160 pounds of mail from colleges and universities during this student’s search. Wow. While there is certainly a discussion and post in there about the OVERabundance of information thrown at high schools students in the US, what *I* thought about was how many Universities were sending viewbooks overseas? How much are you spending on mailing tons of paper across the world? Often to countries where the mail system is so poor the chances of the student receiving it in a timely manner is completely out of the question (yeah Saudi Arabia, I’m talking to you).
So are you still doing this? Are you still spending money on random direct mail campaigns? Does it work? What is your ROI? I am curious because I would think on average a University should be sending a hundred or less viewbooks to a country like Saudi Arabia each year. The rest of your budget should be spent on using the hundreds of better and more effective methods of connecting with the student on a personal and emotional level. That’s what will connect most of them to your institution and make them interested in attending.
…of course I say all this as an international student who chose her school based on its brochure and chose NOT to go to another based on theirs. Of course that was more than 10 years ago…the recruitment game has changed, and its time to give the students virtual hugs and handshakes, not just more mail.
When Facebook began handing out vanity urls a few months ago, most people saw that there were some potential issues with copyright infringement. Facebook was very insistent that you “choose your username carefully” because you were never ever EVER going to be able to change it! Well, we assume a combination of pranks and frustrated colleges who lost their online IDs to random folks has made Facebook change its policy.
Without much of an announcement, Facebook is now allowing you to change your username…but just one time. Or so they’re saying. So here’s your chance to contact the person who’s sort-of squatting on your name (hey Otterbein, do you hear me???) and request they change their username so you can grab yours.
And if you are completely confused by this post, I think you need to give me a call. If your school is not on Facebook, or if you still don’t have an admissions tab to increase international (and domestic!) student recruitment and engagement, you are missing out folks…I’ll just leave you with this:
In both Lebanon and Tunisia, Facebook is the #1 most visited website in the country.
Our student site, www.al-jamiat.com launched a new series of posts today reviewing different colleges and campuses beginning with Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio. If you would like your college to be featured on our student site, send us an email!
An excellent article in Inside Higher Ed today highlights a topic we at USEG discuss with our clients often: the use of a consortia to attract international students to a State they may not already know about. Read the full article here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/22/consortia
States spend money on attracting tourists by advertising in magazines, billboards, and TV – its time for colleges and universities to grab on to this style of marketing and pull students in to the state. At the Washington International Education Council (WIEC) conference in Washington DC this past January, a representative from the US Commerce Service discussed the importance of international education consortia. They gave examples of states who have already put this idea into practice including Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Oregon.
In budget crunch-time pooling together resources is not just smart, its necessary. By collecting advertising dollars from private high schools to small niche colleges all the way to specific graduate programs, everyone can benefit from a high impact ad campaign aimed at international students. Many countries, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are competing aggressively by the use of consortia to attend more trade shows, advertise in more magazines and attempt to attract more of the foreign students.
We encourage you to call your US Commerce service representative to discuss the support they can give you, or contact us for assistance on your project!
Of course that was more than 10 years ago…the recruitment game has changed, and its time to give the students virtual hugs and handshakes, not just more mail. 
