Recruitment Messaging: Focus!... Findings from the 2009 FALL TeensTALK® study, administered in November to 500 college-bound high school students across the country, reveal some critically important strategic advice for recruiters who want to make sure they’re sending the right messages to prospective students at the right time. Faithful TeensTALK® blog readers may recall that a few short months ago when the 2009 SUMMER TeensTALK® study was conducted,...

Mobile Messaging Gone Wild... Findings from Stamats’ SPRING TeensTALK® study are being double-checked and proofed as you read this, and I’m excited to share them with you on my next blog post. Until then, here’s a brief collection of unnerving teen-focused research you can use to impress friends, colleagues and family members… Our friends at The Nielsen Company reported that during the first quarter of this year, teenagers sent and received...

The 2009 Freshman Application Story... Moody’s Investor Service just released a “Special Comment” report on the findings of a recent survey of their rated private and public colleges and universities. Just more than 150 schools participated, but don’t let the smallish sample put you off; Moody’s interpretation and subsequent forecast will greatly shape the near-term financial future of higher education. Specifically, “…Moody’s anticipates new...

Future of Online Campus Tours?... This week we launched the FALL edition of Stamats’ 2009 TeensTALK® study. As soon as findings are analyzed, I’ll share some juicy tidbits in this blog space. But for now, I’d like to share an interesting phenomenon that might change the dreams you have for the next incarnation of your student recruitment Web site. In the last couple of months I’ve been approached by no fewer than a half-dozen chief recruitment...

Sharpen Your Campus Visit Experience... A funny thing happened on the way to the campus visit. Well actually, it happened during the campus visit in a roundabout way. Findings in Stamats’ 2009 SUMMER TeensTALK® study shine a bright light on something you’ve probably assumed for years, but may have back-burnered for too long. As college-bound prospective students sorted through their college options late last year, those who placed greatest value on finding...

Does This College Fit Me?... For a bunch of years a long time ago I ran an undergraduate admission program at a really great, mid-sized independent liberal arts college in the middle of one of the toughest recruitment markets in the nation (because there were so many other really great, mid-sized independent liberal arts colleges within shouting distance of mine). And every spring, my super staff and I would agonize through yield season, quietly...

Teens Reveal College Choice Tipping Point... Looking back, perhaps I shouldn’t have been as dumbfounded. But then again, these are extraordinary times. Below is the SUMMER TeensTALK® finding that rocked my world. If you’re reading this blog for the first time, let me bring you up to speed. The chart below demonstrates a collection of discoveries from Stamats’ SUMMER 2009 TeensTALK® study, a national telephone survey of traditional-age prospective undergraduates....

Communicating with Admitted Freshmen... Stamats’ SUMMER TeensTALK® findings are in and, as you might expect, there are some real surprises. The full report will be unveiled at our Strategic Integrated Marketing Conference in Chicago on July 27-30. I also plan to devote my next several blog posts to sharing the data with you. In an effort to provide the higher ed marketing industry with real-time recruitment marketing counsel and insight, we administer the...

How Teens Predict Success After College... Like nearly all of us, there’s one question rumbling in the subconscious recesses of prospective undergrads’ heads pretty much 24 x 7 x 365: “What’s in it for me?” It’s an occupational hazard of being human. Call it survival instinct or whatever. The fact remains that all of us face most of life’s decisions with one chunk of our brains listening intently to that subliminal radio station...

There’s a New Generation in Town…... … and age has nothing to do with it. Last year I had the good fortune of working with cultural analyst Patricia Martin, author of RenGen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer, on a National Arts Forum project funded by MetLife Foundation. As I read her book, listened to her presentations, and traded stories with Patricia, it became clear that her research packs a significant punch for the future of higher education...