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Media Contact: Kelsey Ill
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kelseyill@eduventures.com

BOOSTING CAMPUS VISITS IS KEY TO COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY RECRUITMENT OF FIRST-GENERATION AND LOW-SES STUDENTS, SAYS EDUVENTURES STUDY

(Boston, MA) September 24, 2007 - Colleges and universities looking to successfully recruit first-generation students and students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds need to increase efforts to bring them to their campuses, according to Eduventures' latest report, Building the Low-SES and First-Generation Pipeline.

The report maintains that campus visits are among the most impactful recruiting and yield activities in the higher education market, and that first-generation and low-SES students participate in such visits at far lower rates than other students. This, the report claims, is reducing the ability of schools to recruit these students.

"The on-campus visit is the only chance students have for meeting face to face with the people who comprise the institution to which they are considering pledging four years of their lives," said Brent Keltner, Senior Vice President of Eduventures. "It's a significant event for students in forming impressions and preferences."

According to the report, enrollment managers who are willing to invest in travel grants and the like to bring first-generation and low-SES students to their campuses likely will see increases in both the pipelines and yields for these student segments.

The Building the Low-SES and First-Generation Pipeline study was conducted exclusively for Eduventures' Enrollment Management Learning Collaborative membership. It analyzes data from a Web-based survey of nearly 8,000 college-bound high school juniors and seniors and a number of focus groups held across the United States. Admissions trends, key influencers, academic achievement and preparation, professional aspirations, information use and trust, and key value drivers were among the criteria used to compare students in the study.

In addition to its recommendation regarding campus visits, the report provides a number of other marketing strategies and practices that Learning Collaborative members can use to improve recruitment efforts related to first-generation and low-SES students.

About Eduventures
Eduventures is the industry leader in collaborative research and consulting for higher education. Since its founding in 1993, Eduventures has been committed to the mission of improving education. More than 300 higher education institutions participate in one or more of Eduventures' five Learning Collaboratives: Continuing and Professional Education, Development, Enrollment Management, Online Higher Education, and Student Affairs. In addition to collaborative research, participating members enjoy access to Eduventures' dedicated industry analysts, membership roundtables, on-campus visits, and the ability to analyze issues specific to them. More about Eduventures can be found at www.eduventures.com.