Birds of a Feather: Using Geodemography in Student Search May 3, 2012 IACAC Marc Geslani Educational Manager

Opening Discussion

• Introductions

• What are your enrollment goals, challenges?

• How well does your communication plan help you achieve your enrollment goals?

• What do you know about students when you get their information at a college night or when you buy their name from Student Search?

• Current consumer marketing efforts are focused on hyper-targeting of individuals

• Some type of learned information or tracked behavior triggers an event

• Colleges generally don’t have the type and • frequency of transactional data

• the analytical capabilities

• or communication budget/flexibility

to achieve commercial levels of hyper-targeting

Lurching at Personalization

• What would you want to know about students…

• …when they are prospects/suspects?

• …when they are juniors, sophomores or younger?

• How would you communicate/travel/recruit differently if you knew these things about students?

What If?

College Board Enrollment Planning Tools

• Descriptor Plus • Geodemographic Segmentation Service

• Clusters contain Descriptions of Students and Behaviors

• Individual Students are Tagged-

• Can use to segment messages and actions

• Enrollment Planning Service • Comprehensive Database

• Reports on your markets, your position in those markets, and your competition

Geodemography: Birds of a Feather Flock Together

In Geodemography, neighborhoods can be defined by a ZIP+4 Code or a Census Tract Code.

Geodemography: People Emulate Their Neighbors

Geodemography helps companies analyze communities. Thus, different stores appear in different neighborhoods.

-OR-

A chain store stocks different items in different stores.

College expectations are formed in-part by where the neighbors are sending their kids. College-going patterns in different communities can be analyzed and categorized using Geodemography.

• Geodemography is the art and science of profiling people based on where they live • Commercial services most often profile consumer

behavior

• Descriptor PLUS profiles students college choice behavior based upon where they live AND where they go to school. • Factor Analysis and Profiling led by people with

extensive experience in Enrollment Management.

Definition of Geodemography

• Claritas PRIZM introduced in 1979 the first commercially successful geodemographic service in the United States (incidentally, around the time College Board introduced Student Search and Enrollment Planning Service)

• Acxiom PersonicX is another major player in the consumer segmentation space.

• Let’s take a look at how these companies look at us!

YOU are the target of Geodemography

• Does consumer-based, household geodemographic segmentation services tell us anything about college choice behavior of traditional students?

• What critical data is missing from these services?

Is There A Link To What We Do?

Educationally-Relevant Geodemography

Individual student test

performance results and

individual student test score

sending patterns

Data from College

Board high school and

college files

Extrapolated data from the

U.S. Census and

American Community Survey

33 Educational Neighborhood Clusters (EN)

29 High School Clusters (HS)

Attributes

Questions asked on

assessment questionnaires

Key Cluster Attributes…

High School Clusters • Mean SAT Critical Reading Score • Mean SAT Math Score • Mean SAT Writing Score • Avg Number of Advanced Courses Taken • Avg Number of AP Exams per Student • Avg Admit Rate at Targeted Colleges • Avg Cost of Targeted Colleges • % of Students non-White • % of Students 1st Generation • % of Families below Poverty Level • % of Students Likely to Apply Out-of-state • % Interested in Financial Aid

Educational Neighborhood Clusters • Mean SAT Critical Reading Score • Mean SAT Math Score • Mean SAT Writing Score • % of Students 1st Generation • % of Students Likely to Apply Out-of-state • % of Population college-aged • Avg Cost of Targeted Colleges • % of Population non-White • Median family income • % Speaking English only • % of Adults in Professional Jobs • % Interested in Financial Aid

How it works…

• Descriptor PLUS helps you to know more about your prospects so that you can maneuver them through “the funnel”.

Prospects

Applicants

Admits

Enrolls

How it works…

• But you need to start here…

A historical tagging of students that have moved past the prospect stage is absolutely necessary!

Prospects

Applicants

Admits

Enrolls

Historical Report

To begin the process of considering or using Descriptor Plus, we conduct an historical tagging and analysis. Let’s take a look at a sample report. (Sample report only shown at presentation.)

• Predictive modeling is the use of past data to predict future results.

• Geodemographic Segmentation and Predictive Modeling aren’t the same things.

• They are not in contention with one another in regards to their effectiveness for student recruitment.

• Schools consistently find that Descriptor PLUS tags are amongst the most predictive factors in their models.

Geodemography and Predictive Modeling

• Geodemographic segmentation is based on a rigorous statistical analysis of multiple variables.

• But eventually, they are artfully crafted to group people who behave similarly in a particular context for a specific purpose.

• Categorizing behavior based on individual variables (zip code, income) may be significant factors in a predictive model, but that shouldn’t be equated to using Descriptor Plus or Geodemography.

What Is and Isn’t Geodemography

• A service that enhances student records with descriptive data

• The data describes prospective students’ characteristics – milieu, performance, needs, and likely behavior

• Extremely useful when you know very little about a student – maybe only an address or high school

• Descriptor Plus features

• Comprehensive cluster description guide

• Data Analysis in the form of Historical Reports

• Enhanced Student Search Service ordering capabilities

• Unlimited student record tagging

What is Delivered with Descriptor PLUS?

• Load Tags Into Database • Conduct analyses by school, ethnicity, gender, etc.

• Refine Outreach & Messaging • Who are we successful in recruiting and how does our

outreach & messaging match to those clusters?

• Who AREN’T we recruiting well (but want to) and does our outreach & message hinder or help?

• Purchase by EN/HS Cluster in SSS

• Staff development, territory orientation

How Can We Use This Data?

• Admission decisions

• Financial aid prioritizing

• Admissions tie breaking

• Waitlist prioritizing

• Profile for campus audiences

• Persistence/retention analysis

How Else Can We Use This Data?

Use Descriptor PLUS and EPS to:

• Find students who have characteristics like those you are enrolling (those sending scores) (EPS)

• Find students who have characteristics that you would like to enhance (EPS)

• Use D+ descriptions to target content of letters when you know little about a student

• Enhance predictive modeling. Then target your efforts where they will likely make the most difference

Next Steps…

• Additional questions?

• How can we assist?

Contact Information

Marc Geslani Higher Educational Manager Midwestern Regional Office mgeslani@collegeboard.org 847-653-4507