Schools are battling for the best, brightest

The DVD was shot in the hip documentary style of an extreme skiing video or an MTV reality show. To a background of rock music, quick camera shots flash scenes of mountains, student life and classroom life that come at you faster than you can say “iPod.”

It was made by Colorado College alums to recruit prospective students to the Colorado Springs liberal arts school. Student interviews are mixed with clips of snowboarders catching big air or rock climbers at Garden of the Gods. And, of course, CC hockey.

If it sounds like an unusual way to grab attention, think again. America’s colleges and universities are engaged in stiff competition for students, and they are employing increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies to penetrate students’ busy lifestyles. Tactics include e-mail, text messaging, Web-tracking technology and marketing software similar to that used by big business.

CC relied on alums and students to make its video, but many other schools have paid thousands of dollars for professional movie shoots.

To not change is to fall behind.

For schools like CC, where enrollment is capped and standards are high, more applicants means more selectivity. That’s a big deal for a nationally ranked liberal arts college. At the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, additional students feed plans to expand programs and live up to the school’s designation as the CU system’s growth campus. For schools where enrollment is declining, recruiting can mean survival.

Many young people are making decisions now about where they will go next year.

Mark Hatch, CC’s vice president for enrollment management, talks about recruiting efforts as a way to “gain some market share.”

Both UCCS and CC say their most effective recruiting comes from relationships forged in one-on-one meetings with recruiters and campus visits.

Getting to that point is the hard part.

Every year, high school students are blitzed by glossy brochures and e-mails, and the high schools hear from hundreds of recruiters.

“I recently talked to a high school counselor at a metropolitan city high school in Colorado, and he said they have over a thousand college recruiters visit each month,” said Tamara Moore, dean of students at UCCS. At the same time, Hatch said, top students keep full schedules that leave little room for an outsider’s time.

Few, if any, schools have abandoned their mailers, which officials concede often get tossed away unread. “It’s hard not to do some of these things,” Hatch said.

Yet most are supplementing the old-fashioned with the latest buzz.

“I think the challenge has been and will continue to be what the students expect, what they want to receive and which format,” said Tamara Moore, dean of students at UCCS.

UCCS has revamped its Web site to include a place for streaming video, and it recently implemented advanced marketing software that helps recruiters track students and keep up with their interests, inquiries or correspondence. Students receive a birthday greeting from UCCS, for instance.

CC focuses recruiting efforts partly based on specific ZIP codes and demographic data that it analyzes.

Moore said UCCS is looking into ways to use text messaging and Facebook, a socialnetworking site, to reach prospects.

Recently at CC, Hatch demonstrated one of his school’s latest toys, hanging on the wall of a meeting room where prospective students and parents who visit campus get their first presentation.

The plasma television set has a touch screen that allows him to enlarge photographs, a campus map and other icons with an index finger as he talks. He pulled up one screen in which the blown-up image of an iPod played a video interview with a student.

Other colleges, Hatch said, rely on computer programs that track students’ Web habits and tailor messages and materials for them based on those. If a student clicks on links for volleyball, philosophy and history, for example, the college might send him or her additional information on each of those programs, perhaps with a greeting to prove it’s paying attention to the student’s interests.

As in business, schools must balance effective marketing and chasing students away with the hard sell.

Take 17-year-old Gergana Kostadinova, a junior in the International Baccalaureate program at Palmer High School. She said she’s taken notice of the recruiting efforts from some schools that have earned her consideration through informative brochures or personalized e-mails. She recalls an e-mail from Drake University that read: “Gergana, you’ve impressed us. Now let us impress you.”

Others, by contrast, have annoyed her. Schools she’s never shown an interest in send weekly e-mails that ask “Are you still interested?” or say, “You haven’t applied yet.” She equates them to spam.

“I never really said I was interested,” she said. “You got ahold of my test scores, and you’re interested in me.”

A tailored approach to marketing, like UCCS’ plan to send information specific to a student’s interests, resonates with her. She wants a school that seems to know who she is and can pitch a way to help her grow.

CC has no plans to hunt for students via Facebook, Hatch said. Students try hard to present a polished image to prospective colleges and he says he believes they don’t want recruiters visiting social profiles where they let their hair down, talk freely with friends and post pictures from a party they attended that weekend.

Kostadinova agrees. She said schools might instead look at Zinch.com, a Web site where students can post their profiles for interested colleges to explore.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0198 or bnewsome@gazette.com