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Catch-up Date with Karine: Admissions – Special post NACAC conference

No post since the last edition of this series “Catch up-Date with Karine” aiming at fighting the information overload, I guess you can imagine how busy the past week has been. Anyway, here’s what I got for you with this special edition about “all things Admissions.”

With NACAC’s 64th national conference taking place last week in Seattle, it’s “Admissions applications or websites” fest

With so many admissions professionals gathered under one roof, this conference was the theater of several launches in the admissions web market including admissions.com (Monster.com’s take on college search) and Unigo.com (launched by a young entrepreneur with connections in the media and the higher ed blogosophere)

Meanwhile, Allegheny College (Mike Richwalsky’s home base) has decided to add its contribution to the college search a bit differently by launching a new online initiative.

The YouTube channel and website named “College Search 101” feature videos by their admissions head with very general advice. Remind me of an audio podcast done by a business school about 3 years ago: just general advice, no heavy promotion of the institution itself.

Last but not least, in the new released study department, don’t miss:

The State of the College Admissions – a 75-page PDF report produced by NACAC

Here are a few interesting facts included in the report:

  • Online Applications Increase: Colleges received 68 percent of all applications for Fall 2007 admission online, up from 58 percent in the Fall 2006 admission cycle.
  • Cost to Recruit: On average, colleges and universities spent about $578 to recruit
    each applicant for Fall 2007 admission, $836 to recruit each admitted student and $2,366
    to recruit each enrolled student (when admission staff salaries and benefits were included in the admission office budget).

And a chart worth your time if you’re in charge of the admissions website:

Features - Admissions Websites, NACAC report