Food for Thought
I’ve been home from California for almost a week, and am working my way through all the information I brought home from the AMA Conference. I want to share just of few of the things that are bold and underlined in my notes.
From the Princeton Review:
30% of students who drop schools out of their choice set do it because the school doesn’t have the program that they’re looking for. 94% of the time, the schools they drop actually did have the program, but the students couldn’t find it on the website.
As much as we talk with our clients about the importance of putting a list of majors and minors on their sites, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it stated quite this clearly. Doesn’t it make you wonder if a prospective student has walked away from your site thinking (wrongly) that you don’t have what he or she is looking for?
From the US Dept. of Education:
More than 70% of undergraduates have at least one “non-traditional” characteristic, such as being financially independent, attending part-time, or having delayed enrollment. 28% of undergraduates have four or more.
This is something that really got my attention. When many people think about their prospective students, they picture a typical high school junior or senior making a decision, with parents who will be figuring out how to foot the bill. For some colleges, that may be exactly right. For others, we need to remember to address a much broader audience, and think about how their needs might be different.
From Eduventures:
The most trusted sources of information about a college or university are the official website and campus visit, and between the two, the “use/trust” score is almost the same.
Wow. It’s amazing to me that prospective students would put almost as much faith in a website as they put in what they actually see on campus. For institutions considering how much of an investment to make in their websites, this is something that might make a real impression.
AMA put together a terrific line up of speakers for the Symposium. There’s so much here, I’m sure it’ll provide food for thought (Thanksgiving pun, get it?) in weeks to come.
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