By Jeremy Tiers, Senior Director of Admissions Services
3 minute read
Dealing with unresponsive students who recently started showing interest in your school is a common problem every year.
Our Tudor Collegiate Strategies leadership team was talking about this scenario last week, and as you might imagine, radio silence can mean different things depending on a student’s individual situation.
But, in looking through years of survey research, we have been able to identify a handful of reasons behind the lack of communication from a majority of students.
- When they looked at your website, nothing really stood out enough to consider starting their application or setting up a visit. Without a clearly defined reason of how your student experience is different, unique, or better (or how your school can actually be affordable) many won’t take the next step.
- For some who visited your campus, it didn’t have the ‘feel’ they were hoping for. It was too small (or too big), the tour guide wasn’t very friendly, they didn’t get a sense of community, or they didn’t like your school’s location. Those are some of the top reasons that students give for why they didn’t take the next step after visiting a school.
- Your emails sounded (and looked) like marketing messages, were too formal, and didn’t really share any information that they couldn’t find on your website.
- They’re busy and overwhelmed. The college search, activities, and just being busy with teenage life can be exhausting.
- They think they’ve missed their opportunity. For students who got a late start on the process, they’re wondering if your school still has scholarships and financial aid available.
- They don’t like talking on the phone or aren’t comfortable with you texting them. It could be as simple as the medium you’re using for outreach. Our ongoing TCS survey research says that about 40% of students never wanted a phone call during their college search, while just over 57% don’t want a college to text them until they’ve either applied or been admitted.
- They’re scared or nervous to tell you, “No.” A lot of Gen Z has a very hard time with that kind of conversation.
- They’re actually interested, but they don’t know what to say or how to get their questions answered.
Now let’s talk about what you can do to generate more engagement and feedback from some of this group.
Create a very short, direct, and personalized feeling email that comes from the student’s admissions counselor. No sales pitch or bullet points about your school and no hyperlinks or links to your application or visit page.
Tell the student that you’ve been watching for the application and haven’t seen it yet, so you’re wondering how they’re feeling about the idea of being a student at your school – that direct question is your call to action. Encourage them to reply back today or tomorrow, and reiterate that you’re there to listen and provide whatever support the student needs including answering any questions they (or their parents/family) might have.
Make sure the tone is conversational throughout your email, and be creative with your subject line. Two examples that have worked well for our college partners are, “One question for you, that’s it” and “How are you feeling about this, <Student’s First or Preferred Name>?”
Next, based on additional TCS survey data, I’d recommend that you schedule your email to go out on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday sometime between 3-7pm local time.
And finally, consider sending a very short text message about two days after your email to all the students who don’t reply back. In your text, alert them to the email you sent and let them know you’re really interested in hearing what their answer is to the question you asked.
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