A new study by Cappex.com shows that students are researching information on college websites from their mobile devices, though traditional channels such as email are still relied upon most to keep students on track during their college searches.

The Cappex study of more than 2,000 class of 2011 and 2012 high school students, as well as 82 college admission officers, also shows that videos are more popular for college searching than blogs on college sites.

Specific findings from the study include:

• 86 percent of 2011 high school grads prefer e-mail for initial contact from colleges
• Just 19 percent of 2011 high school grads want initial direct contact from colleges by cell phone, though 32 percent prefer to continue a dialogue with college admissions reps by cell phone
• 77 percent of 2011 high school grads prefer using a mobile-friendly version of a college’s website, while 23 percent would prefer to download an app from a college
• Class of 2012 high school students are somewhat more receptive to apps: 35 percent would prefer to download an app
• 34 percent of colleges surveyed said that they have created a mobile-friendly version of their website. Of those that have not yet created one, two thirds plan to create one this year
• More than 85 percent of 2011 high school seniors prefer to learn about colleges through video tours and student videos, while just 6 percent are interested in reading college blogs during their college searches

“When it comes to communicating with colleges, students are more open than ever to using their mobile devices and cell phones, though colleges need to understand their preferences,” said Chris Long, president of Cappex. “For instance, students may not want to download an app from every college they are looking at, but they will visit a college’s website using their mobile devices.”

“Colleges need to be sure to set up mobile versions of their sites to cater to growing mobile use among students,” Long added. “Additionally, colleges should continue using tried and true methods such as e-mail to make it easy for students to keep track of their interactions with colleges.”

The white paper summarizing the study can be found at http://bit.ly/irOAhX.

3 Valentine Ideas for College or High School Students on a Budget:

1. Snail Mail – Not even college admissions use the ole’ U.S. Postal Service anymore.  Everything is digital, even college acceptance letters! But, receiving a sweet letter in the mail that is not a bill is definitely a treat.  So make your own card, buy a stamp, write your heart out to your Valentine, and you’ll only be out 44 cents!

2. Cook a Dinner at Home – You don’t have to go out to enjoy a decadent Valentine’s dinner with your Valentine. If you’re a college or high school student on a budget, you don’t need to impress your Valentine with a fancy French dinner, just cook up something at home! Not only will you save moolah, but you will impress your Valentine with your new found culinary skills. *Hint* Easy recipes are as simple to find on the Internet as scholarships are using Cappex.com!

3. Picture You Two Together - If you want to present your Valentine with a nicely wrapped gift but still stay on your college or high school student budget, a picture frame is the way to go.  You can find affordable picture frames at tons of places.  Plus, the most personal part of the gift is the picture you place inside.  It’s an affordable gift that has meaning to it, and it’s definitely better than your other affordable and personlized option: the illustrious mix-tape.

So happy Valentine’s Day! And if none of the above options work for you, why not find some scholarships to save your Valentine money on college?  That’s probably the best Valentine they’ll ever get!

Remember though, being admitted to a college or university doesn’t mean you can forget about your high school studies. Try not to fall victim to ‘Senioritis’ because certain colleges might just check in on your progress.

This recent post in the New York Times blog The Choice takes note that accepted  applicants should keep a “shoulder to the wheel” during their second semester:

The following day, the mail arrived with a letter addressed to Nicole from the office of admissions at Wesleyan, which had accepted her under its binding early decision program last fall.

This letter had a much less congratulatory tone. It read:

As your thoughts and energy turn to your final term of high school, I want to remind you how important it is to keep your academic focus. At this point the single most important thing you can do to prepare for four tremendous years at Wesleyan is to keep your ‘nose to the grindstone and shoulder to the wheel.’

To be more specific, we expect you to continue the courses that you committed to take, to maintain achievement commensurate with your ability, and to sustain your extra-curricular commitments and leadership.

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Q1. What are some of the latest social media tools you are using and why?

Our major focus is using the basic social media tools in a very constructed and managed process.  Our Facebook page is updated frequently, and we’ve hired eight students who blog on our site regularly.  The blogs have been an unforeseen success.  They are very popular, which is pleasantly surprising.  It shows that prospective students want something to connect with more than just idle information sitting on our website.  We also have six staff members dedicated to our social media presence.

YouTube is another tool we take advantage of pretty regularly.  We are currently in the process of updating our video content. We even have a fulltime videographer who’s in charge of creating six to seven projects a year, and we loan out cameras to students who want to shoot their own activities and share then.  The various modes of content provide a diversified point of view of the school that can really give prospective students an insider’s understanding of Rochester.

Q2. How should social media be used by college admissions?

I believe that the current obligation of colleges when using social media is to go forward with what they believe in.  This is a tough transition time for institutions that have been set in their ways for years.  Still, we don’t have to bend our principles to push social media out of every possible outlet and wind up inadvertently poorly representing ourselves.

At Rochester, we’ve found that following these three values has allowed us to use social media tools to the best of our advantage:

A firm grasp on who you are and how you want to project yourself to the online world is incredibly important.  There are so many social media channels to use, and without a plan and principles to follow, you will send a confused message to prospective students.

