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Ad space is limited and is taken on a first-come, first—serve basis. Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL 8 NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. AdSi'iii counts; » opinion@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, November 18th, 2014 ||T students prepare for rising enrollment Zaira Ortiz TECHNEWS WRITER It is no surprise to [IT students that the undergraduate student body is composed of 3,099 students. However, when students are told that the graduate student body is com- posed of 4,799 students, all of a sudden jaws begin dropping! Typically, the undergraduate population is larger than the graduate popula— tion in universities. This scenario is unique to IIT. Actually, the gap between graduate and undergraduate enrollment is a lot smaller than it used to be. Only 3 years ago, in 2011, the undergraduate enrollment was 2,714 and the graduate enrollment was 5,073. This is a huge difference. When I first came across these numbers, I was a bit surprised. I thought there were more undergraduate students since I’m constantly around them (and one of them). Turns out, there are a lot of graduate students at IIT, which makes sense for an academic based school like ours. According to the IIT 2014 Annual Report, undergraduate enrollment is steadily increasing at a reasonably pleasing rate. The goal, as mentioned in the 2014 report, is to have an undergraduate enrollment of 4,000 students within the next five years. That means that by 2019, IIT wants to have an undergradu- ate student body of 4,000 students. As a uni- versity, we are currently at 3,099 students, so it seems like IIT should be able to achieve this goal rather easily. Out of curiosity, I googled “top 10 ways to increase enrollment in a university.” I read the first three articles that popped up. The first article was called “How can colleges increase enrollment while also raising their ac- ademic profile?” Although this article focused on increasing enrollment while maintaining a high academic profile, it provided me, the reader, with some interesting strategies on how a university can achieve both goals. Out of a list of many strategies, the top three that stuck out to me were the following: Increasing scholarship levels, stressing off-campus oppor- tunities, and developing high profile academic majors or new majors. I noticed that these three strategies revolved around the same three themes the other bullet points revolved around. These themes are scholarships, expe- rience, and academic originality. The second article was called, “How Colleges and Universities Can Increase En- rollment with Hyperlocal Marketing.” When I first came across this my first thought was, “What on Earth is hyperlocal marketing?” Well, the article explained it quite well. The ar- ticle mentioned that hyperlocal marketing is “a digital marketing strategy that targets a specific audience within an equally specific location.” One of my favorite examples from the article is Toyota. Toyota sells cars whereas IIT sells an education. However, they both share the common ground of wanting a higher customer base. In the example, Toyota attracted 28,000 internet users as customers in San Francisco alone, through hyperlocal marketing. The ar- ticle goes on to say that on average, businesses that implement a personalized marketing style see an increase in sales of 19%. That’s signifi» cant when your revenue runs in the millions or billions. The last article was called, “6 sur— prising factors that affect a college search.” The six factors the article mentions are the follow- ing: 1. Financial Aid and Program Reputation 2. Your website is a Treasure Chest 3. Don’t stop the presses, print isn’t dead 4. Students understand marketing more than you think 5. How do students use orientations? 6. How many deposits do students make? After reading these articles, I noticed that there are clear trends in the marketing world going on at the moment. Not only are businesses using digital marketing, but so are universities in order to increase enrollment. Each article provided different key factors that go into raising the enrollment of a university. The first article discussed scholarships, expe— rience, and academic originality. The second discussed hyperlocal marketing. The third, and final one, discussed scholarships, market- ing, and experience. So, what’s the conclu- sion? In order to increase enrollment at IIT, according to the first three articles on google, we need to offer scholarships, market in many ways, and offer a once in a lifetime academic experience. Now that we know the formula to increasing enrollment, the next question that comes to mind is, “Are we using the formula?” IIT has a variety of Facebook pages ranging from every student organization on campus to every department on campus. IIT even has a link explaining why Social Media is important. You can find the link here: http:/I blogs.iit.eduIiit_web/social-media-2/social- media—guide. On the same IIT blog, responses to a survey done in October 2012 reveal what prospective students, current undergraduate students, current graduate students, and cur— rent faculty thought about the IIT Website. As mentioned in article three, websites are an important part of the formula in increasing the enrollment at a university. Based on the survey, the majority of prospects, students, and faculty traveled through the website with ease. All in all, I’cl have to conclude that IIT has a strong website and social media presence, but we can always aim for more. At IIT, 97% of students receive some kind of financial aid. Let’s just say if you’re a student at IIT, you probably have some kind of financial aid. This isn’t an area of concern when looking at the formula I researched. Finally, we reach the experience. Experience is a tricky factor to incorporate into any formula. The reason it’s tricky is, be— cause you can’t really quantify an experience. Yeah, you have to pay tuition, but when it comes down to it, your tuition doesn’t deter- mine what you take away from IIT after your four years, but your experience does. Based MAI) OUT on studentsreviewcom, 52.7% of students would choose to return to IIT, whereas 47.3% wouldn’t. However, the education quality was graded a B, the social life was graded a C4. ex~ tracurricular activities were graded a 13—, and the location was graded an A. Overall, IIT re- ceived a B-. These grading and values come from 94 surveys taken by IIT undergraduate students, the graduate students rated their experiences much lower. From those 94 stu- dents, we can see that about 50% of students enjoyed their experience, and the other 50% didn’t. A good question to ask is, “Who are these students ,and how can we better their ex- perience at IIT?” With these factors mostly met and satisfied, it’s no wonder why the IIT undergrad- uate student body has been steadily increasing since 2009. In 5 years, from 2009-2014, the undergraduate student body has increased by 434 students. However, the graduate student body, from 2009—2014, has decreased by 239 students. This means that over the last 5 years, the overall IIT student body has increased by 194 students. Let’s refer back to the goal, 4,000 undergraduate students by 2019. Within five years, IIT has been able to achieve an in- crease of 194 students overall, with an average increase of about 38.8 students per year. The average increase for undergraduates, these last five years, has been 86.8 students per year. The incremental changes are the following: 2009- 2010, 63 new students, 2010-2011, 112 new students, 2011-2012, 87 new students, 2012- 2013, 125 new students, and 2013-2014, 173 new students. From the incremental changes per year, it is easy to see that in the last three years, the IIT undergraduate enrollment has been increasing steadily. But, at the same time, the graduate enrollment has been steadily de- creasing. What does this mean for graduate students? And now we’ve hit the grand finale! I have two challenges for you reader! The first challenge is to make a friend with someone who may not be having the best experience at IIT, and make their experience better. Invite them for coffee, invite them for lunch, build a robot together, whatever works for your style. And, if you’re one of those people not enjoying your experience, you’re probably not reading the newspaper right now, but if you are, I’m leaving my email at the end of this article, and would love to hear your thoughts over lunch sometime. The second challenge I have for you is to answer the following question: Do you think IIT will make it? For everyone reading this article, based on the information provid- ed, do you think IIT will reach its goal of 4,000 undergraduate students by 2019? Also, do you think the emphasis on the undergraduate en— rollment is leaving the graduate enrollment hanging? A simple yes or no works, but if you want to add why, that’s always welcome! Let me know what you think by emailing your re- sponse to zortiz@hawk.iit.edu. I look forward to hearing from my favorite readers! All VIM business@technewsiit.com