Amherst Diversity Open House: Fill & Download for Free

Q. What are the most creative methods colleges have used to advertise admission?A2A:50 Creative Ways Colleges Are Recruiting Students Today5 New Ways Colleges Are Reaching High School Students (usnews.com)For decades, schools have made college recruiting an art. From slick marketing packages to the ultimate campus visit, there are seemingly endless ways to entice new students to enroll. But these days, admissions staff are armed with a whole new set of tricks, thanks to technology developments, social media, and good old-fashioned ingenuity.Rating systems: More schools are tracking data on prospective students, developing rating systems and devoting more or less time to each student based on the likelihood that they would enroll.Interactive video game tours: At DePauw University, students can take a tour of the campus through an interactive video game.Appearing to be more selective: Some colleges hope that exclusivity will breed desire, cutting out early acceptance programs and making the acceptance process just a little more cutthroat.Going green: Green living and environmental technology is a big deal these days, and colleges have gotten on board, attracting students with green facilities, cafeterias, and even educational offerings.Different protocol for different candidates: Schools are changing the way they deal with adult recruits, offering a more tailored recruiting experience for non-traditional students.Special programs: Colleges who make a home for a certain type of student are bound to attract more, like the University of Pittsburgh has done with its group for students with autism and Asperger’s.Freebies:Would you choose a college based on getting a free iPad? That’s what the Illinois Institute of Technology was counting on when it announced that it would be giving free Apple iPads to all incoming undergraduate freshmen, and it worked.Free tuition: A free iPad’s nice and all, but what about free tuition? It’s a reality at the University of New Haven’s business school, offering free tuition to a student with the next great entrepreneurial idea. iPads are also available as prizes, as well as gift cards to the bookstore.Short films and viral videos: Alumni filmmakers and students often create viral videos or short films that share what’s great about their alma mater, bringing new students to campus.Student blogs: To build credibility among prospective students, MIT features 10 student blogs on its site.Email follow-ups: Email is a major part of creative college recruiting today, with many colleges sending out email blasts and follow-up messages.Salary reports: In recruiting mail-outs, Stanford is careful to highlight one of its best features: the great salary students will enjoy with a Stanford degree. The school included PayScale - Salary Comparison, Salary Survey, Search Wages statistics that explain just how valuable a Stanford degree can be.Groupon promotions: National Louis University recently made history as the first academic institution to offer a daily deal promotion on Groupon, sharing a three-credit course that could be applied to a graduate degree.Courting valedictorians: Valedictorians are the Holy Grail of college recruitment, so many colleges offer the top scholarships. Often, schools will send out letters informing valedictorians of their available merit scholarship.One-on-one connections: With social media, admissions officers are able to offer one-on-one connections with potential students, letting them know how important they are and that they should apply.Podcasts: Allegheny College shares a series of podcasts featuring faculty members and undergraduates that prospective applicants to listen to and explore what the college has to offer.Sponsored search results: Colleges want to make sure they’re in the results when students search for colleges online, so many of them have used sponsored search results including Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search.Overseas agents: Although it’s an illegal practice in the U.S., some colleges are able to send agents overseas to attract international students. These agents advertise and go to recruitment fairs in foreign countries, something that most colleges don’t have the resources to do without outside help.Unique clubs and activities: Groups like the MIT Assassins Guild, University of Kentucky Rock-Paper-Scissors Club, and the Princeton Mime Company attract students with their unique offerings.Text marketing:Ads on radio, TV, and in theaters get students to connect with colleges using their cell phones, encouraging them to text their email address for more information.Student-led photos: Schools used to just take photos of campus and put them on their website, but now, they’re using Instagram streams and tagging to encourage students to take the lead and share their own photos.Amazing dorm rooms: Academics are just part of the equation when it comes to choosing a college: dorm rooms are a big deal, too. So many universities are beefing up their dorm amenities to attract students, with bathroom renovations, larger spaces, appliances, and new furniture.Facebook forums:These days, college Facebook pages often turn into Q&A forums during admissions season, allowing students to ask questions about the school.Live chat sessions: Students who are interested in a college can drop in and chat with admissions officers in live chats to learn more about the campus and admissions process.YouTube applications: Tuft University recently allowed prospective students to create a YouTube video as a supplement to their application, and many have gotten thousands of hits on the site.Social media date reminders: Admissions officers on social media keep their schools at the forefront of students’ minds by posting reminders, news, and application deadlines on Facebook and Twitter.Tuition freezes: As the cost