Bentley University pivots from in-person to online events

Challenge: Move all in-person events to virtual environments

Bentley University was looking for a platform which would enable them to move all of their admitted student events online.—using Unibuddy Events to host real-time group chats between applicants, student ambassadors, and staff. They wanted a solution which was easy to implement and had a good user experience for prospective students.

Solution: Unibuddy Events enabled digital connections with groups of prospective students

“Setting up a live event is really easy with Unibuddy. And it’s simple to edit it right up to the start of the event,” said Shanell Cartagena, Senior Assistant Director of International Admission at Bentley University. “The platform is really user-friendly.”

The versatility of Unibuddy Events meant they could run large-scale recruitment events, as well as smaller and more targeted groups meetings with prospective students.

Results: 63% of prospective students who used Unibuddy Events went on to enroll at Bentley

“We had more than 100 students and staff involved in these events, but with good organization, Unibuddy Events was very straightforward to run,” said Cartagena. “For others, we had just 3 channels and a handful of staff and that takes just 5 minutes to set up.”

Bentley University also found a number of additional advantages to running virtual events through Unibuddy Events. By eliminating the need for their enrollment team to physically travel to meet with students, Bentley was able to reach large audiences of international and out-of-state students. These virtual events also helped reduce workload on Bentley’s enrollment team.

Shanell explained: “Especially for us, we have a large international audience and we had a lot more students from outside the US participate than we had in the past,” said Cartagena. “You also don’t get 10 students asking the same question 10 times, so staff and student ambassadors prefer it for that reason.”

Bentley’s prospective students and applicants also love the ability to reach out and connect with a current student or staff member on a one-on-one basis.

And now, Bentley University will use our new product to add a face to their events: “We know students feel comfortable with chatting and now we’re adding a face to that event. It makes it more personal”

As a result, Bentley reports 63% of their admitted students who used Unibuddy went on to enroll. “This was definitely the largest group of international students we’ve ever has at an admitted students event,” said Cartagena.