During the college search process, students (and their parents) can spend hundreds of hours researching college options based on intended major, sports, proximity to home, campus setting, and more. Every college website is set up differently and it can be a challenge to find whether or not a college meets the needs and interests of a given student. A student may need to dig through a dozen web pages only to find out that a college doesn’t offer the major they want. This is part of the reason why research shows that students are more likely to consider colleges that family and friends attended instead of branching out to explore colleges outside of their network.
We set out to solve this challenge for both students and colleges. Our Content Management System (CMS) takes colleges' existing content about majors, student life, and more and pulls it into their College Profile on Scoir. When students search for colleges on Scoir based on their desired criteria, the CMS makes it easier for students to find the content they are most interested in.
For example, if a student is interested in studying Computer Science at a college that has a student a cappella group as well as hiking near campus, Scoir’s CMS will dynamically personalize every partner college profile the student views with content related to Computer Science, a cappella, and hiking first, if the college offers them. This is a win-win for both students and colleges. Students can find their fit faster and it helps colleges ensure they’re being evaluated on the programs they offer, not how easy (or difficult) their website is to navigate.
Scalable personalization is a key differentiator for Scoir and central to our student-centered approach. In a recent podcast episode, we sat down with Scoir’s Chief Experience Officer, Matt Pitone, to discuss how personalization is an expectation of today’s students and the role it plays in the college search process. Leveraging content is a way to authentically engage students without advertising and ensures the right content is in front of the right student at the right time to create a more informed college search experience.
For colleges, the CMS helps colleges work smarter, not harder, which is critical in this time of resource constraints. It takes colleges existing content they’ve already invested time and energy into creating and amplifies its value by dynamically surfacing it to relevant students. Based on our research, students are 94% more likely to engage with content when it’s personalized to their interests with the CMS. That means that more students will see, and engage, with the content and have a more positive experience because they are not digging for the content they want.
What’s more is that it’s easy for colleges to start using the CMS. Our Customer Success team pre-populates the majority of the overview and academic interest content when a new college joins Scoir, so students can start engaging with the content right away. After the initial set up, it’s easy to add or update content. We’re constantly providing new insights to help colleges further build out their content strategy based on data. In our latest Content Playbook, we explore the types of content students engage with most on Scoir and variations in content interests by a few variables, including class year and more. Our in-app Insights Dashboard also provides daily insights into content opportunities, by providing top interests and academic focuses of both interested and reached student audiences. The goal is to refresh the CMS regularly to ensure students have access to the most accurate, and relevant, content to learn about colleges to make informed decisions.
