Revamped UM Student Recruitment

[AZGrizFan]

You're damned right I had the final say. There were a couple colleges my daughter wanted to go to that I absolutely wasn't going to pay for. There were 2-3 that she could have chosen from that I was ok with....

Bottom line: my kids could go wherever they wanted. If they wanted MY money to follow them, I had to approve of their choice.

Just out of curiosity, what were the reasons you wouldn't allow certain schools? I don't have children myself, but am honestly curious.

Out of state tuition that was 3x what Texas Tech’s tuition costs were, with no discernible increase in value of the degree.

My take is this: for certain degrees, there are certain schools you should go to if at all possible. You want a journalism degree? University of Missouri is the school (surprisingly, UM used to be very highly ranked as well). You want a Cyber Security degree or a Data Analytics Masters, UTSA in San Antonio has top 5 rated programs in both of those areas....but for the most part, unless you’re going to an Ivy League school, Duke, Stanford, or a couple other schools, the degrees are basically interchangeable. If you move to LA (like my daughter) nobody cares if you went to Arizona, Texas Tech or North Carolina Greensboro. If you move to Texas, it doesn’t matter if your degree is from UW, Oregon, or Montana (again, with a few exceptions). Why pay $40,000/year out of state tuition at Arizona when virtually the SAME degree can be achieved at Texas Tech for $10,000 tuition....

IDK about the Texas Thing, In my experiences those channels that Texas alumi groups hold around DFW especially are massive. I would say 95% of the company I work for are UT, TA&M , Texas Tech or Baylor grads.

Those Texas universities hold a ton of weight in Texas.

Oh, no doubt. But move to Seattle and NOBODY cares whether it's UT, A&M or Tech. If you're going to stay nearby where you graduate, your degree will certainly carry more weight. A UW degree in Seattle carries more weight than a University of Kansas degree...But a KU degree in Kansas City? Priceless...Regionally, they all carry different (higher) weight, but outside of that regional circle, they're all fairly homogenous. And I knew my daughter was going to want to go to either LA or NY to be a professional dancer, so a degree from Arizona that cost 4x as much was a waste of money.

 

[mtgriz]

My son who is now a freshman in college, not U of M, received zero correspondence from the U. He had letters in the mail consitelntly fro MSU, Carroll, NDSU, and many others but never received one piece of mail from the U. With my wife and I both being undergraduate alums and my wife being a law school graduate, we were very disappointed that he didn’t receive even one piece of mail from the U. I surely hope things are changing because I know most of his classmates, from a large AA school, didn’t receive much or anything from the U as well and most went other places. When I was a senior in high school, U of M was the place to. Apparently not so much any more.

Agreed. And that’s not something that should have taken 18 months to figure out and correct. There were obviously some low hanging fruit but for some reason they seem to have elected to leave those alone and instead start with recreating the wheel....

Did anyone ever figure out what Engstrom was doing when all this was going to shit, besides having his wine parties???

Helping Krakauer research his book.

 

[Paytonlives]

As I stated elsewhere... I rarly see any advertising from UM in the Flathead valley.

Kittens, Mt Tech, Western... yes. Crap I even heard 1 radio ad from Rocky Mountain college.

UM... nope, seems as though they just assume all kids in western montana will only chose UM.

With roughly 1000 student graduating each year up here, Bodner needs to get this fixed.

UM is using better marketing and communication channels to reach high school students, including in the Flathead. UM is using multiple others based on the impact on the target audience. Students generally don't listen to the radio. The UM strategy is based on stakeholder groups and where they are — digital platforms, social, chat, texting and more. You wouldn't be in a position to notice those channels. There are some tv ads. With the available resources, the focus has to be on proven impact and not on perception.

Why do you always put a line in that you have zero knowledge of?
I wasnt speaking of just radio or TV. UM footprint on social media is a joke... getting better but still lacking.

 

[MikeyGriz]

my cat could have identified the problems as well as bodnar, they weren't exactly hidden. and none of what bodnar is doing now is any different than what universities have been doing since circa 2005. what are the results so far? a small increase in retention? that's easy enough, just pressure instructors to not fail anybody. get back to me with the bodnar loving after there has been an actual improvement in enrollment.

Always the ray of sunshine!

 

[PlayerRep]

As I stated elsewhere... I rarly see any advertising from UM in the Flathead valley.

Kittens, Mt Tech, Western... yes. Crap I even heard 1 radio ad from Rocky Mountain college.

UM... nope, seems as though they just assume all kids in western montana will only chose UM.

With roughly 1000 student graduating each year up here, Bodner needs to get this fixed.

UM is using better marketing and communication channels to reach high school students, including in the Flathead. UM is using multiple others based on the impact on the target audience. Students generally don't listen to the radio. The UM strategy is based on stakeholder groups and where they are — digital platforms, social, chat, texting and more. You wouldn't be in a position to notice those channels. There are some tv ads. With the available resources, the focus has to be on proven impact and not on perception.

