Contributed by: Meg Gwaltney
Web Content Manager, Stein Communications

In the last issue of the Scoop, we provided information about podcasting in education. After some great feedback about this article, we decided to extend our discussions about podcasting to include a new five-part series focusing on podcasting in higher education. Each article, beginning with this one, will focus on a specific area of colleges and universities, including admissions, academics, alumni and development, athletics, and public relations.

This series of articles does not provide technical, step-by-step instructions needed to create and publish a podcast; the intent is to highlight ways in which other colleges and universities are using podcasts and to offer a few helpful tips and suggestions as you consider what podcasting venues may be right for your institution.

What is a podcast?
In case you missed it in the preliminary article, you will need a brief definition of our subject matter: Podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts) are audio or video files distributed over the Internet using either RSS or Atom syndication for distribution on psp themes, mobile game devices, mobile applications and personal computers. Unlike streaming audio and video, podcast and vodcast files are downloaded to the user’s equipment, which allows the files to be played at any time, even when the user is not connected to the Internet.

In addition to being incorporated into Apple’s iTunes software and Music Store, podcasting has become a popular format for two main reasons:

• Podcasts are downloaded and stored directly to the user’s equipment, especially portable MP3 players, such as iPods. Therefore, podcasts can be accessed by busy individuals who are always on-the-go — in the car, at the gym, etc.
• Through RSS feeds, users can subscribe to a podcast feed in the same way that they can subscribe to someone’s blog. Depending on the preferences they set in software such as iTunes, users can download new podcast episodes automatically when they connect to the Internet. The subscription feature saves time because the user does not have to visit each of his or her favorite web sites to check for new podcasts; they are delivered automatically.

Podcasting in Admissions
Some of the most impressive college podcasts I have come across are those geared towards prospective students (and their parents, too, in many cases). The best podcasts, even if they’re not sophisticated with hip intro music or flashy graphics, are those created around their target audience’s preferences. Essentially, a good podcast excells in three areas: content, length, and speaker/source.

Content. Generally, you won’t find a lot of new, unique content in admissions podcasts. Many of the messages have simply been adapted from content already found in current print and web publications. What’s important is the fact that the content is now available in a format that is easier to access, and can be delivered at a very low cost on a regular basis. Many people prefer the podcast format for certain types of content because they can listen to it while participating in other activities, and because they gain a sense of personal intimacy through hearing the spoken word from one or more individuals.

Length. Many admissions podcasts are short in length, making them more convenient for students who are on-the-go and who have many other time constraints in their lives. Delivering short bursts of information on a scheduled basis keeps your institution connected to its prospects in a way that is helpful to them and does not encroach upon their already busy lives.

Speaker/Source. One factor that affects the success of a podcast is the person(s) delivering your message. Your podcast will benefit from a speaker who speaks clearly and whose voice engages audiences easily. Above all, your podcast speaker must be a good representative for your institution.

Current Student Podcasts
The current student podcast is a great example of an admissions podcast that is usually done well, even if it involved very simple production. Podcasts and vodcasts are simply new formats in which to deliver information that illustrates to prospects what it’s like to be a current student on campus. Until now, this information has often been delivered via an interview in a print piece or on the web, a student blog, a collection of student photos, a video on the institution’s web site, etc.

With minimal time, expense, and equipment, students can record and publish a podcast on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to convey to prospects the daily life of a college student, whether it be the class they skipped one morning, their first A+ in biology class, or the commencement address they heard at graduation. By listening to podcasts throughout the year, prospects have a better sense of what it’s like to be a student on campus.

Not only do podcasts share information, they also generate an emotional response, as the listener hears the student’s voice, accent, and attitude.

In many cases, admissions offices do not feel the need to censor current student podcasts, given that the admissions office has selected student podcasters based on quality of character and has conveyed to them the important responsibility of acting as representatives of the university.

For a great example of a current student podcast, listen to Amber’s podcast on the Houghton College web site: http://www.houghton.edu/admission/life/amber/index.htm

Promotional Admissions Podcasts
In addition to current student podcasts, admissions offices are creating podcasts that promote special aspects of the school, such as its location or its diversity on campus — again, many of the same topics you would read about in their print brochures. Because of the audio (and possibly video) element, a podcast or vodcast offers a more intimate way to deliver your message to prospects, especially those who can’t attend a college fair or visit campus before applying to your institution.

Campus tour vodcasts may also benefit your institution. Additional episodes would be helpful supplements to showcase the campus during special campus events, and could even include tours geared toward different audiences, including prospects, parents, alumni, community visitors, etc. Some institutions promote their most popular or most unique academic programs via podcast as well. Interviews with faculty and students, in addition to showing current projects or research, can help bring a program to life in the eyes of a prospective student, or even a potential donor or volunteer.

Examples include:
Emerson College — http://admission.emerson.edu/admission/undergraduate/podcasts/index.cfm
Massachusetts Institute of Technology — http://web.mit.edu/amps/spotlight/podcast.html

Application and Enrollment-Related Podcasts
Other podcasts provide answers for prospective students who have questions about financial aid and the application process. In many cases, a simple frequently asked questions page on the college web site would be sufficient. However, there are other ways that this type of podcast could be very useful — one idea being a brief tutorial that walks prospects through an on-campus interview or provides quick tips about the personal essay.

Find out more about enrollment-related podcasts:
Bowdoin College — http://www.bowdoin.edu/podcasts/
CampusTours Productions — http://www.campustoursproductions.com/press-podcast.html

Along this same vein of thought, Fitchburg State College sent out a podcast to its newly enrolled students. An HTML email contained a link where students could download the podcast from the iTunes Music Store. The message was recorded by the president of the university, who welcomed the new freshman class. This type of podcast is an easy way of introducing key administrators at your institution, while also providing students with helpful information, such as a reminder to send in their housing deposit.

