NRCCUA NEWS!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 10/19/2006

10/19/2006

Fort Hays State University was ranked in the top 10 in three categories in a study of more than 3,000 college and university’s admissions websites. It has been No. 1 in the Midwest region, No. 6 overall and No. 3 among master’s level institutions.

The study was the eighth annual Enrollment Power Index (EPI)—measuring how well a college website turns prospective students into applicants, a research-based analysis performed by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA). Sites were rated by how well the functionality and design of the site allowed prospective students to get information, according to a news release of NRCCUA.

“It’s a nice surprise from that point of view we didn’t know it would happen,” Suzanne Klaus, webmaster at FHSU, said. “Based on the criteria that they use to measure the quality and content of websites, I think FHSU website definitely does have good content.”

“The measurement was based on how easy it was to get around in the admissions website as well. In the other words, it should have good navigation abilities,” said Klaus. NRCCUA sent an e-mail survey to 100,000 college bound high school students. Students were asked to rank two admissions websites. Then, more than 3,000 sites were evaluated by using 34 criteria and a number of statistical tests.

“We try to use common terminology instead of institutional terminology that will make sense to people and even conscious about language-using that international students can understand as well,” Klaus said.

The NRCCUA is a non-profit education research organization in Lee’s Summit, Mo., which serves as a bridge between college bound high school students and colleges and universities. This study divides institutions into six categories: doctoral-research, masters, liberal arts institutions, Catholic institutions, community colleges and specialty institutions.

After knowing FHSU admissions website ranking No. 1 in the Midwest, students are surprised and excited. “It’s great to hear this news, so we have something to show off,” Said Ma Yi, a first year international student at FHSU.

“We are now starting on the design and collecting information to enrich the content,” Klaus said. “We also invite Casey Rackaway, an Academic Affairs Marketing Specialist, to initiate new marketing method.”

Mount St. Mary’s college, Los Angeles, was ranked No. 1 overall that Klaus perceived it had good features and functionality indeed that FHSU website can refer to and make progress on constructing our website.