of higher education rises each year, schools that can offer a better deal are attracting a lot of attention. Some schools are even freezing tuition in the hopes of increasing enrollment.Virtual college fairs: Some students simply don’t have time to visit with admissions representatives in person, so many colleges are offering virtual college fairs to make it easier and attract more students.QR codes: Using QR codes, colleges are able to get students quickly connected with the recruitment information they want to share.Stronger student support: At Ashford University, the admissions staff has been slashed to better allow the school to support students. Instead, there will be a new department to work with prospective students to make sure they’re prepared for a university education.Hosting Hangouts:Using Google+ Hangouts, colleges reach out to students by hosting video chats explaining the school, academics, and admissions.Parent chats: Parents can be major decision makers in the admissions process, so some universities host video chats not just for students, but parents as well.Student Facebook pages: At MIT, there’s a student-run Facebook page for accepted students, offering an authentic look into the school for prospective students.Student ambassadors: Schools like CUNY use their students to reach out to recruits in area high schools, posting fliers and ads, and hosting recruiting sessions of their own.Accelerated courses: In today’s instant gratification society, students want their degrees, like, yesterday, and with accelerated courses, colleges are able to make that happen, making classes longer, but terms shorter.Good, old-fashioned phone calls: In today’s world of online interaction, some schools take an older, more personal approach: phone calls. It doesn’t work for every student, but some are impressed by the personal touch.Incredible facilities: Some universities seem to be in a facilities arms race to attract the most students with bigger and better new buildings. They’re splurging on high-profile architects to create spaces that are sure to bring in new students.Web history tracking: Some schools track the pages students visit on their site and customize their Web experience, giving them pages that are of post interest to them.Skyping: Group video chats work well, but some schools are finding that one-on-one video conversations between counselors and students work well, too.Facebook contests: At Misericordia University in Pennsylvania, the school offered bookstore gift certificates to freshen who replaced their Facebook profile photos with the university logo.Highlighting alumni on social media: Many colleges are calling attention to the fact that they have great alumni, and social media outlets are a great place to do it.Free travel: Many Massachusetts colleges have made it a point to attract more diverse candidates to their campuses. During recruitment season, Amherst flies almost 200 potential students from around the country in to participate in “diversity open houses,” and offers then two round-trip plane tickets to use every year, making it easier for them to visit family back home.Mobile websites: As more students use their phones to connect to the web, colleges are making sites that are mobile-ready, making it easy for students to browse what they have to offer.Mobile apps: In addition to mobile sites, some schools have taken it a step further and created mobile apps that students can take on the go to explore their schools.Webcasting: Webcasts and web conferences offer a large forum for prospective students to ask questions and share answers with the entire group.Showcasing activities: Social media is a great place for colleges to share the campus lifestyle, including events and activities that potential students may enjoy.Personalized websites: At schools like Case Western Reserve, students sign on to personalized portals. For example, students who express an interest in engineering will be greeted with news about engineering on campus and links to profiles of professors or other students in the field.Incomplete application follow-ups: Instead of allowing incomplete applications to sit and rot, many schools are following up with these students to make sure they come back to complete the application.Unique campus tours: Tour a campus by bike or boat, and you’ll get a whole new perspective and appreciation of what the school has to offer. At least, that’s what some colleges are hoping for as they introduce more unique campus tours to their potential students.Business partnerships: At the graduate level, schools are partnering with businesses to bring in new students for further education and growth in their schools.5 New Ways Colleges Are Reaching High School Students (usnews.com)Each fall, the recruiting season seems to be the same process for colleges and universities: Send recruitment mailers to prospective students who signed up online or at college fairs to receive information and wait for them to arrive on campus for the standard tour and Q&A session.While discussions about rejuvenating the recruitment strategy presumably take place in admissions offices annually, the threat of declining applications due to a new campaign that flops may be serving as a roadblock to innovation."I think you can get so caught up in trying to be different or unusual that it could backfire on you," says Monica Inzer, dean of admission at Hamilton College in New York. "There's something safe, too, about being one of the pack."Still, there are some colleges and universities that are breathing new life into the recruiting process in order to supplement—or buck—the traditions. Here are five examples of schools using social media and technology to connect with prospective college students.