Whether on a verdant campus or in a hotel meeting room miles from school, the college information session is one of the most important recruitment tools for a school. This is the university’s chance to pitch, but many instead whiff.  Here is my idea of the ideal information session:

• A slide show playing when you enter the room. Not a movie, because people are generally chatting at that point, so you can’t hear.
• A presenter who is excited to be there–someone with poise and personality. This person is the embodiment of the school, whether new grad or middle-aged recruiter. If he or she isn’t eager to talk about the school, why should we want to listen?
• An inspiring opening movie. Yes,  we all want to know that graduates get jobs, but so do people in many trades who don’t go to college. Tell me a tale of learning, of service, of community, of how graduates are better people after commencement (in addition to getting jobs or going to grad school). Also, it’s more interesting to watch than just to listen, no matter how enthusiastic the presenter.
• Cookies are nice.
• Answers to common questions. Some questions that our leaders flubbed: “How many student go abroad?” “Ummm….we’re studying that and looking at how to increase it.” “Can you tell me about the visual arts programs?” “Ummm….my roommate was an art major. She’s in banking now, but she decorates cakes as a hobby to fulfill her artistic talents.”  “Can you talk about diversity?”  “Ummm…there are people from all over here…[prompted by others to mention clubs]…Oh, yes…we have a pride club, and you don’t even have to be a homoSEXual to belong.” (Delivered in a very strong Southern accent–major answer fail.)

If I were an admissions officer, I’d listen to the questions over the course of a month and would have a handout directing prospective students and their parents to the appropriate part of the web. Speaking of questions, though, NEVER begin an information session with “So, do you have any questions?” You haven’t told us anything! (Or we’re not interested enough at this point to have looked on the web.)

Standouts for the information sessions were Loyola in Baltimore (Commitment to service! All the faculty have doctorates!), the College of William and Mary (I want to walk through those gates on the first day and out on the last! I want to be best friends with the alumna at the info session who’s doing Teach for America!) and the road show for Elon University. Barry Bradberry’s Elon presentation in a dingy local ballroom was the best of the dozen or so we saw over the course of a year and half–it incorporated all the elements above with a healthy dose of humor and introductions to a half dozen local alums who you wanted to hire/go drinking with/be besties with.  The downside was that when we visited the school, we already knew 99% of the information.

This is the time to put all those marketing, communications, theater and multimedia majors to work–have them design a presentation designed to knock the socks off their prospective fellow students.