
prepare students for the real world, and controlling rising costs to families. The findings were
that private schools seem to be the most confident in their universities and their services with
community colleges being the least confident.
A survey from consulting firm Ithaka S+R, asked respondents about the current state of
undergraduate education and about 20 trends and events in higher education between June
of 2016 and May of 2017. The results show that the appointment of Betsy DeVos as Education
Secretary was the event with the highest impact and the most negative with the “prior-prior
year” federal policy change. The policy allows students to complete the Free Application for
Federal Student Aid earlier by using tax returns from two years ago, among the most positive
high-impact events
In another study by Inside Higher Ed in 2016, only 37% of admissions directors said they had
met their student enrollment goals for the fall class by May 1 compared to 42% the previous
year. During the previous year, this number was equal for both private and public universities
and colleges. However, during 2016, the number of private colleges that met their goals by
May 1 was only down to 41 percent while the percentage of public colleges and universities
meeting the May 1 deadline went down dramatically to only 29%. This dramatic difference is
most likely caused by community colleges which are considered public universities.
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Secondary Research
They do not view the May 1 deadline to be as important as other types of high education.
As well, community colleges have been facing enrollment issues with 88% of community
colleges reporting that their enrollment numbers have decreased from 2014-2016.
Admission directors across all types of universities feel pressure to make quota with 54%
saying they are “very concerned” about meeting enrollment goals.
With rising student debt levels, there has also been a change in what is thought of as an
acceptable amount of student debt by university officials. Across the board, private
universities were okay with higher amounts of debt with 45% of private university officials
thinking that $20,000-$30,000 of debt is reasonable compared to only 27% of public
schools. A last interesting tidbit is that the education sector spent $234 million dollars on
newspaper advertising alone.
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In order to reach students online, we have to know where online prospective students are. It
is important to note the main users across different platforms. Facebook’s users skew to an
older audience, Twitter is most often used for admissions to connect with each other, and
Snapchat and Instagram is very student focused. The Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research shares these statistics on American teens’ usage of social media: 76% use
Instagram, 75% use Snapchat, 66% use Facebook, and 47% use Twitter. According to the
2017 Social Admissions Report, developed by Chegg, Target X, and the National Research
Center for College and University Admissions, students typically visit college websites to
gather information and use social media as a tool to help them make a decision. Students
turn to social media to gain a sense of what it is like to be a student there and what the
campus is like. In this case, social media is less essential to increasing student awareness and
is more helpful for influencing college choice (Nacacnet).
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Secondary Research
MEDIA CONVERGANCE: DATA
How Students Use Social Media in the College Process: Continued
An interesting perspective that incoming students tend to have is that social media is more
credible than traditional media. This is due to prospective students coming from a
generation that is surrounded by social and digital media, allowing for students to use these
technologies as a source of information. This reliability that students have on social media
also comes from the genuine and authentic voice that is put out on different social platforms.
Media such as blogs, Instagram posts, Facebook Live, and many more channels give students
the opportunity to hear from other young adults who are in similar phases of life. The
difference in using media is that it is less pristine, sanitized, censored, and edited than
content featured on a university’s website or admissions guide (Vtl Design). Even more so,
students appreciate the content on social media because it is current and happening right
now. These students are living in a time where you can get results, photos, news,
entertainment, even food with a few clicks and scrolls. Taking that into consideration,
students respond better to colleges social media when it is current and updated. The
responsiveness of answering questions quickly and liking comments of praise about their
school, is something that students pay attention to on college and university pages (CNN).
Social media is able to showcase various perspectives and dynamics of the college
experience. What becomes important is the uniqueness of a school and how it is showcased.
Additionally, social media is important to the students who cannot afford to travel to visit a
college campus. The digital media on a website, blog, or Instagram page becomes vital in this
situation to represent the campus and the school’s brand as best as possible. The same goes
for international students who rely on media to guide their decision (Hired Jobs). Social
media puts a face to the school, especially for those who cannot visit the campus.
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