Don’t have the money to pay for an expensive college road trip?
Schools are increasingly making it easier for high school students to get a feel for their institutions without leaving their homes.
That’s the conclusion that I drew after reading a new study conducted at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, which explored higher ed’s embrace of new media.
Here are some of the facts that I culled from the research:
- 41% of admission offices at colleges and universities in 2008 were using blogs compared to 13% for Fortune 500 companies.
- 48% of colleges using new media techniques are videoblogging.
- More private schools blog (72%) than public schools (28%).
- 22% of schools with blogs don’t accept comments. (That makes no sense!)
- 16% of schools use podcasts.
- 10% use wikis. About 74% of colleges admission departments didn’t know what they were.
- Just 54% of institutions monitor the Internet for buzz, posts, conversations and news about their schools. The schools that monitor online activity tend to be the expensive private institutions.
Tomorrow I’m going to write a post about how schools are using online tools to check up on applicants.
Learn how to research colleges and universities by reading The College Solution.