Recruiting Intelligence

Do you remember the movie "When Harry met Sally?" with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal when Harry states that a man and a woman cannot be friends. Well, the relationship between admissions, marketing and IT within universities -- and in many other organizations -- feels like that.

Well we've done it again. It provided such a fascinating glimpse into how institutions engage with prospective students that we decided to run the experiment all over again. If you are an avid reader of our blog (thanks, Mom!) then you know that last May we published the results of our mystery shopper experiment, phase one. We could hardly believe that nearly 25% of institutions we contacted to request information for a prospective Chinese undergraduate student never replied. For the full report, read our blog 25% Don't Reply to Prospective International Student Inquiries. Since we ran that experiment in the spring, April to be exact, we decided we would try it again in the fall. And so we bring to you, dear readers, the results of the mystery shopper experiment, phase two.

Smart phones and tablets such as the iPad have become our travel companions.   Here are seven of my favorite apps to make your life easier and more productive for your business and also personal travel.  There are a great deal more apps-- we have focused on the ones that can and will help you with domestic and international travel, unless otherwise indicated.

In addition to working for Intead as the Academic Advisor, I also work alongside high school students counseling and preparing them for the college application and admissions process. As an independent counselor I don't work for a specific high school or college. I am paid directly by my clients. I treat each family as if the students were my own children, eager to go into the world, but in need of advice to get to the next step. Because of my work with Intead I am incredibly interested in the great agent debate primarily because it affects our clients and their ability to recruit students, but more personally because, abroad, I would likely be assigned the title "agent." This post isn't intended to perpetuate the agent debate but given my unique perspective as one who works with students and parents, in the US and internationally, and who partners with universities, I have an ability to see these issues from numerous sides.

How many social media accounts do you have? Two? Five? Eight? Do you have any in China?

Do you know the travel books from Lonely Planet? If you do, you probably love them as much as I do. If not, you should get to know them if you travel anywhere in the U.S. or in the world. They are great guides for your travels. What does that have to do with St. John's University in New York? 

My wife and I have been working on time management for most of our marriage (>20 years). I have to admit that I am slightly obsessed about being on time.  Timeliness is one of those traits, that is part of my “cultural software." Why?  I grew up in Germany and timeliness matters more in Germany than most other countries.

Global Dexterity is a book about diagnosing cultural code.  Author Andy Molinsky provides a great deal of rich anecdotes around behavior that is appropriate, understandable and (un)acceptable in various cultural contexts.

Universities are getting hit by a tsunami of changes ranging from increased competition among universities as they expand traditional recruiting territories, stronger on-line competition from traditional and new competitive entries, rising tuition and student debt levels as well as a new marketing environment.  I am focusing on the latter change, which is getting less attention given the magnitude of the other factors. 

We are avid readers of all types of materials so we decided to share with our readers our staff bookshelves. Here is our first installment.  Please feel free to send us recommendations of books you found helpful and would suggest to your colleagues. 

For all those students of economics, yes PPP can stand for purchasing power parity, but I would like to use PPP as President and Parent Perspective. Why do I want to talk about that perspective?