Yesterday, Noel-Levitz released it’s latest E-Expectations Report about what college-bound students are looking for in terms of online engagement during the admissions process. They surveyed more than 1,000 high school students about their online behavior and expectations. As usual, it contained a wealth of information about where colleges should consider focusing their efforts. Here are some of the findings:
Students are visiting college websites often, the majority at least once a week: 48% of students are visiting a few times each week, while 8% of students are visiting a college website every day. Only 6% are visiting a few times a year.
Most students (93%) are going online at home and only 23% report using a smart phone for browsing.
When searching for colleges, 65% said they ended up on a college’s home page, rather than a more specific departmental page.
Don’t get rid of those print mailings just yet: 89% of students reported learning about schools from what they received in the mail. This compares to 79% from email messages, 61% from college fairs and 35% from advertising.
One in four students will remove a school from their list if they can’t find what they need on their website.
The paradox of online cost calculators: While the vast majority of students agree that an online cost calculator is a valuable thing to have on a site, only 34% had ever actually used one.
76% of students are on Facebook, compared with 59% on YouTube, 33% on MySpace and only 8% on Twitter. 76% think schools should create their own private social networks.
67% of students think it is OK for colleges to contact them over a social media site, but only 33%wanted to contact a school over text.
Only 10% are watching your videos on YouTube, whereas 42% are watching videos on your school’s site. 47% aren’t watching your videos at all. Not surprisingly, most students want to see video produced by students.
46% said they had reconsidered their college choices due to the economic crisis.
And there’s so much more in the report. You can download the full report here »
This post was written by Karlyn Borysenko
About the author
Karlyn is loving life as the marketing manager for Eduventures and as a staff writer for .eduGuru. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from Boston University, a Master of Business Administration from Norwich University, and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Psychology from Capella University.
To quote a friend of hers: “Karlyn is a super rad ninja marketing genius who will make your target demographic submit to your every whim through sheer willpower. Oh, and she’s smarter than you.” We’re not sure about the smarter part, but “super rad ninja” is true enough.
Compulsory disclaimer: The views expressed in Karlyn’s posts are hers and hers alone, and do not represent those of anyone she earns a paycheck from. Yes, it’s true – the girl has a mind of her own.
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