As Gen Z applies to college, the college search is changing

It’s most often associated with dating, but ghosting has spread to the workplace and even college admissions. Encouraged by the relative ease of applying to college, 80 percent of today’s college freshmen applied to at least three colleges; one-third applied to seven or more colleges. So the affinity prospective students have for a particular college will wax and wane during the search.

In some cases, prospective students might just ghost a college. Would-be students and their Gen X parents are no-shows or altogether skipping campus tours and open houses in the pre-application phase, Jeff Kallay, chief executive officer of Render Experiences, told me. 

“We’re seeing a decrease in the pre-application visit and an uptick in the post-application visit,” Kallay said.

Of prospective students who visit campuses in April, about half are stepping foot on campus for the first time after submitting their application.

Data point: A quarter of campus visits by prospective students occur in April, according to a 2018 analysis by VisitDays, a company that helps colleges schedule student visits. Of those students who visit in April, about half are stepping foot on campus for the first time after submitting their application.

What’s driving the change in visits? No single reason, but in reporting my book on college admissions I found that since an early-decision acceptance is no longer a given for many high-achieving students, their list of schools is ever shifting well into their senior year. The bottom line: students are waiting longer to visit some campuses until their list is solidified a bit more.

Why it matters? When students change how they conduct their college search, schools lose important insight into how many accepted students will actually enroll (the all-important yield). Yield rates have been in a free fall in recent years at all but the most selective schools.

A strategy to stem falling yield rates is gauging an applicant’s “demonstrated interest” when making admissions decisions. Some schools have long followed this approach, and now more are jumping on the bandwagon thanks to technology that makes it easier to track student interest much like consumer product companies do. 

I recently saw a demonstration of Capture Higher Ed’s behavioral engagement software. It allows college officials to follow visitors to their web site using IP addresses. At first, the visitors are anonymous, but there are various ways that colleges can capture information via e-mail messages or the forms on the web to reveal the visitors and then track their digital footprints as they roam around the college’s site.

“We’re trying to make sure that we’re doing all that we can to stay current with the changing behavior of students,” said William Pierce, senior director of undergraduate admission University of Toledo, which uses the Capture technology.

One example Pierce uses is a student's academic interest. It could be that what students want to study in college might have changed since the college bought names from the College Board or ACT for marketing purposes. Following what a prospective student looks at on the college's web site might reveal new interests. 

 But savvy parents and students are getting smart about how colleges track interest.

A mom of a high-school senior told me recently that she opened every e-mail message to her son from Tulane University while he was without e-mail access last summer at camp.

“We were told very specifically by others that if he didn't demonstrate interest he would be deferred,” she said. “We did everything in our power to make sure that didn't happen.” He got accepted to Tulane. But he was also accepted early decision to Emory University, where he’s going.

Algorithms are sometimes wrong. 

I’m working on new book for Simon & Schuster about the modern college admissions system, as told through characters who live it for a year, and their entire careers. Follow along with my reporting by subscribing to my newsletter at jeffselingo.com