Colleges Find More Applicants Through Personalized Web Recruiting

College admissions directors are scrambling to find seats in a packed hotel conference room here when Chris

ALSO SEE: INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: Giving a Web Site a Personal Touch (Requires Flash, available free here.)

Muñoz, vice president for enrollment management at the University of Dayton, begins a presentation on using the Web to recruit applicants.

Standing beside a large screen displaying Dayton's admissions Web site, he tells the crowd that too many college Web sites are crowded with junk because Web designers are fearful that if they don't link to every department they might offend someone.

The most prominent links on Dayton's streamlined home page are admissions-related. The point is to get students moving quickly through the site so they can apply online, says Mr. Muñoz. A pop-up box encourages prospective undergraduates to personalize their subsequent visits to the site by providing a name, an e-mail address, and a likely major. Afterward the site will greet the visitor individually, offer information geared to his or her academic interests, and serve up profiles of students pursuing similar topics.

The personalized marketing strategy is yielding results for Dayton, a Roman Catholic institution at the forefront of using the Web to recruit undergraduates. Since 1996 the number of undergraduate applications to the university has grown 50 percent, a healthy increase for any college, while the average cost of recruiting an applicant -- which includes contacting potential applicants, processing their applications, and persuading those who are admitted to attend the university -- has declined 17.5 percent, to $390 in 2002, says Mr. Muñoz. He says electronic recruiting isn't the only reason for Dayton's increase in applicants, but it is a major factor.

Dayton's admissions office also is spending less on printed materials, travel associated with visiting high schools, and salaries for clerical staff, says Mr. Muñoz.

With competition intensifying for qualified students, and with teenagers becoming more Internet savvy, colleges like Dayton are finding that reaching students through the Web and e-mail is easier, faster, and cheaper than using telephone calls or postal mail. While most institutions haven't gone as far as Dayton in relying on the Web for recruiting, many are sprucing up their admissions Web sites, establishing virtual tours and electronic mailing lists for prospective students, and encouraging them to visit chat rooms.

Student Behavior

A 2002 survey of admissions officers by the National Association for College Admission Counseling showed that prospective students were more likely to communicate with colleges online than over the telephone. And even though the most popular means of communication are postal mail and faxes, Internet correspondence is growing.

According to the association, 14 percent of counselors surveyed said students were more apt to search for colleges using the Internet than guidebooks or campus tours. Many college Web sites now give students a "virtual tour" of their campuses. "Learn about the most prominent campus buildings, including the most popular places to eat, study, work out -- or simply hang out," Dayton's Web site announces.

The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers scheduled at least seven workshops on electronic recruiting at its annual conference here in April. Some of those sessions, like the one led by Mr. Muñoz, were so popular that many people were forced to stand. Some audience members were just beginning to learn about electronic recruiting, while other, more Web-savvy attendees wanted to see how their recruitment efforts stacked up against those of an expert. The speakers' main message was that electronic recruiting may significantly increase a college's applicant pool and help persuade admitted students to enroll.

In his sessions, Mr. Muñoz displayed a chart that showed how effective the Web is in yielding applicants. Of those who reveal their academic and extracurricular interests via Dayton's Web site, 62 percent apply for admission, he says. Over all, 16 percent of students who inquire about Dayton decide to apply.

The University of Kansas at Lawrence, too, is discovering that driving students to its admissions Web site brings in more applicants, says David A. Burge, assistant director of admissions and scholarships for the institution. The admissions office distributes postcards bearing its Web address in bold letters to students.

"The students who we work with expect a good Web site, and not having one can hurt a good institution," says Mr. Burge. A good Web site, he explains, is easy to navigate. Its pages can be quickly loaded. Students feel the site speaks to them personally. And content takes precedence over pictures or flash.

Dayton's Web site is a point of pride for LiquidMatrix, a software company in Buffalo, N.Y., that sells and customizes software to help colleges use the Web to "engage students and endear them" to specific colleges, says Gary Guyton, the company's president. LiquidMatrix's promotional literature boasts of helping Dayton increase the percentage of students who, after inquiring about the university, decide to apply or enroll.

Thirty-two colleges, most of which are private and not nationally known, have contracted with the company to use its admissions software. Dayton's admissions Web site was the first the company took on, in 1997. The company's foundersDavid Marshall and Kevin Guyton, Gary Guyton's sonare former Dayton students. The company also helped Dayton design its home page and create a Web page for alumni. Mr. Muñoz won't reveal how much Dayton is paying LiquidMatrix for its services.

But Mr. Guyton says colleges typically pay LiquidMatrix between $110,000 and $150,000 to install and customize the company's admissions software and train staff members in how to use the product -- a process that can take four to six months. LiquidMatrix does some admissions consulting, but its forte is helping colleges use the Web to accomplish their admissions goals. For example, some colleges want to use the Web to increase enrollment, while others want to use the Web to attract students who excel in certain academic or extracurricular activities or come from certain regions of the country.

LiquidMatrix's main competitors in Web-based recruitment and related software are ApplyYourself, Connexxia LLC, and edGenuiti Worldwide Ltd. Connexxia says its admissions software, AdmissionsGenie, has a similar aim -- it encourages "personalized, two-way communications with prospective and incoming students."

Better Information

Mr. Muñoz says the rise in applications to the university has given Dayton more flexibility in selecting its freshman class, ensuring that the ratio of students to faculty members in each discipline is roughly equivalent. Increased applications also have improved Dayton's public profile, he says, which in turns means that the college can rely more on its reputation to attract applicants, and less on offers of financial aid. Dayton has lowered its average discount rate -- that is, the percentage of the tuition covered by financial aidto 27 percent in 2001 from 32 percent in 1996. The university has about 10,000 students, including 6,600 undergraduates.