Read more about Fitchburg State College’s experience with podcasting: http://web.fsc.edu/fscnews/index.cfm?detail=259

Until next time…
Until the next installment in this series on podcasting, I would love to hear what your institution is doing in the way of podcasting, whether it is in admissions or another area on campus. Contact me at mgwaltney@steincommunications.com.

Contributed by: Heather O’Neill
Associate Director of Admissions, Vanderbilt University

“April is the cruelest month…”
- T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland

As the May 1 deadline for students to submit a matriculation deposit approaches, I find myself in complete agreement with T.S. Eliot. For those in admissions, April is the cruelest month, yet also one of the most joyful and gratifying. It is a month thick with contradictions, 30 days spent vacillating between counseling denied seniors and their parents through their grief and hyping the university to eager juniors visiting campus during Spring Break, between traveling to junior college nights around the country and being on campus for admitted seniors visiting one last time before making a commitment, between this year and the next.

The transition between the final exhausting days of admission committee meetings in March and the first days of April was particularly abrupt and jarring this spring. We mailed our decision letters early on a Saturday morning and assumed that Monday would be quiet, a buffer zone between the end of reading season and the start of the avalanche of phone calls. Apparently the U.S. Postal Service made Vanderbilt admission letters their highest priority that weekend, however; because the calls came flooding in from students around the country who received their news in Monday’s mail. The end of reading season is always draining, emotionally and physically. The reality of a 33% admit rate is that each of us lost a number of battles for students in whom we became invested and that pain can make it excruciatingly difficult to maintain a professional demeanor when faced with a parent irate over his or her child’s lack of a merit scholarship offer when you know how hard you fought just to have that student admitted. Each day in April, we span the continuum of emotions from elation when a student we have championed in the process decides to attend our college to heartbreak when another does not. We are frustrated with parents who cannot understand that there were students who presented stronger applications than their child and we are grateful to those who thank us for the time we spent answering their son or daughter’s questions even though he or she was not admitted. We host admitted students for final campus visits, answer their last-minute questions (Are there soundproof rooms in the freshman residence halls where you can practice the drums? Let me find out for you…), and keep our fingers crossed that enough of them will choose us that we achieve our target freshman enrollment.

In the midst of this emotional roller coaster, we begin recruiting the current high school juniors who will comprise next year’s applicant pool. My first spring college night was on April 10th, just two weeks after we mailed decision letters. I received my first question about the admissions process ten minutes into the fair. “What do you look for in an application?” asked a shaggy-haired boy in a polo shirt and flip-flops. My mind raced as I tried to form a simple answer and I eventually stammered out something about a challenging high school curriculum, contribution to the school or local community, strong writing, etc., all the while thinking of the multitude of students with those qualifications who did not make it this year. “Just be true to yourself and do the best job you can with your applications and then let the chips fall where they may,” I told him, “It’s hard to see now, but you will end up with a great college home next year.” He looked at me quizzically and asked for our average SAT score. Clearly the wounds from this year’s selection process were still too raw so early in the spring. Not enough time had passed for me to gain perspective and remember that juniors are not immersed in this process yet, that they just want to hear some general statistics so they can begin differentiating between the hundreds of colleges whose names they know.

These spring college nights are proliferating as the rise in Early Decision and Early Action applications means that the college search process now begins in earnest in the junior year of high school for many students. They do offer a wonderful opportunity for juniors to gather information on a wide variety of schools, but, for admissions officers, the month-long split personality disorder that they induce is difficult to handle. Our loyalties are divided between the seniors we have admitted and hope to enroll and the juniors just starting the search. Like the parents and teachers they are leaving behind, we need the summer to ease our emotional attachment to this year’s seniors and find closure as we hand them off to our faculty and student life staff. Only then are we prepared to go out to high schools and college fairs across the country to meet a new group of prospective students, finally ready to fall in love all over again. So April truly is the cruelest month, forcing us to flirt with next year’s class while our hearts still belong to this year’s seniors. We look forward to May 1, when the final matriculation deposits are in the mail, our phones stop ringing off the hook, and we can turn our full attention and affection to next year’s class.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of America recently published the results of its Youth Report to America — the largest national survey developed and administered by teens. 46,000 teens responded, and the report delivers their candid message. The report covers the following broad areas: teen outlook (how teens view their futures), relationships, teen issues, and view of America. According to the report, teens view education as critical to their futures. 33 percent of teens polled believe that knowledge is a key to success, while 74 percent think college is necessary to meet their career goals. A substantial number (40 percent) agree that “finishing school” is one thing that they can do to make life better for future generations. This is a must read for anyone involved in education.

To download the report, go to: http://www.bgca.org/youth/images/YouthReportToAmerica.pdf

PersonalizationPlus is a streamlined web solution designed to help your admission team more easily achieve your institution’s recruitment objectives. We’ve bundled a number of exciting web features into one solution, including: web-based contact management, broadcast email, community building for admitted students, online journaling, and web site personalization. Learn about this comprehensive admission solution during Stein’s hosted webinars. For scheduled dates and times, please contact Tia Lane at tlane@steincommunications.com.

Announcing new clients

University of South Carolina-Beaufort (SC) — recruitment marketing
Lipscomb University (TN) — recruitment marketing
St. Andrews Presbyterian College (NC) — CommunityYou
Illinois College (IL) — CommunityYou

Upcoming conferences
Throughout the summer, Stein will be exhibiting at the following conferences. Please contact us in advance if you would like to meet or simply drop by our booth for a visit:

National Small College Enrollment Conference: www.nscec.com
Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Annual Assembly: www.case.org