High school students, mobile devices, and the college search process: Is your campus ready?

College-bound students are using mobile during the college search process. Is your campus ready for them?

The new 2013 E-Expectations Report, The Impact of Mobile Browsing on the College Search Process, has just been released. It examines responses from 2,000 high school juniors and seniors as they research colleges online, specifically looking at their attitudes and behaviors on using their mobile devices.

It’s clear from the research that the shift toward mobile is already well underway. Most students have access to mobile devices, and not only are they looking at college sites on their smartphones and tablets, but they are also very interested in using apps from colleges to help with the enrollment process. Half of them even said they would be interested in submitting a college application via a mobile device.

However, there was one finding that seemed to contrast with the rest of the data: 82 percent of respondents said they would prefer to look at college sites on desktop or laptop PCs instead of mobile devices.

There could be a number of explanations for this preference, but I do think at least part of the explanation is that students are not satisfied with the way some college sites display on mobile devices. As more students conduct at least part of their college searches using mobile devices, it is important for campuses to provide an effective browsing experience for them.

I encourage you to download the 2013 E-Expectations report and hope you enjoy it. If you are interested in benchmarking your current e-recruitment strategies against these findings as well as current best practices, I also invite you to request a Digital Marketing Analysis. This on-campus analysis examines your Web site, e-mail communications, social media strategies, and paid interactive marketing. I also welcome your questions—send me an e-mail and I will respond as soon as possible.