By: Lana Hazel

Think back to when you were in high school, tediously researching colleges across the country and frantically sending in last-minute applications. Did you call prospective colleges on Skype? Probably not.

But at the UA, the Admissions Office is now chatting with prospective students via Skype in an effort to connect with them on their level, through the lifestyle they already have.

Using new technological trends like Twitter and Skype is just one aspect of the office’s efforts to better communicate with students. The Admissions Office is responsible for a wide range of functions, from recruitment to sports camps to campus tours.

“It starts with sophomores mostly, but we’ll even visit elementary or middle schools sometimes,” said Wendy Stouffer, associate director of operations. “It’s a lot more about college readiness than just the UA. We are trying to get more Arkansas students to go to college in general.”

The office organizes college fairs, ACT workshops and high school visits, which are scheduled for Dallas, Little Rock and Kansas in October.

Other than communicating with prospective students through Twitter and Skype, the staff uses large mailings, e-mails, Hog Chat, Facebook and MySpace. The office has been on Facebook for about a year, Stouffer said, but Skype and Twitter are newer additions, and @UofAAdmissions already has more than 200 followers on Twitter.

Hog Chat, a live chat that allows students or family members to chat with the staff or check on their admission status, is especially popular with international students, Stouffer said.

The Admissions Office Web site also includes a link to Skype, through which students can call an e-recruiter in the office. Stouffer said she’s already had four chats in the last three weeks.

The campus tours led by student ambassadors are another important function of the Admissions Office. The tours are designed to highlight the main buildings and features of the campus and are available for prospective students, as well as current students’ families.

Students can sign up for tours through the Web site or by calling the office. There are four tours each weekday, three on Saturdays and more on football Fridays, tour coordinator Kristen Parnell said. The hour-long tours are busiest in the fall semester during early admissions, but there is a still a six-family limit to keep them at a decent size.

“The tours are scripted, but not scripted,” Parnell said, referring to the training for ambassadors. “We encourage (the student ambassadors) to throw in their personal experiences.”

Students can apply to be student ambassadors each spring. The only requirements are that they have been at the UA for at least one year and love the university.

“People should be ambassadors because it is a good way to know more about the campus and make friends from the ambassador program,” said Suzanne Hill, a senior student ambassador.

“If you love the UA, you will be great for promoting the campus and telling people why they should come here,” she said.

Hill said the student ambassador program is basically like any other Registered Student Organization.

“It’s more like being part of a club than it is about volunteering,” she said.

The ambassadors participate in intramural sports and several community service projects. Last year, they adopted a child for toy donations during Christmas.

Applications for student ambassadors are available on the Web site at Admissions.uark.edu/ambassador, and questions can be directed to [email protected]