The College Search Process is Different for Students Considering HBCUs
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Posted By: S. Moore on February 03, 2023 While analyzing the results of the annual Niche Senior Enrollment Survey an interesting trend popped up—over and over again I saw that students interested in HBCUs were considering their search differently. This wasn’t the case for HSIs, and in some cases didn’t play out for other student populations. The HBCU experience wasn’t only appealing to Black students—although 59% reported that it was—at least 20% of every underrepresented minority group reported that an HBCU was appealing to them. This may be an opportunity for HBCUs to stand out and recruit students differently, to further stand out from the thousands of colleges, and speak to students in ways that connect their mission and history with what matters most to those students. The differences spanned comm flow preferences, who was supporting and influencing their decisions, what they wanted in a college campus and student body, and a few barriers that were more acutely felt. How HBCU Searchers Wanted To Receive Information—And About What Students who found HBCUs appealing were 50% more likely to want to hear from college leadership during their recruitment. They were also more interested in hearing from alumni than their peers. Career services were much more important to these students. More than half wanted to hear from them during the search and enrollment process compared to 37% of their peers who were not considering an HBCU. In a similar vein, alumni networks were much more important to them than their peers. HBCUs that leverage and highlight their alumni as part of their outcomes messaging will better connect with prospective students. Current students should be a part of the comm flows for HBCUs. The majority of searchers said that they wanted to hear from current students during recruitment while only 38% of their peers did if they were not considering an HBCU. Outreach from the college was even more influential for HBCU searchers. Email (74% vs 66%), letters (65% vs 56%), texting (48% vs 32%), phone calls (43% vs 28%), video chats (42% vs 30%), postcards (39% vs 28%), and viewbooks (38% vs 28%) were all identified as being more influential in their decision. Weekly emails were more acceptable to students interested in HBCUs, though emails would still likely need to be relevant and valuable to them. Influencers For HBCU Searchers School or college counselors were very influential in their search and selection process, 60% identified them as a key influencer in their decision compared to 42% of their peers who did not consider an HBCU. Students who reported considering an HBCU were also more likely to respond that they had a counselor at school supporting them in their search. This was even more true for Black students who had a counselor at school, they were significantly more likely to consider an HBCU. This highlights the importance of influencing the influencers to help build your inquiries and enrollments year-over-year. While 78% of students identified college search platforms such as Niche as important to making their decisions, they are even more important to students considering an HBCU with 86% saying it was important. Niche was the most used with 71%, more than double any other platform except Common App at 56%. Appealing Aspects of the HBCU Campus and Community Residence halls played a much bigger role in evaluating colleges among students interested in HBCUs. Showing these as part of a college’s tours and comm flow can help stand out to students. Esports have been rising in popularity among students and colleges, but for HBCU searchers they stand out even more. Nearly half reported that Esports were important to them as a campus opportunity compared to only 15% of their peers who were not considering an HBCU. Athletics were much more important to students interested in HBCUs with 57% reporting wanting to participate as a student-athlete compared to 37% of their peers. The fan experience also mattered to 66% compared to only half of their peers. Greek life was much more appealing as well with 15% reporting that it was a must-have campus feature and 25% reporting it was appealing compared to 3% and 12% respectively for their peers who were not considering an HBCU. Students interested in an HBCU want their fellow students to be involved politically and socially. Politically active student communities were appealing to 66% of HBCU searchers and only 40% of their peers. Social issue advocacy was important to 81% of respondents compared to 60% of their peers who were not considering an HBCU. Barriers to Enrollment For HBCU Searchers Standardized testing was seen as more of a barrier with significantly more students considering HBCUs citing it as a challenge in their application process. They were less likely to have taken a standardized test and were much less likely to have submitted scores as part of their application. If an HBCU still requires scores for acceptance or aid it creates a barrier for students who find them appealing. Parents were less likely to have been reported as helping with their college search. This does not indicate any less support for the student going to college, just that they were less able to help in the search process. Application fees were more likely to cause these students to abandon an application they had started or not start an application to a college that they want to. This doesn’t mean that it was at an HBCU necessarily, but that the fees are a barrier to entry. SOURCE Niche.com If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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