Today's high school juniors and seniors likely grew up surrounded by "Baby on Board" stickers, bicycle helmets, television v-chips, and nanny cams. Since birth these children have felt the intense focus of parents who are some of the most well-informed worriers on the planet.
So-called helicopter parents, named for the way they hover over their children's lives, are here to stay. As their Millennial Generation teens get ready for college, these parents are going to have an enduring presence in the college selection process. Higher education must adapt its marketing strategies to address a teen demographic that casts a parental shadow.
Two recent studies by Stamats Educational Group focus on key traits of college-bound teens and their parents. Called TeensTALK and ParentsTALK, they provide quantitative data and analysis to help colleges and universities hone marketing, recruitment, and fundraising material. Both are studded with marketing tips that reflect current trends.
"The way we do it is to invest our own resources in conducting strong research," said Becky Morehouse, Stamats vice president of research and marketing. "Not only do the findings from that research support our strategic consultation with higher education contracts, but we make the research available to colleges and universities at no cost."
Student Homebodies
The two qualities that define ParentsTALK respondents' parenting styles are protective and involved. Teens, far from using college as an opportunity to distance themselves from their protective parents, are trending subtly toward attending colleges closer to home.
Many parents don't seem to mind the proximity. When asked to describe the ideal college from a list of 33 choices, parent respondents ranked "close to home" number seven.
Students with Asian ethnicity are much more likely to choose colleges within four hours of home. Eighty-three percent of them reported planning to live at home or travel up to four hours for college, compared with 66 percent for African-Americans, 71 percent for Caucasians and 72 percent for Hispanics/Latinos.
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, parents understandably were fearful about their teens traveling long distances to college, especially when travel involved flying. A spike in parent concerns about safety in an earlier study reflected those fears.
New definitions of family safety meant parents were more likely to reject a student's choice of certain schools for their perceived safety issues such as being in a potentially targeted big city. Should terrorists again attack the United States, colleges and universities can expect those fears to resurface.
Staying emotionally close to parents also concerns teen respondents. Seventy-seven percent said "a good relationship with parents" is their "objective for the future." Seventy-six percent described their values as similar or mostly similar to those of their parents. Colleges and universities can take advantage of such close emotional ties to give marketing strategies broad reach, knowing that by addressing teen core values they likely resonate with parents as well.
Search Shift
While the summer prior to junior year remains a high-school student's typical starting point for the college search, the trend keeps shifting to searching earlier. In 2004 researchers saw a spike in students who said they began looking at colleges the summer before their sophomore year. Those numbers have receded to roughly 2002 levels, but the 2005 TeensTALK study showed a rise in students who started their college search freshman year or earlier.
But while they may be looking earlier, students are deciding on colleges later. By the spring of their senior year, only 59 percent of students have chosen a college or university. This number reflects a decrease over the years.
Admissions offices should plan for longer communication spans with prospective students. Schools with strong brands in place have an opportunity to distinguish themselves early and build value through prolonged student exposure.
Income and Outcome
Regardless of income level, parents of college-bound juniors and seniors say they look at college admission as a grade on their parenting. They are by far the biggest influencers on teens making college choices.
