For unparalleled insight into the college admissions process
Educational Consultants
Helping colleges boost their yield:
Focusing on the college-family relationship
With colleges increasingly struggling to attract students, justify hefty tuitions, and separate themselves from the crowd, they often forget that everything centers on their relationship with families. Like any relationship, for it to be successful, it has to be authentic and reliable.
An authentic experience
It’s remarkable how colleges work so hard to match their competition that they forget how to be themselves. So when families come for a visit, it’s impossible for them to see what makes your institution unique. Why are faculty excited to come to class each day? What types of research or artistic products are revolutionizing their fields? What kinds of connections happen for students that might not happen anywhere else? How are students transformed on your campus? So much of a school’s story gets lost in claims of strong SAT scores and state-of-the-art facilities. Each campus tour blurs into the next, and families don’t leave knowing why they should be excited to send their student your way.
Reliable information
Colleges often unwittingly send conflicting messages to candidates. We’ve seen alumni reps meet students at Starbucks and leave them with totally inaccurate information about a school’s standards or the students’ chances of getting in. We’ve heard admissions reps tell students that financial need plays no role in admissions while the application delves deeply into the family’s financial status. And we’ve seen colleges overtly courting students who have no hope of acceptance simply to boost their numbers. Encounters like these leave a bad impression with families that travel the grapevine and can undermine a school’s carefully crafted outreach efforts.
Working with hundreds of families going through the college admissions process every year places Kennedy Consulting in the unique position of being able to help colleges see themselves as families see them.
Secret Shopper
Our Secret Shopper experience involves us in contacting and
exploring your campus just like a family would. The resulting report lets you see it all.
Were our inquiries responded to? Was the response quick, courteous, and accurate? How did this vary by department? What happened on the campus tour? Did we meet students and faculty who conveyed the essence of the school, or did we get the same pitch we’d get at 90% of the schools we visit? What did the campus feel like? Was it vibrant and welcoming or cold and institutional? Why? Could we park? Could we find our way? Were staff helpful? How was the food? What impressions do your application and publications convey? And most importantly, if these answers aren’t what you’d want, how can you transform the process?
Secret Shopper is a quick, revealing, and rare opportunity to put yourself in the family’s position. We take the politics out of the process and give your institution the frank and honest feedback that is often difficult to solicit from within. Our assessment can provide valuable affirmation of what you’re doing well or be the jump start you need to revitalize those aspects of the campus experience that haven’t been yielding admissions results.
Custom focus groups
Our in-depth relationships with families of students from middle school onward allows us to do rapid-response focus groups on any aspect of the admissions process you’d like to explore. Interested in feedback on a new marketing piece? Want to see how your campus tour or alumni interviews compare to others on your applicants’ radars? Simply want to know the preconceptions students have of you and your competition? We can assemble groups for various topics based on the respondent traits you have in mind.
Please contact us to learn more.
