The Zinch Report

Last year, we made our second appearance at the NACAC National Conference, held in Austin, TX. A few presentations stand out. Mary Chase- Assistant Vice President for Enrollment at Creighton University was not only engaging as a presenter, but she shared some terrific insight into Creighton’s embrace of Web 2.0. Many schools look to Creighton as one school that has successfully crossed, or who is successfully crossing, the chasm. I chatted with Mary this afternoon…

Mary, can you share some of your background?

I was initially in admission and coaching at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, IA. I worked in a coaching position there and did some admissions work for them. I was later hired by Noel-Levitz as a consultant and worked there 5 years before coming to Creighton University.

What about your interest in technology?

The tech edge for me is more or less something I was always intrigued by. I like to take a systematic approach to things. That seems to involve technology- I am goal driven and look for clear, measurable, quantifiable results. Technology is a vehicle that can assist in getting results.

Creighton's Undergraduate Admissions website makes great use of technology to reach prospective students. Can you share the genesis of your admissions web page?

We partnered with James Tower the company that powers our website. What we tried to do was bring some of the best and latest technologies, web 2.0 technologies, to our site. We have some very strong web 2.0 users in our office and I think that is something we felt was important. We see that our marketplace, the traditional high school grad, is using these technologies. So if we can have those technologies, then we may be better able to attract and continue to attract them to our site. Previously we had a Web 1.0 site, where essentially we gave information to students. Now, we want students to relay information to others students. The site now stays fresher and gives the student a reason to come back.

When did you go live?

July 1, 2007

Creighton's site utilizes blogs, message boards, IM (Meebo), and chat. Can you speak about each of these elements?

We have a variety of different blogs. Some are by faculty and administrators. We also have students at varying places in their careers; some are doing internships, some are freshman… those are really intended to give the kids a feel for campus life. We don’t believe brochures can give students the real picture. We want to see students getting the “real” picture on our site. The #1 thing kids want to do is visit campus. That’s where many colleges us the virtual tours. But putting a voice with the tour is what we’re trying to do. A blog is essentially the voice of our Creighton students.

The chat (IM) is really an anytime/anywhere connection with a counselor. Students are used to getting that. When our staff is working online, they log into Meebo, and they’re accessible. We do offer chat rooms as well. Those are actually provided to prospective students by our current students. A couple times a month we’ll schedule times for our prospective students to chat.

The message boards are intended to provide info to a lot of people with the same questions.

What seems to be attracting the most attention?

Students read some of the blogs. I would tell you that if you advertise at a certain place at a certain time where students can have a student to student chat – that is where we get the most interaction. A lot of students are not using an RSS feeder, so they aren’t getting frequently updated content from blogs. They have to intentionally visit the site to read the blogs. I checked out the “meet your rep” and really like the personalization.

What can you share with us about your admission officers?

Well, we don’t force our counselors to be Web 2.0 savvy, but those who are, we encourage them to use it. For example I had a counselor who put together a Jib Jab Christmas snowball fight with him and Billy Bluejay to his admitted students. Then he linked them back to his profile page where he had a Jib Jab message.

We’re trying to figure out ways to get kids to the site using Web 2.0- because that’s fun. That’s what we found, that [college recruiting] is a very serious topic but you have to have fun with it.

What was the thought/research behind your site?

Noel-Levitz and James Tower did some joint research with NRCCUA about online activity. Also, just reading about Web 2.0 clearly brings certain things to light. Think about the year these kids were born. The PC had been built years before. So, trying to recruit a student that is 35 is very different from one that is 17 or 18. You have to get in their space- you can’t recruit the same old way. So we tried to provide info that is fresh, and do so in a different way. We tried to put our information in different formats. You can’t do the same things and expect different results, right?

Have you modeled after any other institutions/organizations?

We tried to take the best of each individual tool. When we did our research, there were many schools that did one or two things very well. We tried to take the best from those schools. I don’t think there was one institution that was doing everything well. When we launched, we felt we were delivering the best of each at the time.

 

Do you have any specific experiences you can share?

We’ll have students that visit our campus and because of technology, already know students and counselors at our school. One of our bloggers is also a tour guide and one kid had read the students blog regularly. It was as if the prospective student had already known the tour guide. I would say that there are more stories about students connecting before they even get here than ever before. As you know, college admission is all about connections. That’s what we’re trying to do- it’s all about connections, making connections. If those relationships can be strengthened with Web 2.0 technologies, then that’s what we’d like to see.

What does not change with advances in technology?

Web 2.0 is a supplement, not a replacement. Really, what you’re doing is you’re taking what you’ve done in college fairs, face to face, receptions, interviews, campus visits, mail flow, email, and strengthening each of these through technology. We link students to human resources who they’ve never met before or strengthen connections they’ve already made. We were the first to send text message notice of admission. We didn’t stop making phone calls, we just knew kids were texting. What we’re trying to do is put ourselves in the space where we know kids are.