admission – Houghton STAR

Featuring The City Harmonic, Houghton College, will host its first Accepted Students Weekend, allowing prospective students to experience Houghton before many of them make their final decision.

The weekend, beginning on Thursday, March 19 and will conclude Saturday, March 21. Friday, March 20 at 8 p.m. in the Wesley Chapel, Houghton will welcome multi-award winning rock and worship group, The City Harmonic, with special guest and recent Houghton graduate, Taylor Wilding ‘14. The performance will take place as a stop on their nationwide tour. Friday, March 20 at 8 p.m. in the Wesley Chapel.

The Admission Office has put together a weekend “geared toward providing accepted students an opportunity to visit campus, meet other potential classmates, and interact with faculty and staff,” said senior admission counselor, Zina Teague. Accepted students will arrive on Thursday evening and will stay through the weekend, leaving Saturday morning.

Each accepted student will have the chance to stay overnight with current Houghton students, view a movie in the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex, and attend The City Harmonic concert. Following the concert there will be an after party in the Center for the Arts building and all current and prospective students are welcome. Teague said of the accepted students, “Overall, we want them to have a chance to experience what it’s like to be a Houghton College student.”

Houghton offers many Visit Days or Opportunity Days for prospective students to have a tour of the campus, attend classes, and meet other current and prospective students. However, this Accepted Students Weekend offers high school and transfer students the opportunity to spend a weekend on Houghton’s campus, while attending events to make their stay more memorable.

Accepted Students Weekend is unique to other Visit or Opportunity Days because it offers accepted and current students the chance to attend The City Harmonic concert. According to Housing Liaison and Resident Director of Lambein, Krista Maroni, the concert is helpful due to a lack of activities during overnight visits. Maroni said, “I’ve found that hosts often struggle to find creative activities to share with their visitors. The concert provides an easy way for current and prospective students to share an experience and connect. Ideally the concert and the after party can be a jumping point for future connections.”

Maroni also mentioned how the concert will leave accepted students with a “lasting memory of their visit”. In past years, Houghton has hosted bands such as Jars of Clay and Sanctus Real, so The City Harmonic will add to Houghton’s repertoire of award-winning performers. Having The City Harmonic perform during Accepted Students Weekend enables accepted students to engage in an energetic, exciting weekend that is different from the typical weekend here at Houghton. Maroni stated “Prospective students are vital to Houghton’s future and the culture we want to create; this concert is an expression of that value.”

As enrollment numbers gradually but unquestionably decrease, Houghton College turns to deliberate means of bringing in prospective students, particularly through marketing. Jeff Babbitt, Director of Marketing and Communication, spoke in an interview about Houghton’s past, present, and future marketing strategies.

“For many years, I would say we relied on our reputation, being one of the top Christian schools in the country,” said Babbitt. “But as other schools have ris

en to that same level and competition has increased, that name recognition hasn’t been there… Maybe twenty years ago, if you were to ask someone to name the top Christian colleges in the country, Houghton would have been in the top five. Now there might be twenty names of schools that are suggested, and Houghton might still be in there, but there are a lot of other schools that have risen to that sort of prominence.”

Babbitt, along with the rest of the Marketing Department, acknowledges that Houghton College can no longer rely on reputation alone.

He talked of different, more recent advertising techniques, saying, “We developed an advertising campaign just to get the word out about Houghton, both in the local area and our region of Western New York, and even beyond. So we’re doing more advertising online, in some Christian magazines, on the radio, putting up some billboards on Route 86, just so people know we’re here and know who we are and where we are, so when they’re thinking of college, they think of Houghton.”

Houghton’s online presence in particular displays a recent change in marketing that appeals to the current generation and seems to successfully advertise the college.

Marshall Green, Public and Community Relations Specialist, said, “In my opinion, the internet has really changed how prospective students shop for college. In the past, national magazines, word of mouth and alumni/family history might have been the key factors in college shopping. I think now, students are more apt to search online. To make the visits to schools that spark their interest and then make their decisions from there.”

Though advertising provides a method of creating awareness of Houghton College, it often serves as a means leading to a greater end of a larger marketing strategy. Both Green and Babbitt agree that the more important factor lies in a person-to-person experience.

As Green said, “Our campaigns are not designed to have the prospective ‘make the decision’ but rather for awareness to create openness to start a conversation with the admission team. Rarely, if ever, does a student make a decision based on an ad. It is the personal contact that usually leads to the decision of which school to attend.”

Babbitt also focused on sending Houghton College to prospective students, through tactics like the website, word of mouth, and other advertising methods, rather than waiting for them to find Houghton on their own. He said, “We’re trying to put Houghton in front of students where they already are.”

As private institutions may not represent the current trend, the Marketing Department’s primary goal is to remind prospective students why such an education might prove the best one for them.

Babbitt said concerning one underlying marketing technique, “I think what we need to do is to effectively tell the story of Houghton so that the differences between a private Christian education and a community college, a state college, or another type of college are very clear so that students see the advantages of coming to a place like Houghton.”