It accepts undergraduate applications only online, and is able to monitor prospective students' behavior on the admissions Web site day to day and make necessary adjustments, both to its overall marketing strategy and to its approach to individual recruits.

For example, Web-site monitors can tell when a student has started but not finished filling out an application. Dayton admissions officers can then send the student an e-mail message to encourage him or her to complete the form. And officials discovered that visitors to Dayton's Web site connect most frequently to the faculty-and-staff link. So the university is starting to post online the photographs and credentials of professors.

Because of students' use of Dayton's Web site, the university has access to new types of data. For instance, Dayton has determined that students who fill out the online "financial-need estimator" form, which helps students determine roughly how much of their tuition is likely to be covered by grants and loans, are more likely to enroll in Dayton than those who do not fill out the form. So admissions officers remind applicants in brochures and e-mail messages about the online form.

Other features of Dayton's admissions site include a "to-do list," which reminds a prospective student of Web links that, for example, allow him or her to schedule a visit to the campus or check the status of an application. Another link on the site also allows a high-school counselor to check the status of a student's application.

Despite the successes of Dayton's online-recruiting drive, no one at the university asserts that it has led to a more diverse student body. Dayton continues to draw students largely from Ohio and surrounding states.

Applications from African-Americans are up, but what role online marketing has played in that rise, if any, is unclear.

And the verdict is mixed on whether incoming freshmen appear more accomplished than those from prior years.

"I have not personally seen any great rise or noticeable decline in the quality of students," says Laura H. Yungblut, an associate professor of history who is vice president of the Faculty Senate.

But others say they have noticed over the past few years that applicants appear better qualified intellectually. Applicants' scores on SAT and ACT tests are higher than ever before, says Paul J. Morman, dean of Dayton's College of Arts and Sciences. In 1997 the average SAT score of freshmen was 1132, and their average ACT score was 24.8. In 2001, those scores were 1162 and 25.2, respectively. But he doesn't know whether that improvement can be attributed to Dayton's online-recruitment drive.

Certainly, students have the chance to become well acquainted with the arts-and-sciences college even before they enroll. Dayton's Web site directs applicants to the college site if they indicate online that their likely majors are programs in the college. The features on the arts-and-sciences site can be quickly tailored to each visiting prospect's interests. The high-school students also receive e-mail messages encouraging them to inquire further about academic programs and to communicate with faculty members and department chairmen.

Mr. Morman says Dayton administrators are trying to lure prospective undergraduates away from the large state universities in Ohio, such as Miami, Ohio State, and Ohio Universities. "Since we can't beat the competition simply on price, we have to beat it on what our programs have to offer," he says. "Trying to get students educated about what we have to offer that distinguishes us from these other schools is really what we're trying to accomplish here."

Dayton pushes its science programs' "highly personalized education," says Mr. Morman. The institution also promotes undergraduates' ability to do hands-on research because of Dayton's close proximity to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and to write papers with professors who have research grants.

One tool that Dayton uses only infrequently is chat software. Some colleges use commercial chat software both to attract prospective undergraduate applicants and to persuade admitted students to enroll: During chats, students can ask undergraduates, administrators, or faculty members about a college. Dayton uses the service less often, preferring instead to invest in its Web site, says Mr. Muñoz.

Successful Strategy

The strategy appears to be paying off. Christina Graney, a junior at Dayton who is majoring in electrical engineering, says she first heard about the university through the Web. At the time she was living in Omaha, Neb., and attending a Catholic high school.

"Me and my mom did just one of the generic college searches online where you put in what you're looking for," says Ms. Graney. "I was looking for a smaller, private university between 5,000 and 10,000 students, somewhere that offered engineering and that was far away from home." She visited the campus and was impressed by what she saw, so she enrolled.

Joseph Saliba, a professor who is chairman of the civil- and environmental-engineering department at Dayton, says the university's electronic-recruitment efforts are working to pull in applicants from regions outside Ohio and the Midwest. This year he met more prospective students from the East Coast than he has in the past four or five years, he says.

"What the Web is doing is giving us more opportunities. But it's still that personal visit that counts at the end," he says. "That's what solidifies a person's decision to come to Dayton."

One student Mr. Saliba communicated with during the admissions process was John T. Fly, who is now a sophomore majoring in civil engineering at the university. Mr. Fly was living in Boise, Idaho, with his family when he learned about Dayton.

A senior at a Catholic high school, he was assigned a project on the Marianists, the Roman Catholic order that is associated with the university. He stumbled across Dayton's Web site during a search because a page on the site gives a history of the Marianists, founded in 1817 by a French priest named William Joseph Chaminade. The order's members -- priests, brothers, nuns, and other lay people -- have a special reverence for Mary.

The university initially appealed to him, Mr. Fly says, partly because of its size. He visited the campus over spring break. Since he was interested in civil engineering, he met with Mr. Saliba, but he also talked with university counselors, and took a tour of the campus -- and then decided to apply.

He was particularly impressed that he didn't have to pay a fee in order to apply. The university doesn't charge an application fee because forms are submitted online, says Mr. Muñoz, so there is no need for university staff to type in admissions data.

"The free application really helped," Mr. Fly says of Dayton. "I probably wouldn't have applied otherwise." He decided to enroll after Dayton offered him scholarships covering 70 percent of his expenses, including tuition, room, and board.

Mr. Saliba is now subtly wooing a local high-school junior who is interested in suspension bridges. The student contacted him after learning via the Web that Mr. Saliba is a structural engineer. The two have been sending each other e-mail messages, and Mr. Saliba even went to see the student's high-school science-fair project.

"I haven't asked her if she's planning to apply to Dayton," says Mr. Saliba. "But we're building a relationship."