By Molly Ford
As Northeastern’s popularity has risen, the number of applications received so far this year has totalled more than 30,000, a high number said Ronne Patrick Turner, dean of admissions.
Turner partly attributes this rise to the use of Internet admission tools.
For this year’s class of prospective students, the newest addition to admissions information is blogs, one written by Turner herself, and six written by students. Turner said the blogs started after admissions became “aware of high students getting more involved in online venues.” Turner was aware that students were using websites, like www.collegeconfidential.com, to chat about the college process and different schools, including Northeastern, and may not have been getting correct information. Instead of responding directly on these sites, Turner decided to start her own blog for prospective students, parents and family members to read.
Turner started her blog in September, and in November, the admissions department added six student blogs to the website to give the prospective students the college student perspective.
Turner said the students who blog about their experiences at Northeastern were chosen from professor and staff recommendations. The students represent a diverse group of majors and interests, and Northeastern does not censor what they write.
Marni Loewenstern, a freshmen business major, did not have the benefit of viewing the blogs while making her college decision. After viewing them she said, “they describe the college experience very well.”
Hillary Gras, a sophomore finance major, agreed.
“The blogs look awesome. They are a really good way for prospective students to get firsthand accounts on Northeastern – much better than hearsay or mailings put out by admissions,” she said. “Blogs are in. If Perez can do it, so can Northeastern.” While blogs are the only new advancement for admissions for this year’s applicants, students still have the benefit of using other Internet recruitment tools that have been around awhile.
One of the reasons admissions officials have limited print materials and started using the Internet is because “they go beyond what print materials could,” Turner said.
“Sometimes print materials were outdated and dense,” she said The admissions website includes admission and campus videos, as well as 360 degree residence hall web tours.
The myNEU portal is also available in a slightly different format to admitted students. The admitted student’s myNEU contains information like a message board, tour and visit day schedules, the student’s financial aid package – even orientation sign-ups.
Loewenstern said the portal was useful when she was considering her options.
“I used the admitted student’s portal to find out more about Northeastern,” she said. “The section that answered people’s questions was the most helpful because I got to learn more information about Northeastern from other people’s questions that I did not originally think of.”
Turner said these online tools are especially important because of “stealth applicants.” Stealth applicants comprise about 20 percent of the applicant pool, and they are defined as prospective students who do not identify themselves in traditional ways, such as requesting mailings from Northeastern or contacting an admissions counselor.
The first contact Northeastern has with the population of stealth applicants is when they receive their application, but Turner said she assumes the majority of these stealth applicants have been perusing the website and using the features available on the site. For this reason, Turner said she believes the web tools are most important for recruiting this population of applicants.
The admissions department also releases their admitted, denied or waitlisted decisions online. Students can check on their application statuses online, and admissions will email them if they are missing pieces of their application-admissions sent out over one million e-mails last year, a large portion of which were these type of process e-mails.
