The School of Mines admissions website, www.GoToMines.com has been recognized as one of the best admissions websites in the country by the National Research Center for College & University Admissions (NRCCUA) in their 9th Annual Enrollment Power Index® (EPI), an analysis of the admissions websites of more than 3,000 post-secondary institutions.
"We are proud to have our admissions website recognized by NRCCUA as one of the leading sites in the nation," Dr. Charles Ruch, president, says. "We developed our site with the knowledge that potential students would be looking here for critical admissions information. As a result, we have made strides to constantly update our site with the latest tools and information that meet the needs of students and ensure that they can learn about what we have to offer."
Plans are well underway to utilize more features, including current student blogs, video tours, and other interactive functions.
The research-based study rates how well the functionality and design of college and university admissions websites provide information to potential students and move them from prospect to applicant. The study graded the sites for each institution on a 100-point scale. The School of Mines was one of only 140 institutions that received an A. The School of Mines was rated 111 overall out of more than 3,000 institutions, and ranked fifth on the list of Top-10 Specialty Institutions.
"We congratulate the School of Mines for having one of the top admissions-related websites in the country," said Don Munce, president of NRCCUA. "In today's online environment, a quality Website can now be the difference between a lost prospect and a new student. By developing a dynamic and up-to-date online information source, the School of Mines is ensuring that prospective students have critical information at their fingertips that will help them make decisions about their college careers."
The study examined 34 different criteria that were divided into five main categories.
1. Prominence of an admissions office link on the institution’s home page (10.61 possible points).
2. Admissions Web page design and ease of navigation (23.25 possible points).
3. Online access to admissions materials (13.42 possible points).
4. Additional admissions information (38.97 possible points).
5. Ability to contact the admissions office (13.75 possible points).
To identify the admissions website features that have the most significant impact of a potential student’s perception of the site, an e-mail survey was sent to over 100,000 college-bound high school students asking them to rate admissions Websites. Next, over 3,000 sites were evaluated to identify functional features present on each site. Statistical tests were then used to identify the functional features that were important to students and their relative importance.
Additional information on the EPI study is available at http://www.nrccua.org/educator/services/epi/criteria.asp.