Download a college decision
Some people tell me I’m a deep thinker, but that may be a shallow thought. After all, I almost chose my college on the basis of a t-shirt.
I was a senior at Midwest City High when I visited OSU’s campus. Impressed as I was with the place, I was more impressed with this one great orange and black tee. So I thought I should go where they have such cool shirts.
Many universities have moved a large chunk of their recruiting efforts to the social media, accessible on Internet-ready cell phones. Here is what Azusa Pacific University offers online visitors.
Alas, it lost its allure in a couple weeks, and I decided instead to go further south to the red-and-white school and see what their shirts looked like.
Apparel aside, the deciding factor proved to be my sister C.J. who was a counselor (can’t use that term anymore) in an OU women’s dorm (which are mostly coed these days), and she convinced me I could meet more girls there with her help than by hanging out alone in Stillwater.
Turns out she was right. But the point is I didn’t make my choice of schools for the best of reasons.
An online gold mine of data
Today many high school students are making their own decisions – based on better criteria than mine – in the virtual world of the Web 2.0 media, better known as Facebook and Twitter. And, in turn, college admissions offices are getting to know more about applicants that way, too. I’ll leave the second half of this idea for the next post and deal with the first thought now.
The Boston Globe’s Peter Schworm wrote in 2008 that college admissions officers were shifting their attention toward the social media, planting their college flags (along with videos and blogs) on the Web and especially on Facebook.
Makes sense, because that’s where the high schoolers are, so why not hang out among them?
“Higher ed is really trying to embrace it on all fronts,” said Nora Barnes, director of the Center for Marketing at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, to Schworm. “There’s no doubt that’s where their audience is.”
In fact, researchers at that school discovered that universities were adapting to internet technologies even faster than Fortune 500 companies.
And that was two years ago.
Fast-forward to today and it’s even more apparent how much today’s colleges have moved their show to the social media. The university where I teach, California’s Azusa Pacific University, is a case in point. On its home page at www.apu.edu, you don’t have to scroll down far to find the tell-tale icons of the APU Blog, Facebook, Flickr, iTunes U, Twitter, and YouTube.
This private university of some 10,000 students has gone out to meet prospective students where they live in the virtual world.
That’s where the customers are
David Peck, APU’s associate vice president of university relations, says this all just makes good sense.
“The use of social media represents more than just a way to chat with friends,” he says. “It’s changing the game for the academy. At APU, we use social media as a way to engage people and get them involved. It’s about creating dialogue and through these tools (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc.), we can learn what the APU community is thinking, solicit feedback, and respond to concerns.
Visitors to university web sites like APU’s find a new addition to those home pages: links to several social media sites where they can interact with students, parents, faculty, and staff.
“ It also helps us reach out to prospective students who are using social media to learn about the colleges they are applying to. Our desire is to get kids on campus, even if it’s virtually. While they may not be thinking about college yet, they hang out on campus, learn our landmarks, and get a sense of what APU is about.”
On Facebook, universities like APU see students asking questions about majors, life on campus, financial aid, and other topics, according to APU staffer Allison Oster. These students begin to create communities with one another and with the university before they ever set foot on the physical campus. They can meet other potential students, or even meet their future roommate if they’ve been matched by the Student Housing Office with someone they don’t know.
Sharing the excitement
Oster said some newly accepted students visit the APU FAcebook page just to share their excitedment when they receive their acceptance letter.
“In fact, we’ve found that many people are going to Facebook first to ask question, and not checking the university website for answers,” Oster says. “Perhaps they are looking for third-party endorsements, or trying to discover if the information is ‘more real’ through Facebook. And while we do have a number of people on staff who follow along with those conversations and answer questions, we also see current students, alumni, and parents of current and future students engaging and responding.”
Example: One recent post was from a parent asking if her daughter, who will be a freshman in the fall, should bring a car to campus during her first year. That post garnered several responses from current students and parents, many of whom said a car isn’t needed because the campus has a trolley, and there is a shopping center and cinema complex right across the street.
One interesting decision APU makes is not to show its logo on Facebook, especially in its profile picture, to help with the perception that this is not just a corporate page, but a place for community.
