IU continues to purchase names for recruitment

While coaches are convincing the most talented athletes to play on an IU field or court, other campus offices are employing a full-court press to attract talented students to IU classrooms.

For years, the Office of Admissions has purchased names and biographical information from College Board and ACT to contact potential IU students. Admissions enters the names into a database, and those students receive an introductory postcard to IU.

That postcard encourages potential students to go to the IU admissions office Web site, to provide more information about themselves and to schedule a campus visit.

But the response rate to the “cold call” postcard has been minimal. Only about a 3 percent of students receiving the postcard respond, said Sarah Gallagher Dvorak, senior associate director of marketing and communications in the admissions office.

The Student Search Service provided by College Board and the Educational Opportunity Service provided by ACT both enable admissions offices to set certain parameters – such as test scores, high school GPA and geographic information – and then purchase the names of the students who fall within those parameters.

Terry Knaus, senior associate director of admissions, said that this is one of many avenues the admissions office pursues in order to get IU’s name out to potential students.

Knaus said he can’t say what the exact parameters are at IU, although he did say the admissions office searches for students with test scores that would meet admission standards. It also search for certain geographic areas.

IU purchases about 200,000 names from these searches, Knaus said.

According to their Web sites, College Board charges 32 cents per name, and ACT charges 31 cents per name.

Many colleges participate in this program, Knaus said, and many of them have been participating for many years.

The Student Search Service was launched in 1972, and there are currently more than 1,700 colleges and universities participating, according to the College Board Web site.
Knaus said that despite the low response rate, sending out initial postcards to a select group of students is worth it.

“You need to do that to get your name out there,” he said.

If the postcard does get students interested, they can expect more targeted and personalized communication from the University as the admissions office learns more about them, Dvorak said.

She said the admissions office is trying to be more strategic in its recruitment process, moving toward a new prioritization of communicating with students who show an interest in the University.

However, if the “cold call” doesn’t demonstrate any interest, Dvorak said the admissions office will not keep communicating with them.

Knaus said purchasing student names is only a portion of recruitment activities in the admissions office.

“(It’s) one of many, many things that we do,” he said.