Directions
Parking: Please enter through the North Woodland Entrance.

Event name: Northern New Jersey Fall 2015 Explore
Date: 9/20/2015
Time: 3pm
Venue: Dwight Englewood School
Attendance: 206 total
 
Audience
Attendance was good at about 200 people from the registered 350 (57% show rate), although I wish the attendance was better at this event. When polling the audience at first, it seemed like we are pulling mostly an audience that did not come to campus before. For a lot of the attendees, it seemed like this was the first time interacting with the university in a formal presentation setting. This meant that the focus of the presentation was modified to be heavy on the campus information and balancing application process within. As expected, most were interested in NS/ENG and most attendees came from Bergen County, the rest from other places in NJ with a few sprinkled from various NY. There was also a good number of URMs in the presentation.
 
Venue
The location of the Explore is prime since it is located in the heart of Bergen County, where we saw most of ED applications from the region. We have also held this event at this venue last fall so it is good in order to maintain a strong relationship with the school’s counselors. Compared to last year, the technology in the auditorium improved a lot which makes this more of a viable location for a session. Since there is only one school gate open during the weekend, visitors have to drive around the campus to locate it, but the entrance was specified in the invite and most did not seem phased. One of the school’s college counselors came out to the event. I recommend hosting an event at this venue again but only in another year (not in the spring, as it would appear that we are aligning too much with the NJ private schools).
 
Content/FAQs
Compared to previous events conducted in this market, the audience had less questions. I think a lot of it had to do with the style of the presentation in that it seems a little less inviting due to its application-centric nature and ending on the application process rather than on information that can be expanded on by questions. It could also be that the information covered in the session is more tailored to the information students/families want to ask which leads them to asking less questions. Although there was a drastic drop in questions from previous sessions, the few questions that were asked during the presentation setting were about:

• Application requirements in general (specifically teacher recommendations)
• Financial aid / merit scholarships (specifically merit scholarships)
  • Many more questions were asked about this as compared to usual.
• Life/work balance (how do students balance research/social life/academics)
• Racial make-up of campus

 
As far as presentation content, I interweaved messaging about classroom support / advising that were not originally in the presentation. This seemed to appease the audience, especially after their questions about life/work balance on campus.
 
As a side note, the slide with the 3 alumni towards the end does not really get at the core of what we want it to and did not flow well in the presentation. I think it would be more efficient for us, instead of listing profiles of 3 specific alumni (with their years varying drastically), to create a list of where our recent alumni are working/studying now. Just like in the brochure, the list of top places of employment can help promote the messaging of students doing amazing things with their education instead of focusing on specific profiles.
 
 
Self-Evaluation
Overall, the presentation was pretty successful. The school as very cooperative and helped to execute the event seamlessly. I am glad I connected with 2 alumni in the area to help out with the event. However, since I did not know their level of comfort with assisting in the session, that was something I did not pursue. In the next presentation, I will want to use the alumni in the presentation at the end in a Q&A since both Alumni who ended up participating seem competent and well versed in the information.