Why do you always put a line in that you have zero knowledge of?
I wasnt speaking of just radio or TV. UM footprint on social media is a joke... getting better but still lacking.

So you are saying that you do in fact have access to and knowledge of the "marketing and communication channels", including "digital platforms, social, chat, texting and more" directed at the primary stakeholder group, i.e. 16 and 17 year olds in high school? And you say that the UM social media is a "joke".

Can you please expand on how you know about the new UM marketing to the 16 and 17 years and know the social media part is a joke? Note this quote from earlier in this thread. "UM is now communicating with them — about 50-60 times per year on average — and double that on social media."

In fact, can you outline these UM marketing and communication efforts and channels for us. I will then ask UM if you have accurately described the specifics of the new UM efforts.

 

[BadlandsGrizFan]

Just out of curiosity, what were the reasons you wouldn't allow certain schools? I don't have children myself, but am honestly curious.

Out of state tuition that was 3x what Texas Tech’s tuition costs were, with no discernible increase in value of the degree.

My take is this: for certain degrees, there are certain schools you should go to if at all possible. You want a journalism degree? University of Missouri is the school (surprisingly, UM used to be very highly ranked as well). You want a Cyber Security degree or a Data Analytics Masters, UTSA in San Antonio has top 5 rated programs in both of those areas....but for the most part, unless you’re going to an Ivy League school, Duke, Stanford, or a couple other schools, the degrees are basically interchangeable. If you move to LA (like my daughter) nobody cares if you went to Arizona, Texas Tech or North Carolina Greensboro. If you move to Texas, it doesn’t matter if your degree is from UW, Oregon, or Montana (again, with a few exceptions). Why pay $40,000/year out of state tuition at Arizona when virtually the SAME degree can be achieved at Texas Tech for $10,000 tuition....

IDK about the Texas Thing, In my experiences those channels that Texas alumi groups hold around DFW especially are massive. I would say 95% of the company I work for are UT, TA&M , Texas Tech or Baylor grads.

Those Texas universities hold a ton of weight in Texas.

Oh, no doubt. But move to Seattle and NOBODY cares whether it's UT, A&M or Tech. If you're going to stay nearby where you graduate, your degree will certainly carry more weight. A UW degree in Seattle carries more weight than a University of Kansas degree...But a KU degree in Kansas City? Priceless...Regionally, they all carry different (higher) weight, but outside of that regional circle, they're all fairly homogenous. And I knew my daughter was going to want to go to either LA or NY to be a professional dancer, so a degree from Arizona that cost 4x as much was a waste of money.

good point

 

[BadlandsGrizFan]

My son who is now a freshman in college, not U of M, received zero correspondence from the U. He had letters in the mail consitelntly fro MSU, Carroll, NDSU, and many others but never received one piece of mail from the U. With my wife and I both being undergraduate alums and my wife being a law school graduate, we were very disappointed that he didn’t receive even one piece of mail from the U. I surely hope things are changing because I know most of his classmates, from a large AA school, didn’t receive much or anything from the U as well and most went other places. When I was a senior in high school, U of M was the place to. Apparently not so much any more.

Agreed. And that’s not something that should have taken 18 months to figure out and correct. There were obviously some low hanging fruit but for some reason they seem to have elected to leave those alone and instead start with recreating the wheel....

Did anyone ever figure out what Engstrom was doing when all this was going to shit, besides having his wine parties???

Helping Krakauer research his book.

hahaha POTY Nominee!

 

[wbtfg]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

 

[GrizTexas]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Bigger issue is going to be the impact this has on everyone's ability to pay tuition!

 

[wbtfg]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Bigger issue is going to be the impact this has on everyone's ability to pay tuition!

Without question.

 

[CDAGRIZ]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Related thought: The CA Governor, Gavinor, said that he doesn't think CA schools will be open until next school year. So . . . does everyone have to repeat the grade because they weren't in school for enough days? HS seniors wouldn't be able to enroll in college in the fall (including those who signed athletic scholarships) until they graduated HS. Sure there are online options or self-study, etc., but how would the state regulate that on such a large scale? Further, incoming kindergartners would have nowhere to go because the rising first graders would be repeating kindergarten. And it would go on like that every school year in perpetuity. I think they would have to just "call it good" and advance everyone a grade.

Are there any teachers or administrators on here who have more info on what could happen if that became a reality?

 

[ilovethecats]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Related thought: The CA Governor, Gavinor, said that he doesn't think CA schools will be open until next school year. So . . . does everyone have to repeat the grade because they weren't in school for enough days? HS seniors wouldn't be able to enroll in college in the fall (including those who signed athletic scholarships) until they graduated HS. Sure there are online options or self-study, etc., but how would the state regulate that on such a large scale? Further, incoming kindergartners would have nowhere to go because the rising first graders would be repeating kindergarten. And it would go on like that every school year in perpetuity. I think they would have to just "call it good" and advance everyone a grade.

