By: Life goals at a discount? The manipulation of transfer students « Not Your Average Admissions Blog “A Beneath the Surface Look At Everything College Admissions (with a few shameless plugs)”

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:49:38 +0000

[...] Bakker is a most excellent college marketing guru. In a recent article on Ypulse.com, however, he offers help with responding to the “increase” in potential transfer [...]

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:29:20 +0000

Thanks Andrew. From our previous discussions, you know I respect your opinion on this stuff too. There are lots of factors playing in here. Affordability vs. exclusivity is an interesting debate in of itself. We are overdue for a talk anyway, so I’ll reach out soon.

By: Andrew Flagel

Andrew Flagel — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:51:22 +0000

Jason –
I hate to say so, since you know I’m a big fan of your marketing efforts, but I think you’re on the wrong track with transfer students. I think I have at least some knowledge on the matter, as the dean of admissions at one of the largest transfer destinations in the U.S. and since my primary area of research is on transfer students, particularly between community college and baccalaureate institutions. Here’s a few thoughts:
1) The “increase” in transfers is misleading – actually several schools are marketing to population more, but even several years ago we were already at a point where 60% of students receiving bachelor degrees transferred at some point in their college career (see Cliff Adelman’s pathways to college data from the department of education).
2) There is very little evidence that community college or other transfer students are more prone to respond to value or discount pitches than any other enrollment market. As with any marketing effort, claims of being less expensive can just as easily translate in student minds to lower quality rather than higher value, so at best this is a risky proposition.
3) what does clearly work with trnasfers (and every other market segment) is assertions of quality – particularly where lines can be drawn between quality and outcomes (jobs and earning potential). Stragely, we’ve managed to tie this quality concept to exclusivity – if a school can claim to have less space and be harder to get into, it is more likely to be perceived as offering strong outcomes. This is especially surprising as it flies in the face of:
4) Transfer students, far more than freshmen (but similarly to graduate students) want convenience and expedience. Access to online courses (I can go one about real and perceived access to online courses for even longer), evening and weekend, aceptance of credit, and general accommodation and assimilation of transfer students are HUGE issues, often far outweighing (although also influencing through time to degree) cost of attendance.
I’ll likely blog about this a bit myself – happy to chat with you or Anastasia about it anytime.
Andrew

By: Attracting Transfer Students «

Attracting Transfer Students « — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:50:49 +0000

[...] see what some schools are doing to attract potential transfer students, read my recent post for Ypulse by clicking [...]

Comments on: Ypulse Sponsored Post: Attracting Transfer Students

By: Life goals at a discount? The manipulation of transfer students « Not Your Average Admissions Blog “A Beneath the Surface Look At Everything College Admissions (with a few shameless plugs)”

By: Jason

By: Andrew Flagel

By: Attracting Transfer Students «