Marketing and Tuition Costs... still a wasteland
Both of my presentations last week at the ACT Enrollment Planners Conference included examples of colleges and universities that were using online scholarship and/or tuition cost calculators to give people who might want to enroll a better picture of what "real" costs might be than the usual published sticker price information.
Almost nobody in either audience (probably 150 or so combined) reported they had something like this online now.
10 Scholarship and Cost Calculators
That lead me to update the list at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2007/12/5_online_financial_aid_scholar.html from 7 to 10 schools with online forms that mark a venture into new marketing territory. The new additions are Fleming College in Ontario, Northern Arizona University, and Wilkes University. Links to each of the 10 pages are included.
The Wilkes entry delivers a subtle marketing message that I'd guess is not intended. The form asks only for SAT results, excluding ACT. Does that mean this northeastern Pennsylvania school isn't interested in people from ACT states like Michigan and Ohio and Illinois and more? Not likely, but that's what this form implies.
Noel-Levitz student surveys continue to report that forms like these would be used by a great majority of college-bound high school students if available. But they are not.
A Special Benefit for "Stealth" Applicants
If you're concerned about "stealth" applicants, consider this option to get them to drop the invisibility cloak. Make the scholarship and/or cost calculator only available to people who become an online inquiry. In other words, offer a benefit for the act of revealing identity. Make your website more important to them by providing a service that isn't available anywhere else.
Do people use these?
We had a person from Bradley University in one audience. She verified that use of Bradley's online form has doubled or tripled the number of people getting estimates now over the number that once were forced to provide the information and then wait for a reply by regular mail. Instant gratification. Sometimes it works.