Flickr pic of the day
Prospective students are responsive to different kinds of information posted on these sites. On Twitter, one of APU’s most popular posts is the regular “Flickr pic of the day” linking back to photos from the university’s Flickr group. On Facebook, alumni enjoy commenting on APU traditions, like Donut Man.
Donut Man? If that’s a criterion for choosing a college, then maybe my original t-shirt idea wasn’t so crazy after all.
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Comments
I think that they way colleges are adapting to technology and changing times is great. It is true that high school kids tend to be on the internet, especially facebook and twitter, majority of their free time and colleges should be taking advantage of this occurrence. When I chose to go to APU I just felt like I didn’t want to go anywhere else, and when I saw how pretty the campus was I had made my decision. I think choosing the right college can be thought about logically but when it comes down to it I think it is just the feeling you get in your gut, whether it be a good feeling or a bad feeling you will know what to do. But in the end, I agree with the way APU is reaching high school kids on facebook and twitter because it is really good to catch them when they are young and still excited about going to college.
I really like the way that colleges are reaching out to high school and other prospective students to get them to come to their school. One of the things that attracted me to come to APU was the fact that I could pretty much do anything i wanted to on-line and I found that to be pretty cool. I would say that the one thing that is starting to attract students to choose different schools is the availability online and how much they can access online and how easy it makes things for them too.
There are many changes in society and technology. It is wise for any university to attempt to be a part of these changes. If they stay behind and do not advertise or go with the crowds, they will be left behind. APU is wise to reach high school students through various social media. They make it much easier for these students to gain information about their university. APU is being very intelligent by using an arena that potential students are familiar and comfortable with. I also like the fact that APU is not using their logo because they do not want to be recognized as an organization, but as a community. APU and many other universities are taking the right steps in order to inform prospective students of what they have to offer.
Before reading this article I would have never even thought about what the application process consisted of before the internet. When I think about the application process I simply just think about going to the website answering the questions and submitting the proper documents. So before the internet was around there had to be another way, which assumingly was just handwriting your entire application. Oh my goodness, I know some people that applied for more than 5 schools! I could not imagine writing, essentially, the same thing over and over again for 5 plus times. It is so scary to me that handwriting an application was probably a lot more common not too long ago. This is scary because if I think thats weird i can only imagine what my kids will think is crazy.
I do think that the idea of reaching out to prespective students through a venue that is common and appealing to them is an excellent idea. For me when I moved here to Azusa, over the summer i frequently checked apu.edu for the latest pictures, bookstore items, and any news about the incoming freshman class! I love that there is such a vast amount of knowledge only a few finger-taps away!
The internet is such an important tool for colleges. I know when I first got my acceptance letter and found out who I was going to be rooming with, the internet is the first place I went to. I found all the facebook groups and my roommate online. You can get to know someone through their profile. How colleges are adapting to the technology is very important and makes the university look up to date. You can find everything on the APU website- What the university is accomplishing, the upcoming events, caf schedule, etc. In fact, just the other day my friend was raving about the new APU APP for your I-Phone. She loves it! Everything she needs to know she can find out with a tap of her finger. The interent is something we use everyday and when colleges understand that this is the most convinient and best way to reach out to potential students, then their numbers are going to sky rocket. The hardest part is getting them interested, with pictures, updates, news about the school and blogs about current students online, then what was hard is now easy. It is a very useful and smart tool for universities to use.
I think that it’s really smart of the colleges to start to be so reliant on technology for admissions purposes. It is so incredibly important for an instution to be able to recognzie who their audience is and adapt to the needs and wants of that audience. In this case, its high school seniors who rely so much of their lives on their technology. It’s also a really great way for schools to market themselves by posting pictures, creating blogs, and having “fan sites” on facebook for seniors to really get a better look at what kind of people go to the particular school. In response to Audrey’s comment, I also have the APU APP on my i-pod and its just another way that APU and many other colleges are adapting to popular culture and styaing connected with what students want.
