University Marketing Data Help

[Arnold]

Usually there is someone who has the answer to any question on this board, so here goes.

I need to find out how much graduate professional and technology schools tend to spend on marketing per enrolled student. I'm talking MBA, MS Info Sys management, MS CS, etc. Please do not ask what it is for, it is NOT for the purpose of suing anyone but has to do with a research project for client.

To date I have not had any success finding this out. I've had several different professionals in the field take several paragraphs to say they don't know. I understand that it will be variable from public v. private institutions, etc. At this time I just need to get a handle on the range of expenditures.

Any help is appreciated.

Arnold

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Define "marketing"...

Different departments do different things.

For example- an institute that is well known for chemistry research will do little advertising as their reputation is sufficient to attract the best. SUNY Stony Brook has a strong Physics department due to their work at Brookhaven Nat'l Lab. SUNY Rochester seems to have a strong chemistry department (based on published papers)---and this is why I asked for "marketing" to be defined- the research papers are of such caliber that the best graduate students want to associate themselves with these groups. sometimes, a key researcher moves or retires...and the department isn't as strong as it was. SUNY Stony Brook was once an important center for magnetic resonance work- a large amount of the ket work in MRI was done there. When Dr. Lauterbur left for Chicago, SUNY StonyBrook couldn't attract anyone for that area of research.

The research can be a form of marketing by prestige...and it is difficult to quantify it.

 

[ScottM]

I am not sure what you mean by "graduate professional and technology schools". If you mean how much are Universities spending to attract certain students into certain graduate programs then I can suggest that you start by getting the budget numbers form the public university. You may have to put in a FOIA request to get that data, but it is not private info. Then you can look at enrollments and get a value/grad student. Breaking it down in specific fields will be very tough without some assistance from the university and that may take some more FOIA requests to each college department head asking for similar information.

 

[Arnold]

Define "marketing"...

Different departments do different things.

For example- an institute that is well known for chemistry research will do little advertising as their reputation is sufficient to attract the best. SUNY Stony Brook has a strong Physics department due to their work at Brookhaven Nat'l Lab. SUNY Rochester seems to have a strong chemistry department (based on published papers)---and this is why I asked for "marketing" to be defined- the research papers are of such caliber that the best graduate students want to associate themselves with these groups. sometimes, a key researcher moves or retires...and the department isn't as strong as it was. SUNY Stony Brook was once an important center for magnetic resonance work- a large amount of the ket work in MRI was done there. When Dr. Lauterbur left for Chicago, SUNY StonyBrook couldn't attract anyone for that area of research.

The research can be a form of marketing by prestige...and it is difficult to quantify it.

Thanks. I am concerned about the actual dollars out of pocket to attract the caliber student the institution is looking for. For my purposes activites not directly related to that task are not important. Research papers, media profile, departmental reputation are, as you noted, essentially no cost. I had not thought about it quite this way and can see how a Harvard B school would have less difficulty attracting students than say a Drexel, which would have less difficulty than say a West Chester. Less interest theoretically means less marketing cost. My interest is simply what is the cost of brochures, recruiting staff, advertising, travel, etc. that is expended on each student they wish to attract.

Thank you for taking the time to consider the problem.

 

[Arnold]

I am not sure what you mean by "graduate professional and technology schools". If you mean how much are Universities spending to attract certain students into certain graduate programs then I can suggest that you start by getting the budget numbers form the public university. You may have to put in a FOIA request to get that data, but it is not private info. Then you can look at enrollments and get a value/grad student. Breaking it down in specific fields will be very tough without some assistance from the university and that may take some more FOIA requests to each college department head asking for similar information.

Thanks for taking the time to think about the problem and comment. I am primarily interested in MBA, Master degree programs related to computer technology and management.

FOIA is a federal law and is inapplicable to states, which generally have their own laws. I would need to research and pursue information request procedures in multiple states and that would only get me the public institutions. I also think your methodology would be sound but for the fact that accountants have funny ways of reporting items. What I might think is marketing they might think is public relations, etc. I would never know what is really in the numbers. So not only would the breakdown by fields be difficult, as you suggest, but the numbers may be too well hidden to tease them out. This aspect of the problem reminds me of my father's favorite accountant joke. The punch line:the CEO interviewing candidates hires the accountant who answers the question what is 1+1 by saying "what would you like it to be?"

Thanks again for your input.