If you’re anything like me, May 2 always feels like the greatest breath of fresh air.  You’ve worked hard for the last year, trying to provide the best customer service possible so that your product (the college) can stand as tall as possible.  I think what’s most exciting about May 2 is that it means that the days ahead are the start of something new and just as important.  It’s about starting the process all over again, and getting better at it at the same time. So how will you approach your summer months? I know that I am definitely excited about spending a little bit of...

I had a great time both attending and presenting at the annual MACAC conference on April 30, held this year in Grand Rapids at the L.V. Eberhard Center on the campus of Grand Valley State University.  A good number of my colleagues attended as well, including Garrett Knoth, who gave a presentation on counselor recommendation letters and college essays.  I was also able to sit in on Nathaniel Hancock’s (see Zinch) presentation on social media (which happened to include an excellent nod to “The Office” with a reference to the “Dunder Mifflin Infinity” episode in season...

I don’t usually use Admittedly Dutch as a forum for personal items outside of technology and recruitment for higher ed, but this is something I just have to share with those of you who keep up with this blog.  On April 23 at 8 PM, Dave Ramsey is sponsoring an event called “Town Hall for Hope.” In their words, “Town Hall for Hope is your opportunity to sit down with people in your community for a nationwide town hall meeting led by Dave Ramsey. Thousands of venues across the country will host the event, broadcasting Dave’s live presentation. In the opening half hour, Dave...

I spent the last week in New York at the NACAC national college fairs in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.  New to these fairs was a system where students could create a profile online and then generate a custom barcode that could be scanned by a rep if they wanted more information from that particular college.  It’s great that NACAC has gotten on board with this kind of system because it generates an easy process (.csv file) for loading data (better than the traditional reply/information card, anyway).  More importantly, students are much more inclined to submit their information if it...

In my last post I talked about a recent survey that suggested that we focus our attention on our colleges’ websites, student search websites, and the like.  I argued that while those venues have their important place, sites like Facebook, student blogs, and YouTube also have a significant place when it comes to creating a recruitment culture in the age of web 2.0.  As promised, I’d like to discuss prioritization of social media within the context of your overall recruitment strategy. So here’s my main point, right up front: Every point of contact that a prospective student...

This article recently made its rounds through our inboxes at Hope, and I couldn’t help but feel like it underminded some of the work that I had been doing with Facebook, Vimeo, and the like.  For quick reference, here are the results of the survey that Cappex did among 1000 high school seniors: Cappex survey results It makes a whole lot of sense that “a college’s website” is the number one item on the list.  However I would contend that this article suggests that you should shift your focus away from student blogging, Facebook, MySpace, et al.  (To be honest, I’m not...