Admissions office releases new publications and Web site

Brian Farkas News Editor

Vassar College’s Office of Admissions launched a redesigned line of brochures and view books, along with a new Web site, on Tuesday, Feb. 19. This is the first major overhaul of recruiting material in about seven years.

The previous design, created by the Ohio-based design firm Nesnadny and Schwartz, relied heavily on campus photographs, bold typographical treatments and unique fonts.

“That design has served us amazingly well for a much longer period than we would have expected,” said DeKrey. “It’s more typical to have a redesign after three or four years.”

Although the content of these materials is updated annually, the style is not.

“Periodically, we need to re-examine our publications and Web presence to be certain that they are delivering an accurate picture of today’s Vassar and meeting the needs of prospective students and their families,” said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus.

The release of the last design proved that you can judge a book by its cover—or, rather, a college by its viewbook. Following the release of those original publications, direct mail responses increased by 12 percent, applications increased by 17 percent and early decision applications rose by 55 percent.

“Because that design was so successful, we decided to stay with Nesnadny and Schwartz,” said Editorial Director Julia Van Develder. “When something is working so well, it’s often hard to reinvent the wheel, but we felt that it was time to freshen up our look.” Van Develder has worked for about a year-and-a-half on the materials.

Vassar receives names of high school juniors who demonstrate academic achievement through the College Board’s Student Search Service.

“Vassar, like all our peer institutions, contacts these students from across the country in February of their junior year, sending them information on the College and an invitation to be added to our mailing list,” said Borus.

“In that mailing, we send a letter and a brief brochure, known in admissions-speak as the ‘search brochure,’ and hope that students will either return the reply card or go register on the Web site for more information,” he said. Doing so adds the student to the mailing list, and they receive a copy of the more extensive view book during the summer.

Vassar mails out the search brochure to about 80,000 students in February, and typically about 25,000 viewbooks during the summer.

“We hope that the view book then becomes a kind of reference tool that students will return to many times or use to find where to go for additional information as the college selection process continues,” said Borus.

Although these materials are designed by an external firm, all of the content and writing is done in-house. “We want to make sure that our books give as accurate a feeling of the Vassar experience as possible,” said Van Develder.

The Office of College Relations and the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid worked together closely in producing the new recruiting materials.

“Our most important collaboration is developing an approach and content for the materials that reflect the kind of institution Vassar is as accurately and effectively as we can,” said DeKrey.

“We’re always conferring, often on a daily basis, about the materials as we’re working on them, and because we’ve worked together for so many years, it feels like we’re all part of the same office,” DeKrey said.

She noted the importance of presenting a wide variety of media. Admissions officers use printed materials at school visits and college fairs, while the Web site is a crucial tool that affords applicants a chance to see the campus who are unable to visit in person.

Van Develder noted the importance of the Web site. “It’s just so important these days,” she said. “It used to be that print materials would drive Web design, but now it’s really the other way around. One of the major shifts we see in these materials is that there is less information in our printed books because we’re really encouraging people to visit our site. There, they’ll find everything they could possibly want to see or know about Vassar.”

The new Web site includes a colorful frontpage, with links to every academic department’s site, along with an entirely redesigned layout.

“The redesign involves a Web site that is much more streamlined in its navigation. Content is easier to find,” said DeKrey. “And it’s also a much more robust site, with video profiles of students, for example, that we’ll continue to add on a regular basis.”

The site currently includes 18 student profiles and interviews, including members from the Class of 2007 to the Class of 2010. Alongside many of the written interviews, videos feature students doing a variety of activities, from distributing The Miscellany News to attending baseball practice.

Though the old site has been updated over the past few years with features such as a virtual campus tour and a student blog, Van Develder believes that this site will be give prospective students even more information.

“You know, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures,” she said. “I’m really proud of all of these videos because I think they give a unique flavor of what life is really like here.”