Final Presentation for Consumer Research and Insights

1. Acceptance packets for
college students
Prepared by Jackie Vetrano

2. Objectives
Business issue: Skidmore
College is redesigning its
acceptance packet and strives to
understand the design elements
and information incoming
undergraduate students desire
when receiving the package in
the mail.
The results of the survey will be
applied to the design and
elements of the acceptance
packets for the class of 2022 at
Skidmore College.
▫ What, if any, influence does
the acceptance packet have on
yield?
▫ How do accepted students
share their acceptance on social
media?
▫ What design elements are most
captivating to accepted students?
▫ What information are students
looking for in their acceptance
packet?
2

3. Timeline and Audience
3
Design questionnaire using
Qualtrics: October 31
Analyze data and produce
report: November 13 –
December 10
Gather data from 68 total
respondents via Facebook
and in-person recruitment
(78% response rate):
November 1 - 11
89.28% of respondents are
between the age of 17 and 21
98.4% of respondents attend
a four-year institution
Nearly half (41%) of
respondents are planning to
graduate in 2018
68.75% of respondents attend
an institution in New York

4. When “the big envelope”
turns digital
4
0
15
24
13
11
0
22
26
13
2
17
30
15
1 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
None 1 to 3 4 to 6 7 to 10 10 or more
Responses
Number of Institutions
Number of Colleges Applied to
Number of Colleges Accepted to
Acceptance Letters Received in the Mail Only
27% of respondents indicated
that none of the acceptance
letters they received were only
in the mail, indicating there
was an online component to
all acceptances recieved.

5. 5
Does the envelope matter?
▫ 69.8% of respondents indicated the design
elements of a mailed acceptance packet did not
influence their decision on attending an institution
at all.
▫ Nearly half (41%) of respondents indicated they
would have wanted their acceptance letter sent to
them online first, followed by a mailed version. An
additional 4% of respondents indicated they were
interested in only an online letter.
▫ In contrast, 48% of respondents indicated they
would want to receive their acceptance packet in
the mail, and half of these (50.5%) indicated they
would want it followed by an online version.

6. 69.8%Were not influenced by the design of the packet when making an enrollment decision
6
27%Received no acceptance exclusively by mail
45%Prefer an online version of acceptance first
Skidmore should consider an online acceptance packet.

7. Where should this information be located?
7
Housing
Scholarships
Financial Aid
Email and Password
Class registration
OrientationVehicle registration
Arrival and move-in
dates
College social media
profiles
Student ID
information
Dining plan
In my acceptance packet Only on a website
Only delivered by email Only on social media
Other
Respondents have indicated that
scholarship, housing, and financial
aid information should be included
in the acceptance packet.
Class registration and email
information can be reserved for a
separate email.
8

8. 8
Surprisingly….
Despite the millennial stereotype, 44% of respondents indicated they did
not publicly share their acceptance on any social media platform.
Seems like flaunting; if asked, I'll
definitely tell someone about it though.
I don't share personal news on social media. College
acceptance is pretty common, so the news is nothing
exciting to most people.
I didn’t feel like I had to share
with others at the time.

9. 9
What should we send them?
Respondents indicated they
would be most satisfied with
a t-shirt (38.7%) or laptop
sticker (29.3%) as part of
their acceptance packet by
selecting their top two
choices.
Not many will include the
item in their social media
posts about their acceptance.
What did you include in your social media post about your acceptance?

10. Conclusions
10
▫ The overall design, whether digital or print, does not have a significant
impact on yield.
▫ Accepted students would be satisfied with an online version of their
acceptance packet. Skidmore College can produce this online version of
important information, followed with a print version of the letter of
acceptance. This will reduce production time and printing costs.
▫ Once accepted, students are most interested in scholarship, housing,
and financial aid information. Skidmore College can produce a secondary
email with email and class registration information can be delivered outside
of the packet.
▫ Nearly half of students will not share their acceptance on social media,
as they feel it is too early to celebrate publicly. Once they enroll at their
college of choice, they are more willing to share. Skidmore College can
encourage social media sharing by those who have enrolled via an email or
direct social media campaign.