Admissions/Records/Financial Aid

Recruitment, Admissions, Financial Aid, Records

Present: Tate Miller, Jill Stoffers, Jenny Manseau, Pam Ventura, Regina Lomboy, Sherre Kruft, Devin Luedekke, Amy McGill

• Current website likes:
  • Graphics/visual appeal
  • Links to Banner and Directory
  • Interact and Explore sections
  • Reduction of wordiness
  • Cleaner

(summary: summer work on the web site moved us in a positive direction)

• Dislikes:
  • Not user friendly
  • Hard to navigate
  • Needs better map of information
  • Too many search results
  • Need larger font
  • Need portal site (personalized)

(summary: need to emphasize IA, interactivity/customization)

• Impact on recruiting
  • Prospective student feedback is fairly positive.
  • 40% of our applicants never inquire – they are getting their info (presumably) from the web and/or word of mouth
  • Bounce rate is still 49% -- consistent over 2 years

• Would like to see:
  • Button for transcript requests on homepage
  • Putting financial aid info with admissions is not logical for current students
  • Need the ability to interact immediately; pick up rss feeds
  • User centered elements:
    • Let alums upload news from the field
    • Applicants can look up what’s missing from their file
    • Live chat
    • Text messages
    • Pay deposits online, with a confirmation
  • Banner self-service will make some of this possible
  • Make language issues (requirements) less confusing
  • Clear brand definition – make people understand who we are