E-Expectations 2010: What Questions Do You Have For Prospective Students

[Mark Greenfield]

Final preparations are underway for the 2010 Noel-Levitz E-Expectations survey. For those of you not familiar with E-Expectations, it is an ongoing project to uncover the online expectations and behaviors of prospective students. This research project examines what students want to find on Web sites, as well as their attitudes toward communication mediums such as social networking, text messaging, cell phone calls, and instant messaging being used for recruitment. (see http://bit.ly/5fmEai for previous surveys)

Are there any particular topics you would like to see included in the 2010 survey?

[David Marshall]

Mark - thanks for opening this survey up to uwebd.. I have 2 recommendations.. I believe I mentioned this to Stephanie last year..

1) i would like to see a question that focuses on: would you be interested in receiving "text updates" or "mobile updates via text" from an institution in which you are interested? Updates would include notifications of events in your area, your application status, missing documents, deadline reminders, etc.

2) and based on the other questions in other discussions.. i think everyone would want to see what type of device they are using (iphone, bberry, smart phone, "basic phone).

Thanks!

[George Thompson]

I would like to see something on links and keywords.

What effect does link text play in grabbing attention and maintaining it through several pages? Do college-bound seniors go looking for a common set of words in text links?

Is it possible to get a sample of the search keywords used?

[Michelle Mierzwa]

Always look forward to the NL E-Expectations findings! I appreciated the information around content last year. I would love to see what prospective students say about the content specific to imagery (what they find engaging, what they hope to SEE in the photos on an institution's web site.)

[Stephanie Geyer]

Thanks for these great ideas! More?

[David Marshall]

Oh oh... it would be very helpful to know what % of mobile phones are Web accessible.. with a data plan. Based on that information, marketing to/with the device would change considerably.

[Rachel Reuben]

I'd like to know more information about how prospective students perceive our various outposts on Facebook.
- Groups or Pages -- Do they perceive a difference when looking at a school, how do they want to connect with us?
- class of 20xx groups -- Since the College Prowler event last year, more schools are creating their own groups now. This year some other rogue group of the College Prowler variety created a Class of 2014 group for us. I created another one called "SUNY New Paltz Class of 2014 - Official" and worried the "official" bit would scare them away. (It hasn't so far.) Curious what their take is on that, and whether they care who created/started it.
- university presence -- do they want to see a separate FB Fan Page for the admissions office(s) than the main university?

[Nancy Prater]

I would love to see Noel-Levitz conduct a survey for adult learners -- working professionals or those in transition coming back to universities for continuing education and advanced degrees and who are often looking for online programs.

[Kathleen Doyle]

Video...how compelling is it (assuming it is done well)? We are applying a lot of resources to produce it and want to achieve a balance.

And, what content are students really interested in in video format?

[Zac Vineyard]

I second video. I'd like to know more about the types of videos students think are valuable.

[Stephanie Geyer]

Great. I'm back at it now and will do my best to incorporate these ideas into our new survey. Hoping to hit the field in mid to late February with preliminary results appearing later in the spring. Full presentation of findings at NCSRMR (the Noel-Levitz national conference).

[Kathy Kissane]

I would agree with Rachel's request regarding social networks. I would also like to learn if they prefer a private social network (i.e. just for accepted students of that university) or an open Facebook Group. As well as hear how often this group is utilizing Twitter. Thanks!