Carol Phillips at Millenial Marketing observes that

“Gen Y says their biggest challenge is ‘busy-ness’, the sheer volume of things they want and need to do. There simply isn’t enough time to do it all. As a result, they see their lives as ‘hectic’, ‘exciting’, ‘dynamic’ and ‘fun’. However, busy-ness also is the main barrier to achieving things that are really important to them, like staying in touch with old friends, making new friends and finding time to lead a ‘balanced’ life.”

When marketing universities and colleges to high school students, there’s a tendency to hype up the high-energy, never-stand-still aspects of life on campus.  (At least, I know I’m guilty of it.)  Think of how many “24/7″ or timeline-themed viewbook concepts you’ve seen.  The point, of course, is to convey a sense of how and to what degree prospects will be engaged once they’re on campus.  “Come to our school!  Bored is the only thing that’s hard to be!”

It’s all meant to appeal to an audience that expects continual activity.  But it’s very easy to forget that this busy-ness is also a stressor.  And it’s taking a toll: anecdotal evidence and hard data indicate that the use of on-campus mental health and counseling services is climbing; we’re also seeing the growing practice of a gap year as students declare that they just need a break.

As Phillips reminds us, what students crave and what’s in short supply is balance.  Emphasizing the ways your students step off the busy-ness treadmill, how they find balance between competing demands, also has its appeal.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 9:59 am and is filed under Admissions, Publications, Recruitment.