Ranked among Italy’s top educational institutions, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice is home to 23,000 students. To enroll more students and optimize the efficiency of its admissions and marketing teams, Ca’Foscari University has been using DreamApply’s student enrollment software. We interviewed Ca’Foscari’s team and students to learn about their experience with DreamApply.
Staff experiences
Krystina Stermole, Ca’Foscari’s Head of Outreach and Recruitment Unit shares how her team has been using DreamApply to cultivate relationships with students.
“DreamApply allows us to have all roads converge there, and then it becomes a hub from which our students can find everything else that they’re looking for. So additional information, other tools, support… Everything heads to DreamApply and then leaves from DreamApply. It works as a sort of hub or fulcrum for all of this kind of movement and communication”, says Krystina.
Alessandro Bertollo, International Admissions Officer at Ca’Foscari University shares his journey of navigating the complexities of international admissions using DreamApply. He says the university has been able to double the number of incoming student applications, increasing it from 5,000 to 10,000 within one year.
Ca’Foscari University’s admissions officers specifically appreciate being able to process high volumes of applicants in less time, moving from an e-mail-based process to a centralized solution.
Student stories
To learn how the application process influences the choices of applicants, we also interviewed Ca’Foscari University’s current students
Sebastián Quiñónez, a graduate student from Ecuador says his decision to apply became an easy one given the completeness of the information on the application portal:
“When I found the program in the masters portal, I liked everything I saw. The information about the visa, certifications, everything was clear.”
Sebastián says he specifically appreciated the checklist in the platform, which motivated him to complete the application:
“One of the things that I really liked in the application platform was the checklist. As you are sending away all the documents, you will see that it’s easier because there’s only one or two documents that are left.”
Caridad Tinaye Munyawiri, a bachelor student from Zimbabwe says that the personalization she experienced on DreamApply’s student enrollment platform has played a key role in attracting her to apply to Ca’ Foscari.
“I was able to select what country I was from, and it tailored the information to my needs. It showed me the documents I needed to upload, the tuition feed I needed to pay and the tests I needed to take as a Zimbabwean, which was amazing. I never had to leave the platform to go to the Co’Foscari website to get any extra information because all of it was on DreamApply,” says Caridad.
Why does personalization play such a vital role in cultivating relationships with applicants?
The answer is found in the academic research on influence. According to the principle of reciprocity coined by Dr. Robert Cialdini, we feel a greater desire to give back to others in the form of behavior, service or helpful information that we have received first.
If you represent a university, you can leverage this by being the first to provide meaningful information, but here is the subtlety. The power of reciprocation is magnified when the “gift” is unexpected and customized to the recipients’s current needs and preferences.
DreamApply has many personalization features that serve as evidence-based tools to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with applicants. You can tailor content delivery based on applicants’ preferences, demographics and level of intent, directly on the application portal, helping them feel welcome well before they are admitted.
About DreamApply
Founded in 2011 in Estonia, DreamApply is an innovation-driven EdTech organization improving access to education around the globe. DreamApply’s application management software helps more than 300 educational institutions across 40 countries to improve admissions, marketing, financial and other internal processes.
DreamApply’s easy-to-use and customizable software increases student enrollment by 30% and reduces application processing time by 40%. With features designed with and for educational institutions, and integrations with commonly used systems, DreamApply empowers teams to get more done with less effort.
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