E-Expectations survey examines Hispanic Students’ communications preferences.

While Hispanic students generally look on college and university Web sites to gather the same information as non-Hispanic students, there are some differences in their expectations regarding electronic communication, according to “Hispanic Students and the Web,” the second in a series of studies on E-Expectations.

The E-Expectations series measures the online behavior and expectations of college-bound high school students. As part of the Class of 2007 study, Noel- Levitz, the leading higher education consulting firm in North America, James Tower, a recruiting communications firm, and the National Research Center for College & University Admissions (NRCCUA), a non-profit education research organization, examined the responses of 242 Hispanic students along with the responses from non-Hispanic white students.

For the most part, Hispanic students want to do many of the same things on college and university Web sites that white students want to do: find out about financial aid and admissions. The study findings revealed that Hispanic students are interested in up-and-coming technologies like podcasting and are not averse to receiving recruitment calls and text messages on their cell phones. But there are some differences in the ways Hispanic students communicate electronically, specifically in relation to the level of parental involvement and their overall knowledge of the college application process.

“It is critically important to understand those differences, so that institutions can communicate with their Hispanic students in the most effective ways,” said Kevin Crockett, president and CEO of Noel-Levitz.

“The ultimate goal of all recruitment efforts is enrollment, and the best way to ensure that Hispanic students are enrolling in your institution is to guide them and their families more strategically through the application and financial aid process.”

Hispanic students have embraced many types of e-communication, even more than white students in a number of cases. In addition:

* When asked if they had downloaded a podcast, 14 percent of Hispanic students said they had, with 16 percent also saying they had downloaded a video podcast. This response was twice as high as that of white students (7 percent and 8 percent respectively).

* With regard to activities they would like to do on college Web sites, 57 percent of Hispanic students said they would like to participate in an online chat event, compared to 48 percent of white students, while 54 percent said they would like to download a video podcast (compared to 44 percent of white students).

* White students showed a higher rate of cell phone ownership, with 71 percent having their own phones versus 60 percent of Hispanic students. However, Hispanic students were more open to taking calls from college representatives (66 percent compared to 60 percent of white students) and far more open to receiving text messages (61 percent compared to 46 percent of white students).

* The largest behavioral gap between Hispanic students and white students appears to be the amount of parental support with college research. Just 48 percent of Hispanic students said that their parents are helping with “some of the research and paperwork,” compared to 65 percent of white students. Half of all Hispanic students said they were doing all the college research and paperwork on their own, compared to 30 percent of white students.

The study findings point to some strategies that recruiters can use to improve e-communications with Hispanic students. Those include:

1. The largest enrollment barrier to many Hispanic high school students is one of information about admissions and financial aid. With half of college-bound Hispanic high school students researching and completing forms on their own, the more guidance campuses can provide, the more likely these students will successfully apply to college.

2. Research has indicated that 95 percent of Hispanic parents say they expected their children to go to college, but the E-Expectations study showed that many Hispanic families are not necessarily helping their students do the research to get there. By communicating more directly with parents of Hispanic students, especially about matters such as financial aid, campuses can have a meaningful, direct influence on Hispanic student enrollment — and perhaps increase the rate of parental participation in researching and completing paperwork.

3. The findings showed little significant difference in the online behavior and expectations of Hispanic students. In some cases, Hispanic students seem even more willing to use media like text messaging and podcasts in their college searches. These are cost-effective technologies that offer a personal, one-to-one feel, and are also ideal formats for bilingual communication.

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