The Admissions Office is sending acceptance letters to prospective students to further encourage them to study at Tech.
The office is trying to get students interested in Tech by keeping in contact with each prospective student through email and letters. These forms of communication tell students about the upcoming events and detail on how to get into Tech.
Recruitment
“We start with some students in middle school and with some students in high school,” Alexis Pope, assistant director of admissions, said. “It just depends on when that student will interact with us.”
Pope said one way to recruit students in middle schools is when they come to visit Tech’s campus.
“We have been recruiting students-some one year, some five or six years,” Pope said. “It just depends on the student.”
Admissions has been accepting applications for Fall 2012 classes since August 15, 2011.
Upon receiving acceptance letters, students will start receiving letters to Student Orientation, Advisement and Registration events. They will also be contacted, through email, about different events on campus and to see if they need any additional information.
“We will follow up with emails on holidays and their birthday,” Pope said. “Current students will call the prospective student to see if they have any questions about Tech.”
Pope said they also rely on the SOAR orientation and campus tours to bring in prospective students.
“The campus visit program is a huge factor,” Pope said. “We encourage all of our admitted students, if they haven’t been to the campus, to come visit the campus. If the student shows up on campus, then it’s a big indicator that the student is still interested and wants to enroll to Tennessee Tech.”
Statistics
Pope said the Admissions Office has sent more than 5,000 admission letters to prospective students.
Once the student receives their acceptance letter, they are sent a package with information on how to set up their school email, important dates for orientation and financial aid and other information about what facilities Tech offers.
Pope said if a first time student is younger than 21, he or she are required go to the SOAR orientation.
“As of now we have 3,780 domestic students that are going to the orientation, which is about 150 more students than last year,” Pope said. “After the end of summer, we are expecting about 4,100 to 4,200 students to get an invitation to the orientation.”
Sending letters
Pope said the office will send the acceptance notices via mail instead of email.
“It’s a decision that orientation has made to send the physical letter,” Pope said. “They know that the parent is a big factor in the student motivation to sign up for orientation, so the physical letter has a better chance of getting viewed by all parties of the student’s household.”