Are there any teachers or administrators on here who have more info on what could happen if that became a reality?

This is a big topic in our home as our oldest is a senior. He’s made peace with the fact he’s likely not getting a prom. He’s fine that there may not be a graduation ceremony and the big party we had planned may be gone. But he’s less than 3 months from school being over and he’ll lose his shit if he learns he has to go back!

I just don’t see how you can make kids go back for the reasons you listed. Think they’ll have to adjust the rules in these crazy circumstances.

 

[SaskGriz]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Related thought: The CA Governor, Gavinor, said that he doesn't think CA schools will be open until next school year. So . . . does everyone have to repeat the grade because they weren't in school for enough days? HS seniors wouldn't be able to enroll in college in the fall (including those who signed athletic scholarships) until they graduated HS. Sure there are online options or self-study, etc., but how would the state regulate that on such a large scale? Further, incoming kindergartners would have nowhere to go because the rising first graders would be repeating kindergarten. And it would go on like that every school year in perpetuity. I think they would have to just "call it good" and advance everyone a grade.

Are there any teachers or administrators on here who have more info on what could happen if that became a reality?

I think they are more likely to pass every kid who was passing at the time and ignore the time in school requirements. That is sort of what they are telling us up here in Saskatchewan, so it might be different down there or it might change tomorrow as so many things are. It's hard for us as teachers when the students, parents, and others look at us for answers and we don't know because this is all new. Maybe ask PR or some of the other Egrizer's who lived through the 1919 Spanish flu.

 

[SACCAT66]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Related thought: The CA Governor, Gavinor, said that he doesn't think CA schools will be open until next school year. So . . . does everyone have to repeat the grade because they weren't in school for enough days? HS seniors wouldn't be able to enroll in college in the fall (including those who signed athletic scholarships) until they graduated HS. Sure there are online options or self-study, etc., but how would the state regulate that on such a large scale? Further, incoming kindergartners would have nowhere to go because the rising first graders would be repeating kindergarten. And it would go on like that every school year in perpetuity. I think they would have to just "call it good" and advance everyone a grade.

Are there any teachers or administrators on here who have more info on what could happen if that became a reality?

I think they are more likely to pass every kid who was passing at the time and ignore the time in school requirements. That is sort of what they are telling us up here in Saskatchewan, so it might be different down there or it might change tomorrow as so many things are. It's hard for us as teachers when the students, parents, and others look at us for answers and we don't know because this is all new. Maybe ask PR or some of the other Egrizer's who lived through the 1919 Spanish flu.

Bozeman is working on on-line "Sign-In" classes (You would sign-in and it logs classes and assignments you finished). My son has been online for a couple months, and he has certain tests he does that are required by the State. He was told (before all this went down) that he would go into freshman year just like anyone else, as long as he finished his online work. My daughter is a little younger (going into 6th grade) and they are having study classes that parents are leading online. Lots of people stepping up to make sure kids don't fall behind. the girl is studying every morning from about 8:00 till 1:00 online

 

[tgreseth]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Related thought: The CA Governor, Gavinor, said that he doesn't think CA schools will be open until next school year. So . . . does everyone have to repeat the grade because they weren't in school for enough days? HS seniors wouldn't be able to enroll in college in the fall (including those who signed athletic scholarships) until they graduated HS. Sure there are online options or self-study, etc., but how would the state regulate that on such a large scale? Further, incoming kindergartners would have nowhere to go because the rising first graders would be repeating kindergarten. And it would go on like that every school year in perpetuity. I think they would have to just "call it good" and advance everyone a grade.

Are there any teachers or administrators on here who have more info on what could happen if that became a reality?

I think they are more likely to pass every kid who was passing at the time and ignore the time in school requirements. That is sort of what they are telling us up here in Saskatchewan, so it might be different down there or it might change tomorrow as so many things are. It's hard for us as teachers when the students, parents, and others look at us for answers and we don't know because this is all new. Maybe ask PR or some of the other Egrizer's who lived through the 1919 Spanish flu.

Here in Camas, WA those HS seniors on track to graduate, will. Those that weren't will be participating in online coursework and credit recovery of one kind or another to make the progress necessary to meet requirements. The curricular focus, with respect to 9-12 is largely maintenance of learning gains while, at least here locally, the push for K-8 is continued growth i.e., original content delivered by whatever means are available and authorized by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and public health policy. Transitioning from a traditional classroom format to an online approach in two weeks is a massive undertaking; not just infrastructure and tools but also the professional development/training that's also needed. The District is also continuing to provide meals and, to the degree they're able, childcare. They're also exploring equipping a handful of buses to function as mobile hotspots; dispersed to areas with limited internet connectivity. BTW, I'm not an educator myself, just married to one!