I believe that colleges getting on the web is very good, it is where we all are now! Providing an opportunity to follow events going on in the school is another major thing right not. Tweeting basketball scores, having the ability for my family back home to watch live scores is also very good! Colleges should expand and use the internet for purposes like recruiting students. A colleges website says a lot about a college I think. There are many schools we play against, and honestly, the teams that aren’t very good do not have a good website. Maybe I am just over analyzing, but I do believe that I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend APU and be given the opporunity for my parents and loved ones back home to follow along with Twitter and facebook, and even be given the ability to watch the games online OR even view the live scores.
It was so interesting to read that universities are adapting to new social media faster than Fortune 500 companies. As weird as it sounds for prospective students to look to social media such as Facebook to find out more information about the university, I understand why they may think that the information gathered via social media is more legitimate than on the school’s official website. This has to do with the grapevine concept. The grapevine concept is another name for office gossip. Many times people in the office believe what they hear from their co-workers over what the administration tells them. Likewise, prospective students value the advice and opinions of current students over the information presented on the school’s website. For some odd reason many people assume that the information presented on official websites are not entirely true because the university is trying to present itself in the best light and will hide any blemishes that may take away from its luster and shine. I am sure that there is some truth to that but prospective students should not totally ignore such sites.
Before reading this blog I had no idea that it was so important for colleges to need to recruit new admissions because for me they came directly to me. I guess you could say I was a little naive about the whole process of advertising, only thing about it as commercials or billboards for consumer products, never once thinking of college advertising as the same aspect of the whole. I think it’s a good thing that colleges are reaching out through all these different avenues of possibilities to reach potential new students. For one they could stop entirely using mailing notices for an environmentally friendly, but that is another story. I feel that Azusa is making the right choices when it comes to advertising for new/transfer students. However, it is also a way that can ruin a student’s reputation or admission because they are “friends” with APU on facebook, if they share something that can jeopardize their chances of being accepted especially to an accredited private Christian school. Although I did agree that the facebook accounts that APU has created is inspiring a social networking that is bringing the APU community closer because of the easy access of communication. I thought this was a very interesting blog, too.
I completely understand the draw of using the Internet and social media to attract people to your school or company. I have the tendency to disregard most places that do not have a website for the ones that do, simply because of the convenience and accessibility. I think that I am probably not the only one who gets caught up in this trend. When I was deciding on colleges the first thing that I did was visit their website and that was four years ago. I think that this trend is only going to continue to grow and companies/schools are going to have to utilize it to their advantage or get left in the dust.
It is crazy to think people are choosing colleges from things like: Facebook, Twitter, or even cool t-shirts 
I remember when I was in high school people were choosing what college to go by what college their friends were going to or already attending. It is now easy to access older friends Facebooks and see what their college life is like through their photo albums. You can see what sort of people are there, what they do on the weekends, if there is a lot of attractions around campus, etc. This media source can help upper classmen in high school to narrow down their potential future college list before having to make the using long and expensive trip out to the certain college. In order for a college to succeed in this Y Generation, the administration staff needs to become younger and fresher and market the college through every media mean.
This is very true. People are reached through all facets of social mediums. APU’s iPhone app is awesome. I have had it on my phone for a long while know and it is really convenient for students on campus. These types of creative ways are important for both the direction of the university and their expansion process. Utilizing tools like this seems to benefits everyone across the board.
I think that APU’s utilization of social media is a great decision. After all, why not? Everyone at APU has to use the internet. Making applications that conform to students needs and giving them some flare on the iPhone can also bring appeal to the university. When people are looking for universities to apply to they can check out APU of Facebook and Twitter. Being able to plug into social networking and advertise your university can pay big dividends for up and coming universities trying to make a name for themselves.
I think its great that APU is tapping into the virtual world to recruit and get their name out there. Many people from my community have never heard of APU until they look at my signature and see apu.edu located just under my name. Some have commented and said they went onto the website just to see what school I went too. Social network sites are good for many reasons, informing prospective and current students on events, sales, sports, etc., is just another great way it’s used for.
So, dear Brother Jim, that’s why you r-e-a-l-l-y joined me on the OU campus! I was back on campus tonight (joined by Haleigh Rae, age 11) to hear a wind ensemble present “Peter and the Wolf”. Will it be the flute, the bassoon, or the milkshake that will put OU in her future?
Think I will get her a shirt!