[See how technology is changing classrooms around the country.]1. QR codes: Colleges and universities are increasingly experimenting with posting QR codes in school publications and recruitment mailers. A QR code, short for Quick Response code, is essentially a barcode that sends users to a Web address with the snap of smartphone's camera.At Hamilton College, dean Inzer began seeing the black and white squares everywhere on campus. When the time came to plan for the annual fall admissions poster, the college created one that featured only a giant QR code, which leads visitors to a custom welcome page from the school.The poster, which has generated about 1,200 visits to the Hamilton website so far, was a diversion from the normal goal of an admissions poster: to have "your [campus] picture be prettier than the other pretty pictures" of colleges featured in a high school, according to Inzer."The beauty of this campus is one of its selling points," Inzer says. "[But] there was only an upside with this. If people are talking about this [poster] and trying to figure out how to access the page, that's exactly what we want."Knute Gailor, a junior at Hamilton, says the poster has had an effect in the high school he attended, as he's heard from students asking for more information about the college. "I heard from one [who] said, 'Hey, that's really cool,'" he says. "And the other one called up and said, 'Hamilton's got this poster in the guidance office. I don't know what to do with it.' So, I think it's probably had a mixed impact."2. Video chats: College officials traditionally have had only one opportunity to interact face to face with the many prospective students who live too far from campus to make multiple trips. But with the proliferation of video chat technology, Ohio Wesleyan University has been able to meet with students, no matter where in the world they are located.[Discover how high school students are using Skype to learn.]During the academic year, the university hosts four or five group video chats for students and their parents, says Rebecca Eckstein, vice president for enrollment at Ohio Wesleyan. "It gives students and parents a feel for who we are and what we have to offer," she says.Each chat has a theme, ranging from admissions counselors discussing the application and enrollment process to current students sharing stories about their study abroad experiences.Students have responded positively to the chats, notes Eckstein, as 220 of the 260 students who participated in a video chat last year applied to the university, and 92 ultimately enrolled.Kalynne Trembly, a freshman at Ohio Wesleyan, credits these video chats with helping her make her college decision. "I remember getting off the first video chat, and I [said], 'Mom, I want to go here. I feel so much more sure about my choice.'"3. Facebook contests: Despite being established in 1924, Misericordia University in Pennsylvania is still battling for awareness in its region, says Jim Roberts, director of marketing communications—so it turned to Facebook.To engage with incoming freshmen and reach prospective students, the school offered university bookstore gift certificates as prizes to incoming freshmen who replaced their Facebook profile pictures with the university logo.[Learn why colleges are bringing campuses to Facebook.]Of the roughly 370 incoming Misericordia freshmen, 63 students participated during the two-week summer contest—a success, according to Roberts. The university took the uncommon step of creating a friend profile on Facebook, rather than a fan page, to engage with individual students. This made tracking the contest more manageable since students "friend" the university on the social network, giving the school access to their public posts."The fact that we could monitor the conversations that their friends were having about the [profile pictures] really made us think that the contest was successful," Roberts says.[Find out why colleges are using Facebook to research students.]4. Tweeting behind the scenes: Colleges' traditional recruiting practices have typically been one-sided conversations, says Cory Chandler, marketing supervisor for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Texas Tech University. "In the past, there was no other option than to rely [only] on printed materials," Chandler says.In an effort to add depth to the printed materials, Texas Tech used Twitter to cover a photo shoot for a story included in the annual recruiting mailer. The school Tweeted updates using a hashtag and shared photos and videos of the shoot—which chronicled a student lab on Texas Tech's campus that had recently been named by Popular Science as one of the country's "Most Awesome College Labs."[Read about five unique uses of Twitter in the classroom.]"We wanted to bring kids in to what is going on behind the scenes [in recruitment]," Chandler says, "Almost making it an event, as opposed to just a piece of mail."5. YouTube video series: College recruitment videos typically promote what's best about a school, and often claim that any student can make that particular campus feel like home. But that is not the strategy the New School in New York City has implemented in its "Are You New School?" recruiting videos, says Cory Meyers, director of admission communications."We're not trying to be everything to everyone, and that's going to turn some students off—and we're kind of OK with that," Meyers notes.The series of videos, which are hosted on YouTube, feature student voices discussing topics not commonly heard on recruitment videos, from the school's dating scene to students being intimidated by the city. It's these honest, uncensored clips that separate New School's videos from other colleges and universities, says Meyers."Obviously, the New School is a little bit more progressive and out there than some of your more traditional institutions," he acknowledges. "So I doubt a lot of schools would have videos with students cursing in them … but, ultimately, we don't want to hide who we are."

