Teenagers increasingly start their college searches as high-school freshmen and sophomores, and although they are tech-savvy, they largely shun chat rooms, blogs, and online networking sites as they conduct that search, a study has found.
Fewer than 10 percent of high-school students used MySpace, Facebook, or YouTube — three of the most popular networking sites — to gather information about colleges, according to the report, “College Search and the Millennial Generation,” which was produced by Eduventures Inc.
Still, colleges and universities that effectively convey information through those channels, as well as in blogs and chat rooms, could gain an edge in recruiting, the report says.
Its findings come from a national Web-based survey of 7,867 high-school juniors and seniors conducted this year. The report also draws on student feedback from 12 focus-group sessions held at high schools in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Orlando, Fla.
Most students surveyed (84 percent) said they used colleges’ Web sites most heavily in their research, followed by personal recommendations (75 percent), campus visits (64 percent), and college viewbooks (64 percent).
In evaluating colleges, students were most interested in internship programs and the institutions’ reputations in their intended major.
The report suggests that colleges should design not only recruitment materials but also campus tours with those priorities in mind. While students said they wanted to see dormitories, libraries, and student centers on tours, they cared most about seeing facilities related to their expected majors.
The report also says that:
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Seventy-one percent of those surveyed began doing research into colleges before their junior year of high school, with 13 percent starting in eighth grade or earlier.
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Students expected to apply to an average of 5.8 colleges.
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Most students (71 percent) said a campus visit was their most trusted source of information, followed by college Web sites and personal recommendations.
Another new report from Eduventures, parts of which were scheduled to be released last week, focuses more narrowly on out-of-state recruiting. That report, “Cost Structure of Out-of-State Recruiting,” is based on a study of 10 midsize and large institutions. It found that, on average, they spent $359,793 last year on recruiting out-of-state students.
The average cost to generate an application from such a student was $46, the report says.
Colleges and universities spent the most money on mailings but reported that increasing high-school visits, cultivating relationships with guidance counselors, and offering more scholarships were the most effective ways to drum up interest from out-of-state students.
http://chronicle.com Section: Students Volume 53, Issue 38, Page A45
