Incoming students are one of higher ed’s most important audiences. We work with campuses to segment your incoming student audience, identify opportunities for engagement, and develop messages that resonate with them to target and position your enrollment strategy.
South Dakota State University (SDSU) wanted to gain a deeper understanding of their prospective and admitted STEM and pre-health student conversations to support undergraduate recruitment. We partnered with them to analyze their mentions to see how students’ college-going perspectives changed throughout the pandemic.
From August 1, 2018 to July 1, 2021, 7,318 mentions from 5,445 students were collected and analyzed to see how their college-going perspectives changed from prior to the COVID-19 pandemic through the height of it.
As you’re listening to your admissions audiences and planning your recruitment messaging for the next enrollment cycle, consider using tactics from our SDSU research to reach prospective students from targeted academic areas.
Conversations reflected each milestone as students sought guidance about best-fit programs, application processes, and financial aid while celebrating their acceptances and other accomplishments.
Students flocked to forums like Reddit and College Confidential, seeking application tips, program advice, and input on campus selection. Specific colleges and universities were mentioned when comparing and contrasting, and many students asked to be “chanced” for admission and shared their academic credentials, demographics, and extracurriculars.
Students discussed top majors and programs, such as biology, physics, pre-medicine, and chemistry. Pre-med majors were the most positively discussed and biology- and physics-related majors were mentioned positively when students celebrated their admission. At the same time, they were overwhelmed with worry as they prepared to enter their majors (which is consistent with our latest admissions industry-wide trends).
Students across all programs considered academic quality (including rankings and program reputation), research opportunities, enrollment size, campus location, competitiveness, cost, academic advising, and other sources of support to inform their decisions. These conversations consistently reflected stress, worries, and concerns about future plans and pressures to achieve success.
Incoming students’ conversations about science careers were mostly neutral and conversations around health-related careers were largely positive. Careers in science, biology, and physics dominated online conversation. The most frequently discussed pre-health careers were doctor, surgeon, and psychologist.
SDSU graduate student Ross Roh took our research further, examining how these students’ sentiment toward college changed over time. He found that conversation about STEM and pre-health decreased, regardless of sentiment, across the nearly three-year study.
The change indicates that while there is an overall decrease in both positive and negative conversations regarding STEM and pre-health, the sentiment is more positive post-pandemic. Explore Ross’s sentiment research further.
The questions SDSU wanted to know about their STEM students were just the tip of the iceberg. Think about the questions you about your incoming students, then partner with us to unlock real-time feedback and pain points from your most important audience.
Engaging with your audience is one more way to better understand your prospective students. Learn why it matters and get actionable ways to engage.
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Ross Roh, a Microbiology Masters Student at South Dakota State University, collaborated on this post. Ross used his expertise to explore how social listening can be used to better understand prospective student career interests more rapidly and conclusively in the highly dynamic and heavily online-based world. |