Another Smithie here! In addition to what Kris stated in her response, Smith is known for:All-women’s college, but classes open to male students from Amherst, UMass, Hampshire.Strong, active professors (i.e., active in research, speaking engagements, academia, etc.), many of whom are willing to engage students in and outside of class setting (there are some rare antisocial ones).Provider of top-tier education (on par with Ivy Leaguers according to some).Really, really diverse community of women from all walks of life and experiences.As Kristi mentioned previously, beautiful campus with many different areas and environments, and housing in ‘houses’ that fosters the creation of a large family of fellow students and staff.Strong network of alumna who love Smith.Consistent efforts to continue to not only be relevant in today’s world but to provide innovative academic, intellectual (and beyond) experiences.What’s it like? Well… for me, challenging, rewarding on so many levels:You get to take the classes you want to take and learn from professors who truly love what they’re doing. I went to a grad school that is consistently ranked #1 in terms of faculty, but honestly, I remember and respect my Smith professors much more…I don’t think I’ve ever interacted so easily with or been immersed in a such a diverse group/community of people (I live in NYC). Smith spoils you in the wealth and breadth of the people you’ll come across and the relationships you’ll so easily form whilst there.There’s a solidarity that I enjoyed, because Smith is a women’s college. Yes, I did come across similar experiences since then, but attending Smith and experiencing this solidarity remains unique because I was immersed in it for 4 years.Fun! I’ve hated school all my life, but generally enjoyed Smith enough to remember it fondly (obviously)! :D

I’m going to go off on a tangent by way of explaining this.I visited relatives (a cousin of my dad and her husband) on Cape Cod over this past Christmas. I had never been there before, despite going to college “in the Boston area” for four years. ;) They are working-class (as the husband said, he knew he wanted to live on the Cape, but that career opportunities there were limited, so he decided early on to take whatever jobs he could find, and not be picky). As a result, they qualified to purchase “workforce housing” — basically, modest homes that can only be sold for 10% under market value or lower, so great to buy, but you can’t sell them for as much as you’d get in a similar house in a different neighborhood.Now, here in the Baltimore area, “workforce housing” would be a tiny apartment or old rowhome. But they had a beautiful (but small) Cape Cod-style house with a 3/4 acre lot. I asked them why the local government wouldn’t prefer to subsidize apartment buildings or something similar, with much lower land cost and smaller footprint than a bunch of single-family houses on large lots.The answer was that Cape Cod does not have a public water system. There’s no place to put a reservoir, and no river to feed it. It’s surrounded by saltwater (undrinkable). So every dwelling and business uses well water, and every well taps into the same single-source aquifer that flows from west to east. If Cape Cod uses too much water, they’d have to start rationing, or cause serious problems for the residents and local tourism (and most of their economy is based on tourism).So their zoning codes are designed not to minimize development footprint, but to minimize strain on the aquifer. They prefer a high quality of life for residents and tourists.Harvard has done a similar thing. They do own vast swaths of land in Cambridge, Allston, Longwood, and other locations in the Boston area. But the amount of land isn’t important to determining how many students they have decided is the optimal number of undergraduates. More important to that is the student/faculty ratio, the level of the prestige of the faculty, the number of classes they are required to teach (Harvard is notoriously lenient in that respect because they want their faculty members to do research and publish, thus increasing the prestige of the individual faculty members and the school itself — and relatedly, much of the space in Allston and north of Harvard Yard is dedicated to the research the faculty are doing), but also how the existing facilities serve those students (Harvard Yard wouldn’t be nearly as wide open and impressive with twice the number of freshman dorms, and the 12 upperclass houses would need to either each be dramatically expanded, hurting their sense of community, or have way more of them, making it hard to cluster them close to classes and extracurriculars).But the most important thing to Harvard is that the roughly 1600 students per graduating class allows them to build a class that has a lot of diverse students (not just in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and the like, but also in terms of interests, passions, accomplishments, etc.), but not have so many that the size of the student body is overwhelming and impersonal. This is true for most top colleges, and each one has a different “sweet spot.” For example, Amherst has significantly smaller graduating classes, because the culture of the school is that you develop meaningful relationships with most of your classmates. Harvard has decided that it’s not a problem if you graduate without personally knowing half your classmates.So, to sum up, it’s not about how much space you have — it’s about the experience you can provide with it.