In order to attract prospective students, the Admissions Office employs a wide-ranging outreach effort that includes maintaining the admissions website, broadcasting video chats, meeting with visitors on campus and conducting recruitment trips, according to admissions director Paul Sunde. Freshmen interviewed, however, said that they did not receive a significant number of promotional materials from Dartmouth before applying and that marketing efforts, other than campus visits, did not impact their decision to matriculate.
Fifteen Dartmouth admissions officers work with support staff on marketing, communications and outreach efforts, according to Sunde.
"It is a portfolio of activities that we engage in each year to build as strong and diverse of an applicant pool as we can," he said.
The Admissions Office records the number of people who take part in these new outreach efforts and looks at how many of them apply to Dartmouth to determine whether an initiative was successful, according to Sunde.
"We are always changing and looking at what has been successful and what we can do better," Sunde said.
The office is currently designing a new website, renovating the public spaces in McNutt Hall and revising admissions publications.
"Our intent is to align the thematic and content experiences of prospective students online, on paper and on campus," he said.
Dartmouth works with the College Board and ACT to identify promising high school students and reaches out to them through email campaigns and viewbooks in order to build their interest in Dartmouth, Sunde said.
Anna Ghnouly '16 said she does not remember materials she received because she applied to 16 schools.
"I was not lured to come to Dartmouth because of pamphlets," she said. "I visited and I really liked it."
Alice Lu '16 said she wished Dartmouth had provided her with more information about the College when she was applying.
Dartmouth admissions officers host information sessions across the U.S. and internationally for high school students unable to visit campus.
The office hopes to implement more traveling in the future and coordinate presentations with peer institutions, according to Sunde.
The core message about Dartmouth is always its academic excellence, but this characteristic does not necessarily distinguish the College from peer institutions, according to Sunde.
The office aims to promote Dartmouth's distinguishing features including its strong undergraduate teaching, the flexibility of the Dartmouth Plan and opportunities both to go abroad and engage in independent research with faculty. The tight-knit supportive community also helps to distinguish Dartmouth from peers, he said.
Penelope Williams '16 said the promotional materials portrayed Dartmouth as an institution filled with motivated students.
Williams received a welcome packet, emails and access to a video featuring campus life after she was accepted.
The College did not compare itself to other institutions in its materials, but did emphasize its size, diversity and attention to undergraduate education, Williams said.
"They weren't too pushy, which I actually really liked," she said.
Dartmouth's marketing efforts had varying effects on students' decisions to apply and matriculate, according to freshmen interviewed.
Amy Chang '16 said the efforts made the College seem more attractive and played a role in her decision to matriculate.
Lu said that Ivy League universities' reputations are sufficient for attracting prospective students.
"I think achievements themselves are the most effective marketing strategy," she said. "I'm not going to change a lot based on what I see in a brochure or handout or something I see posted on a bulletin board."
Feyaad Allie '16 also said that his decision to apply to Dartmouth early decision was not affected by admissions outreach material.
In the past year, some universities have hired chief marketing officers to handle their outreach efforts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
At Purdue University, a team of 80 at the media and marketing office run all university marketing efforts ranging from digital media to branding, according to chief marketing officer Teresa Thompson.
Thompson said her position did not exist before she began working at Purdue in August 2008.
"Higher education is becoming a more competitive environment, and there is a pretty cluttered marketplace," she said.
Since Thompson's arrival, Purdue has received more applications, experienced an increased yield rate and recorded greater website and mobile traffic, she said.
"We know that students need to be engaged with the institution in order to choose that institution," she said.
At DePaul University, a staff of 37 people focuses on marketing efforts, according to senior vice president of enrollment management and marketing David Kalsbeek.
Overall, 300 people are involved with marketing and communications in either a direct or indirect way, serving as career counselors, admissions officers or in other positions.
"The recruitment process is one small part of our overall marketing and recruitment strategy," Kalsbeek said.