 

[bgbigdog]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Related thought: The CA Governor, Gavinor, said that he doesn't think CA schools will be open until next school year. So . . . does everyone have to repeat the grade because they weren't in school for enough days? HS seniors wouldn't be able to enroll in college in the fall (including those who signed athletic scholarships) until they graduated HS. Sure there are online options or self-study, etc., but how would the state regulate that on such a large scale? Further, incoming kindergartners would have nowhere to go because the rising first graders would be repeating kindergarten. And it would go on like that every school year in perpetuity. I think they would have to just "call it good" and advance everyone a grade.

Are there any teachers or administrators on here who have more info on what could happen if that became a reality?

Let me paint an even more dire picture for you. Waving attendance requirements & pushing everyone through who deserves to advance, is easy. Here’s the rub: this thing is just going to ebb & flow until the the vaccine and treatments are available. Witness the f&*kheads in the bars, those calling it a hoax or the gen stupids who are on the beaches in Florida. Flattening the proverbial curve is an attempt to stave off what would happen to established medical systems should things spiral out of control like they did in Italy & other places.

My friends in the business of medicine are pointing to a recently published Harvard study that’s predicting potentially eighteen or more months of on/off chaos until a hoped for vaccine is available & the population can be successfully inoculated. What happens if 2020 is lost entirely and it’s 2021 before they get back into schools safely? Not wishing this on anyone, but let’s stop pretending that what’s going on now to address this problem is an overreaction. We aren’t going back to normal even when this thing is over.

 

[PlayerRep]

"Bodnar noted that out-of-state applications were up 33% over last year at this time."

Missoulian, earlier this week.

Looks like the new recruiting effort was working for out-of-staters.

I also think that UM may have the opportunity to get some press/credit for coming to UM, where there have been very few virus cases and almost no significant virus issues. Why would you let your kid go to school in NYC metro or other bigger cities or places where they has been a huge amount of virus? Even if you kid is young, healthy and not at risk, you may not want to go visit them at college. Why not have them go to UM, where there is lots of space, students can act more like college students, and families can feel comfortable visiting them?

 

[Paytonlives]

"Bodnar noted that out-of-state applications were up 33% over last year at this time."

Missoulian, earlier this week.

Looks like the new recruiting effort was working for out-of-staters.

I also think that UM may have the opportunity to get some press/credit for coming to UM, where there have been very few virus cases and almost no significant virus issues. Why would you let your kid go to school in NYC metro or other bigger cities or places where they has been a huge amount of virus? Even if you kid is young, healthy and not at risk, you may not want to go visit them at college. Why not have them go to UM, where there is lots of space, students can act more like college students, and families can feel comfortable visiting them?

BINGO

 

[hokeyfine]

"Bodnar noted that out-of-state applications were up 33% over last year at this time."

Missoulian, earlier this week.

Looks like the new recruiting effort was working for out-of-staters.

I also think that UM may have the opportunity to get some press/credit for coming to UM, where there have been very few virus cases and almost no significant virus issues. Why would you let your kid go to school in NYC metro or other bigger cities or places where they has been a huge amount of virus? Even if you kid is young, healthy and not at risk, you may not want to go visit them at college. Why not have them go to UM, where there is lots of space, students can act more like college students, and families can feel comfortable visiting them?

i agree with what you're saying.... but.... as has been seen before, increase in applications hasn't translated to significant increase in attendance. maybe it will work out. also, i think as time goes people are going to be more comfortable and confident with covid eventhough nothing has changed. if those applications were early in the pandemic, they might be feeling better about the school they prefer.
I think the best opportunity that um has is to ramp up its online degrees and classes. this is the future. it doesn't help when the leader of this(i forgot his name) abruptly leaves to go back to his old job.

 

[behappp]

It will be interesting to see how covid impacts college admission. This is a pretty major time of year for campus visits before making a final decision.

Bigger issue is going to be the impact this has on everyone's ability to pay tuition!

While the stock market is not the economy it is a part of it. Here's some quotes on the economy and market.

In April, consumer spending suffered the worst drop on record in the same month that personal income saw the biggest increase on record.

and more recently -
We're clearly in a bull market right now – in fact, by one measure, it's the fastest, biggest bull market of all time. According to LPL Financial Research, the 39.6% gain in the S&P 500 Index in the past 50 days is the greatest 50-day rally ever, since "the modern design of the S&P 500 Index was first launched in 1957."

For out-of-state students their families may have more $ to invest in their kid's future even though the average hard-working (possibly unemployed or under-employed) Montanan may not.

Rightly or wrongly, for the short term there has been a ton of $ sent into the economy over the last 2 months and some families will spend that $ on their kid's college education. Hopefully, UM gets more than their fair share.