Pennsylvania Company Aims to Take the Frustration out of College Admissions
By John Ostapkovich / KYW Newsradio
For parents of high school juniors and seniors, this is either college shopping time, or decision time. A Conshohocken-based firm aims to have a hand in those efforts.
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Paralysis by analysis may be familiar to parents of the college-bound, but it’s helping the schools that’s the business of TargetX.
Founder and CEO Brian Niles says TargetX tries to connect schools with their best-fit students.
“Basically college admissions is sales work. They don’t call it that, but it is what it is, and this [Student Recruitment Manager] is a tool that they use to manage the student information that comes in, in one system.”
Niles says college admissions offices weigh three things: “One is the number of students. Another is the quality of those students — their academic quality — however that may be defined. And the third is their financial need. Each school has a different mix of that formula.”
Another TargetX division helps schools with campus visits to make sure their message is center stage.
While part of TargetX’s business is to manage college applicant data for clients and another to boost the effectiveness of campus visits, Brian Niles says demographics present a challenge. 2009 was the crest of a wave of high school grads now tailing off — especially in the Northeast — so that leaves schools trying to stand out.
“Particularly in the Philadelphia market, we have way too many colleges and universities that look the same. Same programs, same types of campuses, same atmosphere and, as much as they’ll say, ‘we’re different, we’re personal, you’ll get to know your professors,’ everybody says that. What we’re trying to do is get our clients to really understand what makes them different and then promote that.”