The 73-page study looks closely at how North American colleges stage and manage their open houses for prospective and admitted students. 43 college participated in the study.
The study helps its readers to answer questions such as: how large are budgets for campus open houses? What are futureplans for open house event budgets? Which are the most successful events? What percentage of students who attend open houses later go on to attend the college itself? What percentage of open house attendees bring their friend, their parent, or their siblings to open houses? What are attendance trends at open houses? Are colleges giving more or fewer? Which colleges are regarded as models? How are colleges planning to change their open house events? Which college departments are represented on open house planning teams? How many unpaid volunteer and paid student workers are typically used? How cooperative are faculty? How do college evaluate their open house events? Data is broken out by size and type of college, for public and private colleges, and by level of annual tuition.
Just a few of the study’s many findings are that:
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66.42% of students attending open house events come with their parents or guardians.
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14% of students attending community college open house events come with their siblings.
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For students attending open houses of colleges that charge more than $31,000 in annual tuition, 10.67% of open house visitors have been to an open house event at the campus prior to their present visit.
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Private colleges held more than twice as many open house events than did public colleges.