Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

There’s no shortage of wannabe students out there, who are eager to find a college and course they’re attracted to, give it their all, and walk away later on down the line with the tools and credentials they need to go out into the world and make a success of themselves. However, while there might be a lot of prospective students each year, there are also a lot of colleges. There are more than five thousand currently in operation, and while they might specialize in different areas, there’s no getting around the fact that that’s a lot of competition. So how do colleges stand out from the crowd, and entice students to their school? We take a look below.

Word of Mouth

Wannabe students don’t always know what they want to do with their life, but they know it when they see it. If they can point to someone older than them and think “I want to be like that guy/girl,” then that’s a pretty motivational tool when it comes to taking action. When it comes to colleges, prospective students can learn about the type of people they might become by looking at what the alumni are doing. Colleges often reach out to successful past students and ask them to write blogs, or if they include their story in their prospectus guide.

Social Media Pages

If you want to target the younger generation with your school, then you need to go where they hang out. That, more often than not, is the online world, and specifically social media. Schools partner with companies such as CPL Advertising Agency, and target set demographics with advertisements via Facebook and other social media websites. Research has shown that teenagers spend around nine hours a day online, which gives them plenty of opportunities to see an ad for their potential next school.

Moral Codes

One of the most impressive things about the younger generation is that they’re generally more socially conscious than older generations. They care about the environment, they care about equality, they care about the important issues in a way that mimics — probably even exceeds — the social consciousness of the sixties. As such, young people want more from their schools than just an education. They want to know that the school isn’t taking money from organizations that have morally questionable practices, and that they’re tolerant of anyone and everyone. Colleges who showcase their commitment to a better world will find that they have more interest from prospective students.

Tech Integration

We said before that students spend a lot of time online, and they do — this is a tech-infused generation, the first one that grew up with a tablet or smartphone in their hand. As such, they’re much more likely to be attracted to schools that don’t just possess modern technology, but ones that are on the cutting edge of tech and all its related services. These kids are looking to the future, not the past, so it’s important that schools reflect this ideology too.