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3/29/2007 12:02:00 AM  Editor’s note: This article is the seventh in a series that highlights faculty, staff and students who embody the spirit of the Vision for the Second Century. By Lynette McGlamery Special to the Rice News Vision point: We must increase the size of the university to realize more fully our ambition as an institution of national and international distinction that attracts the very best students and researchers from around the globe. A 30 percent increase in enrollment. 3,800 undergraduates. An average class size of 930. A 60-40 ratio of non-Texas and Texas students. Six percent international students. Selectivity. Quality. Diversity. These are numbers and words that float in Diane Havlinek’s mind every day. As director of strategic marketing and communication for enrollment, Havlinek and her staff of two are responsible for recruiting and communicating with high school students during a time of unprecedented growth at the university. Havlinek’s efforts will play a big part in increasing undergraduate enrollment by 30 percent over the next five years — a goal of the Vision for the Second Century — while still maintaining Rice’s reputation as a selective university with a high-achieving, compassionate student body. Havlinek said that in the past, Rice had no problem finding students who define the typical Rice undergraduate — an academic achiever who is involved in the community and has proven leadership skills — through traditional recruitment methods like generic direct-mail materials, the Web site and college fairs. “We had the process down,” she said. “There were plenty of applicants to choose from to shape a class of around 720, which allowed us to keep low our admissions-versus-application rate — a measure of selectivity.” But Havlinek said Rice must now be more strategic in identifying a larger pool of prospective students from which to grow the undergraduate enrollment while still maintaining the university’s high academic standards and selectivity. “It all boils down to finding those students who most likely will choose to attend Rice and communicate with them in a personal way throughout their decision process so they will indeed choose us,” she said. Havlinek said taking this approach will increase the number of quality applications Rice receives, allowing the university to be more selective in who it admits and in turn increase the number of those who ultimately attend Rice. To help in this task, Havlinek’s group purchased a number of technology tools this spring to take Rice from a university that treats all potential students alike to one that uses targeted, personalized communications to woo the best students to Rice. A new e-mail tool from a company called the 422 Group allows Rice to send personalized messages and see who and how many people open their e-mails, go the Web site and request more information. The tool was first used in February to recruit for the Class of 2008. An e-mail was sent to congratulate 120,000 high school juniors on their outstanding PSAT and pre-ACT test scores and direct them to the newly updated Rice Web site for prospective students. The names, obtained from the College Board and ACT, consisted of those with the highest test scores or those who showed potential for high SAT or ACT scores. In just a week after sending the e-mail, Havlinek’s office received 8,000 requests for additional information. Of the e-mails Rice sent in response, 30 percent were opened. Havlinek said their marketing plan calls for “touching” these students once a month with an e-mail or a printed piece. If they receive no response from students after three “touches,” they’ll stop sending them information. The e-mail system also will allow Rice to target e-mails to different groups based on their previous responses about specific interests. For example, if students state an interest in engineering, they will receive a future e-mail or brochure about Rice’s engineering programs. In addition, two College Board products, Enrollment Planning Service and Descriptor Plus, help the enrollment office be more efficient with its travel budget and staff by identifying the geographic areas and specific high schools that have the highest concentration of students most likely to attend Rice. “We have discovered many cities, such as Seattle and Phoenix, have a high volume of kids who resemble Rice students that we really haven’t focused a great deal of attention on before,” Havlinek said. “These areas are important to market to as we look to increase the number of students from outside Texas.” Another tool, Noel-Levitz modeling software, enables the enrollment office to look at the attributes of a specific high school student and compare them with a typical Rice student, based on historical data. Havlinek said this information helps staff know which students are most likely to come to Rice, enabling them to focus communication efforts on these students. In addition to courting potential students, the enrollment office is increasing its communications with those who have been admitted to Rice but have not yet decided to attend. For example, Rice has held several chat-room discussions for interim-decision students. In this venue, the admitted students can get timely responses to their questions from each other, from Rice students and from enrollment staff. “These ramped up marketing efforts keep prospective students interested in Rice and show that we really want them to come to this wonderful university,” Havlinek said. “We’re looking forward to seeing the results of our efforts in the Class of 2008.”
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