How Northeastern University's Fall Virtual Open House became an evergreen community

Instead of relying on the traditional college fair model to attract prospective college students, Northeastern University decided to take a different approach. Northeastern ran a virtual open house from September to January of 2021 on the VisitDays platform, invited their own prospects from their database, and engaged with them through live sessions, scheduled meetings, and live chat. 

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With the ability to interact with students over an extended period of time, they succeeded in their goal of converting a percentage of these prospects into applicants, and eventually enrolled students. Throughout the fall virtual open house, Northeastern gained over 430 unique prospects and converted 1.4% of total registrants to enrolled students. 

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With the combination of the vast increase of applicants in 2021 and the university’s very selective process, engaging with the right students could have been difficult. Luckily, the VisitDays platform allowed the admissions staff to easily chat with high school students 1:1 and find out if they were the right fit. On a larger scale, Northeastern also hosted over 200 hours of virtual live sessions that covered all aspects of the university–from campus life to academics. 

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In order to keep track of the great number of student leads, Northeastern had access to analytics on all of their engaged student prospects including sessions attended, meetings scheduled, videos watched, and more. VisitDays makes it easy to find the most engaged prospects with detailed reports updated daily. 

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The unique challenge Northeastern faced was engaging with prospective college students, not through traditional in-person college fairs, but through a virtual solution that extended the entirety of the fall semester. However, instead of a one-off event that can cost thousands in resources and travel, the fall open house was accessible for all prospective students for over three months. Students were able to schedule meetings, watch videos, and learn more about Northeastern at any time of the day. It was a true evergreen experience. 

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The future of campus visits and student engagement is virtual. Students and parents want the flexibility to meet with colleges and universities on their own time so they don’t feel the pressure of in-person meetings or fairs. 

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If you would like to join an evergreen community to meet with thousands of prospective college students eager to find their right fit college, visit our college access page and browse all the available memberships. Through these memberships, you can engage with students virtually using the VisitDays platform and meet the right students for your university. 

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‍Click here to sign up for a college access membership today!