Drop in Students Spurs Colleges to Use Lures

Colleges are responding to a sharp drop in the number of prospective freshmen with sleek video promotions and other sophisticated marketing devices to lure new students, a trade magazine reported.

There are only 3.6 million 18-year-olds in the United States this year, a decline of 700,000 since 1979. By 1995, the number is expected to fall by another 400,000, which could force some 300 colleges to close, Sales and Marking Management Magazine said.

Currently, there are more than 3,000 colleges in the United States competing for students, the magazine said.

“It’s going to be crazy for the next few years,” said Philip Benoit, spokesman for Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. “Some colleges are going to go under.”

Colleges fearful of the pinch are purchasing mailing lists, developing promotional videos for distribution to libraries and high schools, hiring telephone solicitors and even surveying students to find out why did not apply, the magazine said.

The techniques are being used by large and small colleges alike, the magazine said, noting that the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school in Philadelphia, is among those now stressing marketing in its admissions office.

“Not too long ago, admissions people who were actively marketing were seen as Madison Avenue hucksters,” Willis Stetson, dean of admissions for the university, told the magazine. “Now, everyone’s doing it because we have too.”

Companies that provide college marketing services report strong growth, the magazine said.

Among them is a division of the New York-based College Entrance Examination Board, which tests college-bound students. The CEEB’s Student Search Service sells lists to colleges, breaking down students by geographic location, test scores, interests or almost any other category requested, the magazine said.

Revenues to the CEEB from the service total between $13 million and $14 million annually, the magazine said.

With a growing number of colleges resorting to widespread mailings, some bright college-bound students find themselves swamped with literature from as many as 200 schools, the magazine said.