Looking for something new to try this spring for your recruiting efforts? I recently saw a demo for CollegeWeekLive and was quite impressed with its features and the possibilities it creates for recruiters across the country.
Side note: This may seem like a sales pitch, but it’s not. I don’t work for CollegeWeekLive, nor am I a current client. I’m just an impressed individual who works in marketing and communication at a university, and wanted to share this with you, as I hadn’t heard much about them before seeing this demo.
Although their service is called “CollegeWeekLive,” their service is much more than one week of live events. They have two major events each year, one in early November and the other in March. In addition, they provide a number of other specialized events for guidance counselors and other targeted groups, and you can have your own Virtual Open House just for your university on any day of your choice.
When students login during CollegeWeekLive, they first see a virtual reality-type view of what it would be like if they walked in the door of an auditorium at an in-person traditional college fair.
This lobby gives them an overview of their choices, a list of colleges participating, and other live features. When a student chooses to browse through the booths, they see this:
When they select a booth, they’re greeted by that university.
While in the college’s booth, they can chat live when counselors and other representatives are available, add documents to their “my stuff” section to come back to later
similar to picking up printed materials at a traditional college fair booth.
CollegeWeekLive attracts students that many of us are seeking in our recruiting efforts. The average attendee has a 3.42 GPA, averages 575 on the Math SAT, 556 on the Reading section, and 557 in the Writing, all which are well above the national average, according to collegeboard.com. According to CollegeWeekLive, 60% of their attendees classify themselves as minority students. Their biggest pull was recently from California (20.4%), followed by Texas, Florida, New York and Georgia.
Admissions offices who are seeking these kinds of students, and especially those that are dealing with smaller budgets and less travel, should absolutely try this service. I was floored at how affordable this is considering the vast reach, customization and personalization capabilities universities have.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting one of the guys from CollegeWeekLive, and can tell they are the type of vendor I’d want to work with. They are very hands on, provide you with many ideas and opportunities, as well as suggest next steps for effective follow-up after your events.
I personally know at least two colleagues at other universities who are current clients and rave about this service. I’d love to hear more success stories, and hear about other unique ways university’s are customizing their booths, how they’re structuring their virtual open houses, and how their follow-up is going after these events. I think CollegeWeekLive has the potential to be a major player in the higher education recruitment space, especially in tighter economic times and a smaller number of eligible students to recruit in certain areas of the country.
Let us know if you are a client and how it’s going for you.
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