“Great minds…”
I recently wrote about the importance of addressing, “infrequently asked questions,” here on Recruiting Millennials. I saw today that Dartmouth College has launched their own Uncommonly Asked Questions blog this summer.
How is your school addressing improbable, unusual and unexpected questions? Tell us!
Does your school offer any extraordinary services or benefits to students? If your institution lavishes any special perks on their student body, be sure to get the word out through your website and social media marketing portals.
Highlights of special offerings compiled from My College Options and Mental Floss:
• University of New England lets its freshmen choose between a new bicycle or a Zipcar gift card.
• Stanford University offers students $282 through its Commute Club for carpooling, public transportation, and biking. Students also receive $96 in Zipcar credit.
• Wake Forest and Villanova University give incoming freshman a free laptop.
• Cottey College offers an all-expenses paid trip to Europe for the senior class.
• George Washington University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Cottey College and Xavier University provide students who live on campus receive complimentary maid service.
• Davidson provides free wash and fold laundry services.
• Michigan Technological University owns its own ski slope where students can ski free of charge.
Idea for how to boast of your school’s premium perks:
Create an attractive PDF or image file handy that spells out what your school has to offer in a illustrative way that you can attach to emails or insert in to a webchat session.
A few months back, we had a post about the dismal job market, and made the case that this should be a part of the dialogue you have with applicants, incoming freshmen, and graduate and transfer students.
It’s time to revisit the issue. University Business just ran a story about the American Recovery and Reinvestment act. The gist of the article is ways you can increase a student’s eligibility for financial aid when students and/or their parents are collecting unemployment benefits.
But there’s a broader trend that may help you get better numbers. University Business notes that the Obama administration has taken several steps to help displaced workers retrain for new careers. There are a number of initiatives that will encourage people to enroll in higher education, and this is timely as it coincides with the Post 9/11 GI Bill, which went into effect on August 1st.
The biggest question these new prospective students will have is, “How can this help me in the job market?” Your institution’s way of answering this question should be a central part of your marketing efforts.
And what does this have to do with Millennials?
Much of the literature on this generation has focused on the ways employers should go about recruiting and retaining Millennials in the work force. But an unstable economy may have changed the conversation. A large number of young entrepreneurs will skip higher education and seek their fortune on their own. But for those who take the more traditional path, it’s only a matter of time before they ask, “How can this help me in the job market?”
I suspect a lot of them are asking this already.
TargetX experience evaluator, Trent Gilbert, video blogs about the “The Not So Welcome…Welcome”
Shared via AddThis
The UC Santa Cruz campus didn't make the honor roll, but is famous for natural beauty
This year 15 colleges made The Princeton Review’s Green Honor Roll. Millennials look at things like this when choosing which institution to attend for undergrad or graduate school, and their interest isn’t just idealism.
A few days ago, an article in GreenBiz.com pointed out that the job market of the future is green. Becoming environmentally literate is not only in vogue, it’s becoming an essential skill for many career paths.
David Soto, Director of College Rankings for the Princeton Review, commented that Millennials are “very in tune to what’s going on.” As an example of what’s going on, he pointed out that the renewable energy sector is supposed to quadruple in size over the next 10 years. “Young people know this,” he added.
In many ways that can be obvious or very subtle, there are practical advantages to studying in a green environment. The opportunities for research, independent study and internships are greater. Socializing with environmentally-minded students, faculty and staff is a valuable experience for anyone who plans to go into energy, food-production, civil engineering or any number of other fields.
Chances are your institution is already green and greening in many ways. It’s worthwhile to point this out emphatically to today’s applicants.
In the article “Speaking to Generation Nexus”, the Washington Post recently reported on business coach Anne Loehr, who teaches a class called “Get Wise With Gen Ys: How to Effectively Sell to Each Generation in Today’s Workplace.”
From the article (quoting Loehr) :
“[Millenials] really value making a difference. If you can say you are ‘green,’ or politically correct or socially correct, whatever, that goes a long way with them. Nike, no way. Gen Y will not buy Nike — that big, ugly globalized company. This generation is very well-educated — both parents probably have MBAs…Y’s may be working in the local schools, teaching French to the poor elementary school kids. Okay? That kind of thing.”
In case you wanted some crib notes on how to lump generations made up of the entire spectrum of ethinicities, classes, educational levels, etc., you can download “Anne Loehr’s Generational Cheat Sheet” from the Washington Post’s website.
This is, to say the very least, an incredible oversimplification. Loehr mistakes an entire generation’s proclivity towards optimism and “other-orientation” and reduces it to a fashion statement. Not only is this dangerously cynical and stereotypical, but overreaches into the political/personal and socio-economic realities that this generation grew up with.
By making this kind of generalization about a group born over the course of a decade is exactly counter to the multi-faceted nature of the generation. There is a shared consciousness of global events that did shape the American Millennial generation’s experience. Rapid advances in technology sectors during the ‘90s — with cell phones, the Internet and personal computers, satellite and cable television — did exponentially increase entertainment and information outlets for *everyone*; Millennials are just more adjusted and comfortable in that environment.
For some college bound students, the campus visit can result in a lot of missed opportunities. Students often wish that they had done more during their trip; more research on the school, talks with current students and general exploration on foot. A lot of students say they wish that they had gotten to know the admissions office better during their visit. Prospective students often have a lot more questions than answers after returning home.
Focused help web chats can get to those nagging questions that remain after a campus visit. Invite your last campus tour group to chat with an admissions expert. Get ahead of the students, anticipate their questions and concerns and be ready for them. They are now going to be ready to hear detailed information about filling out applications, applying for financial aid, etc.
I recently heard a troubling story about some unethical people in our profession. I hope this doesn’t happen very often, but here’s what to do if the situation comes up.
An admissions officer held a webchat for applicants who had been accepted but had not yet decided whether to enroll. Things were going smoothly, but apparently someone from a competing institution decided to crash the party.
Our friend got suspicious when one of the chat participants kept asking leading questions. She would give the chatter a reply, and chatter would say “But at UNIVERSITY XYZ they do it this way.”
It was clearly someone marketing for the other university, trying to steal these ideal prospects.
Fortunately UWC has an elegant “boot” tool to kick such disrupters out of the room. You can also set up a separate room for other chatters when booting isn’t appropriate, as in the case of helicopter parents. And our new WebChat 2.0 has a lot of great new features, free to all our users.
If you haven’t yet set up your own chat room with your institution’s branding and logo, you can create one in minutes with the permanent URL of your choice at https://www.universitywebchat.com/manage/signup/.
Did I mention there’s a free version? You can also upgrade to accommodate more chatters at any time.
The college visit is make or break time. It’s really important that your marketing approach prepares potential students for the actual visit, so make sure that all your outreach materials are authentic to your school.
Common college visit turnoffs are issues with the campus atmosphere and the tour guide. Visitors won’t like if the campus feels like a ghost town or is too quiet. A bigger deal breaker is if the tour guide is not personable or worse, students complain of feeling judged or unworthy to be considering the school by their guide.
Students want a campus to feel vibrant and active. Posters and signs of student and political activity are two ways that students get a sense of an engaged campus. The campus visit can also benefit enormously from student guides and speakers that are currently a part of campus life. Students really want to listen to their peers to feel like they are getting the “real” story on the school.
A great way to get visitors prepared for the campus visit is to hold a webchat with your expected visitors a few days prior to the event. Not only will you be able to answer any final questions, you can gain insight on what kind of experience the students are expecting and this can help you prepare and adjust.
To learn about how to use University WebChat to market to Millennials, join us for a free, live webinar tomorrow, July 21st at 1pm PST. Register now!
