You've recruited next year's incoming freshmen class and are working hard to prepare them for a strong start in the fall. Just as each student is unique, each class represents a unique profile of needs and preferences. After working with tens of thousands of prospective students and coaching thousands of incoming freshmen through the summer, we've gained valuable insight into this year's freshman class. We'd like to share these insights with you to help prepare your campus for the arrival of new students. We share trends and best practices that will help you understand and tailor support to the needs of today's college freshman. This is a great opportunity for professional development with strategies and insights for immediate application.

1. Understanding today’s incoming
traditional student
A webinar for InsideTrack partners
Confidential © InsideTrack
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2. InsideTrack has already coached thousands of this year’s
prospective and incoming students
Through multiple yield coaching partnerships, we’ve been getting to know
next year’s class since as early as January
We wanted to share our insights and ideas with our partners to help you
engage and support your incoming freshmen for long term success
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3. Our Panelists
Ann Werbach Kristin Gurrola
Andrea McFaddin Catherine Parkay, Moderator
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4. Our Moderator
Catherine Parkay
Research Programs Director
InsideTrack
Catherine Parkay oversees InsideTrack’s research and thought leadership agenda
with higher education luminaries and industry partners. Catherine was previously
responsible for Program Development at InsideTrack advising institutions in designing
student support programs to improve enrollment, retention, and graduation, and
managing those programs as a Campus Director for numerous universities.
Additionally, Catherine spent several years working directly with students as an
InsideTrack Master Coach. She volunteers her time and expertise as a mentor to
first-generation students and as President of the Junior League of Portland, OR. Prior
to InsideTrack, Catherine was Assistant Director of Enrollment Management at
Washington State University where she holds a B.A. from the Honors College in
Anthropology and English.
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5. Our Panelists
Andrea McFaddin
Campus Director
InsideTrack
Before coming to InsideTrack, Andrea utilized her degree in political science to work
for a political action club. While she loved the people she worked with, she quickly
found that she didn’t enjoy the “politics” of politics and wanted a job where she felt like
she could make a difference, have purpose, and enjoy coming to work each day.
InsideTrack was a perfect fit. Andrea joined InsideTrack in 2008 and has served in a
variety of roles, including both enrollment and retention management. Andrea brings
a unique perspective to the company as she was coached as a student throughout
her 4 years of college. She tries to bring her personal style of balancing
professionalism and fun in working with students and her teams.
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6. Our Panelists
Ann Werbach
Campus Director
InsideTrack
Ann got her BA in Sociology and Anthropology from DePauw University in Indiana
and has worked in Education Management for the past 10 years. She worked
for SCORE! Educational Centers in Chicago and InsideTrack in Portland. She came
to InsideTrack in 2008 and has spent her time both coaching and managing teams
from a variety of institutions for both prospective and enrolled student populations.
She enjoys spending her free time traveling, outdoors, hiking, playing with her puppy,
camping, mountain climbing and has climbed and reached the summit of Mt.
Kilimanjaro and Mt. Hood.
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7. Our Panelists
Kristin Gurrola
Campus Director
InsideTrack
Kristin Gurrola is an InsideTrack Campus Director and has managed several different
campuses within the traditional segment. Kristin has experience in both coaching and
managing enrolled student coaching and prospective student (yield) coaching
programs. Kristin believes in the power of coaching and values her experience
working with traditional aged students. She strives to build strong coaches and
coaching teams that will bring positive change for students and their universities. Prior
to joining InsideTrack over 5 years ago, Kristin was the Associate Director of the
Center for Academic Service Learning and Research and adjunct faculty member in
the Leadership Studies program at Azusa Pacific University. Kristin earned her
Bachelor’s from Pepperdine University and a Masters in Education in College Student
Affairs from Azusa Pacific University.
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8. Today’s incoming freshmen
“With GPS, they have never needed directions to get someplace, just an
address.”
• Digital natives who multitask across 5
screens
• Short attention spans
• Multi-generational households and
“boomerang” older siblings
• Practical, entrepreneurial, and civic
minded
• FOMO (fear of missing out)
• More likely to come from interracial or
Spanish speaking families
• Comfortable with online learning
• Communicate with images
• All about connection
• Beloit Mindset list for the class of 2017
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9. They are different than Millenials in some important ways
“A small but growing revolution of
kids who think about their
education differently.”
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10. Recognize the context of your communication
Information overload
is not communication
Well timed, “snack
sized” communication
will be most effective
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11. Tailor communication to keep them on track
• Leverage technology to give students control over communication
recognize preferences may change throughout the year
• Simplify, simplify, simplify! Limit the amount of information on a page,
streamline wherever possible, provide checklists, and make processes
consistent and next steps easy to find
Improve student
satisfaction, engagement,
and responsiveness to
important messages
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12. Digital natives are accustomed to a personalized experience
with 24/7 support
“Customer service” is not about lowering the bar, it’s about making
sure students perceive value
Empower staff to see a student situation through to resolution
Provide options for self-directed learners to find answers on their own
Create online self-service resources backed by live people and brick and mortar offices
Students see your use of technology and customer service as a reflection of the quality and
sophistication of the education you will provide them
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13. Factors that may influence their expectations and behavior
Students with a financial need of >$10k must have a conversation about
their plan to pay for school
• Student demographics and family
experience
• Institution type and proximity to campus
• Regional considerations
• Double depositing or plans to transfer
• Financial gap
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14. Don’t forget the parents!
Parents want and expect to be included and are major influencers when it comes
to assessing a school’s value
• Gen Z respects their elders and values input from their parents, guardians, and
grandparents
• Tailor communication for parents too and understand who wants to be involved and to
what degree
• Spell it out, avoid abbreviations or student-centric terminology
• Give parents a checklist of next steps
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15. Contact
To learn more about adapting to the needs of Gen Z, contact
programs@insidetrack.com
This webinar was originally provided exclusively to InsideTrack partners to
help them prepare for the 2014 incoming freshman class. A recording is now
available for on-demand viewing from our website. Please visit
http://www.insidetrack.com/webinars to download.
About InsideTrack
Society thrives when students succeed. Since 2001, InsideTrack has used a
proven combination of coaching, analytics, consulting and technology to unlock
potential in millions of students and the institutions they attend. We invite you to
join the leading colleges, universities, foundations and others working with us to
enhance the transformative power of higher education. Please visit us at
www.insidetrack.com and follow us on Twitter @InsideTrack.
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16. Unlocking human potential since 2001
insidetrack.com programs@insidetrack.com
@insidetrack linkedin.com/company/insidetrack
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