Navigating the college admissions process can be daunting for students and their families. Campus visits are great opportunities to learn what it’d be like to be a student – but that’s not always a viable option for families that live far away or can’t afford the trip. 

What if there was a way to get the inside scoop from afar? The New School is doing just that, using the voices of actual students to provide an insider’s view of student life through their prospective family portal. Last quarter The New School (TNS) reached the milestone of publishing 100 posts written by students — content that is seeing 10% higher engagement than other posts — and we’re excited to share their wins and spotlight them as our Q3 ESP MVP!

Students as storytellers

Before implementing CampusESP in 2021, The New School already had a strong strategy leveraging their Admission Communications and Enrollment Services student team in a variety of ways.

“It has been our strategy since before CampusESP to really highlight our students as storytellers,” said Craig Tiede, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Services & Communications at The New School. “We have a fairly large student staff which works within our department. Essentially, these are our student ambassadors who work open houses and admitted student events, help facilitate campus tours, communicate with students across social media platforms, and offer front line services that help students and families navigate the admission process.”

Content from the student team receives 10% more clicks than other posts

One way that the student team can get involved is by signing up to write a post for The New School Parent & Family Hub. 

Sue Forte, Associate Digital Content and Communication Strategist at The New School, notes that it’s important to have a well-rounded content strategy and to give parents a mix of everything from dates and deadlines to other pertinent information from TNS. Including content from students can add a refreshing perspective to the mix. 

“Reading about what your student is going to experience in addition to academics, like going to museums, shows, parks, and restaurants – that’s the kind of content that you spend time scrolling through because it’s fun,” said Forte.

It’s fun … and it’s working! We analyzed clicks from over 200 posts in The New School Parent & Family Hub to see just how well the content from students has performed. Student-generated posts received 10% more clicks than other posts published during the same time period. 

The New School created a unique community in the portal to organize the student authored content. Parents and families can click into the “From Our Students” community to see all content written by students. Some of the top-clicked posts have been about:

• Tips for making friends in New York City

• Securing internships at The New School

• Scholarship Advising at The New School

• What summer as a Performing Arts student is like

“I wanted to have a dedicated place where parents could go to read content from our students,” said Forte. “It’s a nice way to take a break from application process information and check out the exciting things our students are doing and how they’re exploring the city and surrounding areas.” 

Students get paid for every post they create for CampusESP. More importantly, students are passionate and eager to contribute.

“We are blessed with a good handful of students who love doing this work and are happy to share their experiences with our parents and families,” said Tiede.

Next up: expanding parent engagement to current families

The New School also recently implemented CampusESP for Family Communication and has started to engage current families in addition to prospective families. Current family communication is overseen by the Student Success and Engagement team, and Tiede and Forte have recommended for them to lean into using student workers to tell some of their stories. 

It’s clear that TNS families continue to crave content after their student enrolls. The current email open rate for First-Year Families is over 70%!

“Every year we get better at our handoff from Admission to Student Success. We hope that our continued engagement with parents and families through this platform will help everyone invested in our students’ success feel informed, connected, and a part of The New School community,” said Tiede.

We’re looking forward to seeing what The New School accomplishes next!