Infographic: Digitally Attract, Engage and Retain Admitted Students

COVID-19 has turned the admitted student engagement strategy on its head and became a serious threat to student enrollment numbers for all institutions. Due to social and physical distancing measures on-campus visits, summer orientations, and other important in-person events are no longer a tool for attracting and retaining admitted students, at least not in the way that we knew them. Additionally, foreign applications are at particular risk. Schools are having to work harder than ever to engage and connect with admitted students.

But there’s an opportunity, schools are quickly iterating and building community thanks to technology, laptops and smartphones are taking the place of handshakes and campus tours. A mobile app experience can be used to facilitate those engagements, as well as give these admitted students and families an early experience of life as a student. But, why mobile? An app experience is habitual for the generation that makes up these admitted students, they do everything on an app: all the way from ordering food, socially interacting to investing or watching a show. It feels natural to seek the same type of interaction with the institution they plan on attending.

From our research while creating this infographic, we learned that many institutions are finding their engagement numbers are up due to the inclusive nature of a mobile app and schools are able to bring an added dimension to campus experience with story sharing and videos that expand the social culture. This digital admitted student experience can help motivate incoming college students and show them that their institution is proactive about the situation and will quickly iterate to support them as needed.

Download a PDF of this infographic.