The good folks at Noel-Levitz have just released earlier today their latest report about the E-Expectations of the High School Class of 2007: Engaging the “Social Networking” Generation: How to Talk to Today’s College-Bound Juniors and Seniors.
I’ve quickly scanned the 8-page PDF report that you can download for free and I can’t tell you how excited I am.
I know, I know, it’s just a report. And, the survey results aren’t THAT surprising, but don’t you think it’s nice to be able to back up your request to launch a new media or Web program with a good national study? I do, and the Noel-Levitz report will do just that for you.
Not sure that you want to click on the link above to download the study?
Ok, I’ll give you a few interesting points lifted from the press release about the study and the report:
- 83 percent of respondents indicated they would read a blog written by a faculty member if they could, as a way to seek more information about students and faculty at a particular institution. (I guess you need to get your professors blogging fast!)
- 63 percent of respondents would read a blog written by a current student if they could
- 9 percent said they have participated in online chat on a school Web site, but 51 percent would if they could.
- 9 percent said they have downloaded a podcast to their MP3 player, but 54 percent said they would if given the opportunity.
- 56 percent said they preferred Web to print
- 64 percent of respondents said they would like to receive college information in the mail compared to 36 percent who stated a preference for e-mail. (so email is less popular than print as this generation makes a difference between email and the Web)
- 82 percent would consider reading/responding to an instant message from a college representative
- 71 percent said they would consider sending an instant message to a college representative through the school’s Web site
- 59 percent would consider taking a call on a cell phone from a college representative.
Now, go get the PDF report!
Thank you so much for this report, I actually started to read it even without your prompting :-) It is indeed very interesting, and has wide-ranging implications, if I now succeeded to convince the relevant people of its content.
However, that’s where my problem usually starts: selling an idea like instant messaging within a unit like student administration might be difficult, not because of an unwillingness to do so (we have fantastic and very motivated staff) but rather because of the fear of “even more work in the same time”.
Any ideas how something like this could be solved? Do US universities have special “online officers” that take care of this? I would be very eager to find out.
[…] Collegewebeditor found a very interesting survey result paper on information-seeking behaviour of high-school students (8 page pdf). It’s quite an interesting read, and certainly makes a lot of sense. […]
That’s a great report – very useful
I am enjoying these results! I’m currently doing research for my college on this very topic and I conducted a small survey last weekend – the results were about the same:
90% of the students said they visited the website before choosing their program
59% said they would read a presidential blog
66% said they would read a student’s blog
83% said they would like to use IM to communicate with admissions
90% said they would like a virtual tour online
I had a fairly small group (30 students) because I am just starting on my research, however this study will really help to back up my findings.
Thanks, Sardionerak (from Australia), Tom (from the UK) and Robin (from Canada) for your comments.
Glad to see you share my opinion about this report (although anybody is welcome to disagree with me too ;-)
Sardionerak – you might want to have a look at a previous post I wrote about the Student Outreach Intern Program at Beloit College – in this institution, student employees/interns are the ones answering IM questions from prospective students.
Robin – interesting findings. I’d like to see the final results when you complete your study (if possible, of course).
Here’s an article I found on TargetX about recruiters using IM that you may find interesting, Sardionerak.
There’s a podcast on the same subject you can listen to.
Glad to see that the report is giving you some discussion points with your Web teams and colleagues. We’ll be working on the survey instrument for the updated edition to be administered in Jan/Feb 2007.
So, what would you ask, if you could?
Print rocks! It’s good to see data back up my humble belief that we can’t neglect the print side just because of all the blah blah about IM, TM, etc. Thanks!