At the same time, a college should expect that you cannot control the information that floats around online.  There may be information online that you’d like to fight, but the only way to fight bad information is to add information with the university’s perspective to the conversation.

Q3. How do you think your social media efforts actually affect prospective students?

In order to make contact with the vast majority of students, you ­have to do it online.  Prospective students are not only looking for information, but also a place where they belong.  That’s the extraordinary thing that social media tools provide.  College search social media sites like Cappex bring in about 10% of our applications from students who could see themselves here.

Social media is the best way to match people to communities and give them a way to see if they’re a fit.  The Rochester Facebook page is a great example where we have enrolled students and alumni communicating with prospective students.  What’s a better way to match prospective students to a community than to be able to join the dialogue with those who are already succeeding in it?

Q4. How are you integrating online tools?

As of late, the most comprehensive integration of our traditional and online tools will be a mixed media page, “Rochester 360,” that includes video, flash and links back to our other social media platforms.  It will be embedded into a various channels like e-mail, the Rochester Cappex account, and even our Facebook page.

Materials that contain important information for prospective students like our viewbooks have been repurposed for online use.  Our overall goal is to integrate everything across the board.

Q5. Where do you see college search social media tools in the college admissions process in the future?

I think online tools including social media should be wholeheartedly embraced. Online is where the students are.   It is where they go to find out anything and everything, especially during their college searches, and it’s why we dedicate six staff members to it.

Just recently the Rochester Theater program had required thousands of dollars in advertising for their program annually.  With college search social media tools like Cappex, not only were we able to target 1600 students actually interested in possibly pursuing a degree in theater, but we were able to read their responses.  Being able to read a prospective student’s commentary is invaluable.  You cannot as easily acquire feedback from a prospective student who reads an advertisement about you.  The theater department realized that we could reduce spending on paid advertisements and do it for less with better results.

This is an example of how these online tools can make it easier to target and get feedback from students by spending less money.  So while we still have to reach people who don’t enter the online world as readily, we believe in the importance of fully embracing social media and its many possibilities.

The University of Rochester admissions page is at http://enrollment.rochester.edu/admissions/.

How is IUPUI using college search social media sites?

We use a mix of several college search social media sites to turn prospects into applicants. We also use Facebook and Twitter to get the IUPUI story out.

What do you see as the key benefits of the sites?

They allow us to reach out to students who we might not normally be able to meet through the conventional methods. For example, when George Hill first signed with San Antonio Spurs, we sent a message out through one of the sites saying he went to school here – see where he got his start. Response was almost instant: The San Antonio prospect pool quadrupled within 24 hours.

It’s nice that, with Cappex, we can call our rep and say hey we want to send a message like this out, and within a day, we’ve got a message out there.

College search social media tools account for about 2% of our total apps, however we primarily use those tools for targeting our nonresident populations – an area we’re trying to grow. For those non-resident populations, they account for 6% to 7%.

How are you integrating online tools with traditional off-line recruiting programs?

We’ve used the tools to make students aware of our presence at a particular event such as college fairs. It can anywhere from a small high school visit, like if we’re going out to California, and we can search out students from specific high schools to let them know we’re coming out there. We’ve also used them to promote national college fairs and campus events.

We have been been fortunate at IUPUI to have some very unique undergraduate majors and academic schools, and we regularly use tools including Cappex to push out messages to students who have similar academic interests. For example, Music Technology was something we launched two years ago, and when that school was just getting started, we sent out a message to any students who had similar interests and got a great response from it. We also send out these messages through traditional postcards and email. So, the messaging through the college search social media sites complements the emails and offline mailings.

Once we’ve made initial contact with a student through the sites, we usually put those students into a more heavy email stream.

How can college search social media be used to provide a campus experience online?

What we can do is talk about the in-person opportunities as much as we can but we also realize that, if you’re in California, it’s going to take a large commitment to get you out here to check us out. To get you to that first step, we’ve got our interactive Web tour that our communications marketing office developed. We’ve got our videos through UniversityTV. Since it’s all Web based, we can push any of that out to students. And then you have the YouTube experience as well.

I think those things have eventually led to more students taking the next step by submitting an application (we have a lot of stealth applicants) or taking the next step by participating in one of our on campus events. For us, the hardest thing is getting people to understand who we are, and I think those tools give us a lot more flexibility to do that.

Recently, I’ve been working with a California a student who sent us a message through Cappex that she had a question about the IUPUI application. We’ve been able to continue the dialogue. And now we’re going to have our California recruiter meet with her.

What do you think the future holds for college search social media?

I could see college search social media not just introducing students to schools, but taking a more active role in helping see that student through application and matriculation.

What advice do you have for other admission officers to best integrate the sites into their recruiting programs?

Come up with a plan on how to qualify and respond to inquiries generated through the tools. Would it be a follow up message trough one of the sites, an email sent directly from the university, or should they start receiving your letters and postcards?

Have fun with it, too. Don’t sound forced. Don’t make it sound like you’re 18 because that always fails. You can still have fun with it while keeping a mature voice.

For more on this topic, read our latest white paper with trends on how college admission offices are integrating college search social media sites.