Recently in Boarding School Marketing Category

We came across a school website that got us to stop and take a look the other day. The Fork Union Military Academy's site makes the most use out of more web tools than  any school site that I've seen in recent memory. Beyond their embrace of web 2.0 technologies, we also like the fact that kids/students are clearly part of their intended audience. I think- visually- the site clearly appeals to applicant age viewers.

On the site, they incorporate a number of features to connect and build their community. From podcasting about a variety of topics to utilizing the FUMA 411 Forum- they're the first school we've found that uses a message board- the site is well positioned to deliver the news of the day. Take the forum, it presents information both to current and applying students; provides discussion sections for family and friends; The Chaplain's Corner keeps the extended community involved with the schools spiritual work; and alumni have a dedicated section. We like their willingness to start and provide a public place on the site for all members of the FUMA family to meet and exchange ideas/news.

Some of the discussion dates show that it's still developing, but it allows the wide school community to stay connected and maintain a feel for campus happenings.

Kudos to Westtown School's recent launch of www.westtownschool.tv. They've built an on-line video environment designed to host and categorize school videos for their audiences.

Westtown currently offers 13 channels or topics in their library covering everything from current events and happenings to admission material. Users can create libraries and favorites lists for future visits and user groups and friends can share videos. Think Youtube for the Westtown community.

Anyone can upload; but of course, Westtown reserves the right to not accept video.

Video channels provide a great opportunity to build and foster a community of users interested and dedicated to a school. Everyone from parents, to students, to alumni can stay current with school happenings and witness firsthand the students' creative talents.

We recently enhanced our boarding school directory to include a number of pre-sorted boarding school lists for families researching schools. Looking for New England boarding schools? We have a list for that.  Searching for boarding schools with soccer? That one's covered too.

The idea is to provide site visitors with an easy way to access sets of boarding schools based on any number of school attributes. We're excited to bring you more groupings as we continue to slice & dice the data

Let us know what else you would like to see added. We welcome your ideas. 

As part of onBoarding Schools we regularly look at ways in which schools leverage the web to connect to students & their families. This is a bit of a side thread from our normal talk about boarding schools, but being that AQ's focussed on helping connect families and schools via the web, I'm always interested in examining interesting approaches taken by schools. So, lets kick off the conversation...

A few weeks back a friend suggested I take look at how St. Mark's School in Southborough, MA is using video to guide folks through their site. He raved about how well the video compliments the site's content & design-- said it really was clean. Well, being one who's interested in clean, easy-to use sites, I popped over and came away impressed.

Check out their main admission page to see for yourself. A video of their Director of Admission, Anne Behnke, appears in the top-right section of the page. She's up against a white screen (so it meshes really well with their site design- has that Web 2.0 simple, elegant feel) and jumps into a 2+ minute monologue about how to use their site. She talks about their admission team, scheduling a tour, interviews on & off campus among other things. What I like about this is how she highlights the sections of the page by physically pointing to the spots on the page where the features live. Such a simple approach, but it packs a meaningful impact, especially in this age of trying to convey so much information on so little page real estate. I can attest to this first hand-- it's no easy task.

So what's the take away? Time will tell. I'm going to chat with the folks there to see how the video strategy is working for them. My gut reaction leads me to think that it's a solid approach, especially in this age of youtube and video on the fly. I bet prospective students love this direct approach. Wouldn't surprise me a bit to see other schools adopt St. Mark's approach in the future.

We're happy to welcome Wolfeboro, The Summer Boarding School as our newest AQ Member School. Unique in its operation and perspective, Wolfeboro is a boarding school- but open only for one 6 1/2 week session during the summer. Using the luxury of being able to focus on each student's specific goals during a defined session, Wolfeboro develops a clear plan for every student.  The school environment is old school.  Students live in platform tents. Small (4 students on average) classes meet 6 days a weekly. Students and faculty gather for 3 sit-down meals daily. All appointments, meetings, and activities are mandatory. This structured life frees students to focus on their academics.

Faculty- most of whom are long time Wolfeboro people- come from a myriad of boarding and day schools all over the country. Wolfeboro students can work for academic enrichment, to make up a course or earn credit, or to prepare themselves for a transition to a new school. Wolfeboro will celebrate it's 100th summer during their 2009 session.

I attended Wolfeboro, The Summer Boarding School and have been a part of 19 summer sessions in a variety of capacities. I am most excited to work with the school in this new capacity.

We're excited to announce the launch of AQ's blog - onBoarding Schools. For a number of years we've provided students & families with a rich collection of boarding school profiles, admission articles, financial information, etc. The start of our blog provides us with another way to deliver information and perspectives on the boarding school community.

Please stay tuned for new entries (and a new design!) over the coming months. A number of boarding school experts have graciously volunteered to contribute to this space - introductions will be made soon. Topics covered will include all aspects of the admission process, school visits, school loans, financial aid and much more. Of course, we encourage you to let us know what you hope to read on these pages as well.

Drop us an email anytime with your ideas - aqinfo@admissionsquest.com.