Admissions Audits
Our Process
Our multi-step Audit process consists of conducting research to understand your greater admissions and marketing context, experiencing the campus visit the way a prospective family would, and providing recommendations for improvement. We read and review. We look, listen, and learn. We ask questions. We synthesize answers. And we make recommendations to take your campus tour to the next level.
The Pre-Visit Review: Doing Our Homework
Getting to Know You: Before we arrive on campus, we want to learn as much as we can about you. We ask that you provide to us data (visit numbers, conversion rates, survey results) and information (strategic plans, branding, recruitment publications). Once we’ve reviewed everything, we are ready to go to your website and register for a visit as if we were a prospective family.
Campus Visit
Day 1: Walk First, Talk Second
Tour Experience: Campus Tour de Force consultants start the day from the admissions office/visitor center—like a visiting family would—and tag along with a few tour groups to learn what information is being provided by tour guides and what questions families are asking. Tapping our expertise in environmental design, we evaluate all of the spaces families encounter and navigate. Overall, we look to see if the expectations and brand promises promoted by the marketing materials match what families experience on campus.
Team Gathering: Fresh off the tour, we meet with admissions administrators and staff to share our first impressions and to begin discussions of the current challenges and goals for improvement.
Campus Visit
Day 2: Sessions with Key Leaders
The Deep Dive: We delve more deeply by meeting with campus leaders and stakeholders to learn more about the programs and highlights that are featured in the tour, as well as aspects of the school that need more exposure.
Ambassador Program Focus Groups: We meet with tour guides/ambassadors to hear their insights and perspectives, and we confer with staffers who develop the curriculum and training for tour guides.
The Deliverables: Insights & Recommendations
The Report and Recommendations: We provide a detailed review with critiques and commentary of the current visit experience in its entirety, from the process of registering for a visit on the website to the contents of your post-visit follow-up email. We also provide recommendations, small and large, for improving the visit experience—including suggestions on aspects of environmental design—and an online photo album that portrays the “outsider’s perspective” on your campus.
The Debriefing: Discussion, Questions, Clarifications
The Follow-Up: After you’ve digested the report, we’ll have a conference call to field your questions and clarify our recommendations. We want you to be both inspired and equipped to develop an action plan to implement appropriate changes.
Q & A
Q: Why do I need an admissions audit?
A: The experience of physically visiting your campus and interacting with your staff and ambassadors is tremendously important to how your school is perceived by prospective families. It is therefore a huge opportunity for you to make a positive impression. We offer a fresh look and an outsider’s perspective on something that might be too close for you to see. In addition, if you’ve never consulted an expert in environmental design, you are missing out on opportunities to better reflect and amplify your brand.
Q: Who should be involved in the audit?
A: While you have discretion as to whom to involve, we generally meet with the Admissions/Enrollment Director and their staff. We also like to meet with your student ambassadors in a focus-group like setting to gain insights from their experiences interacting with visitors.