New Jersey Institute of Technology and GoalQuest, Inc. today announced highly positive results from their joint Web-based initiatives to impact recruitment and retention at the institution. NJIT debuted its GoalQuest eCRUIT™ and FYRe™ (Freshman Year Retention) programs to prospective and first-year students last fall. According to NJIT, the GoalQuest eCRUIT program was a contributing factor in the school's sharp increase in applicants to its fall 2006 class, while its FYRe program has proven to be extremely effective in its efforts to retain first-year students.

The NJIT eCRUIT initiative, known to high school participants as The NJIT Experience, immerses students in a series of timely communications and activities on subjects such as exploring majors and careers, meeting faculty, student life, planning a campus visit, college financing, sports and activities as well as campus life and culture.

NJIT's FYRe program, titled Sailing to New Horizons, helps incoming first-year students transition to the academic and personal challenges of college life. The program covers topics such as academic success tips, getting involved on campus, finding support resources, diversity and cultural pluralism, managing money and career development. NJIT is also utilizing GoalQuest's e-community and student-to-student exploration modules, including UPeers™, UScene™ and UBlog™.

NJIT's enrollment management and student affairs groups have integrated GoalQuest's real-time reporting indicators to help track and respond to prospective applicants in need of more information and to current students who may be at risk of attrition. Proprietary GoalQuest tools such as instant alerts and Auto-Responders allow NJIT to quickly target prospects or students who would benefit from a personalized follow-up from the appropriate campus offices.

According to Dr. Joel Bloom, vice president for academic and student services at NJIT, "GoalQuest gave us the capacity to have an ongoing dialogue with our students. Both eCRUIT and FYRe provided data-centered information on a continual basis. The company's eCRUIT program enabled us to track down vital information in real time as we were recruiting students, while FYRe helped us retain them."

"We are extremely pleased at the substantive results that NJIT has experienced with its debut of eCRUIT and FYRe," said Peter Kraft, GoalQuest co-founder and chief executive officer. "As a major public technological university, NJIT applies significant scrutiny to third-party technology solutions. We believe that the institution's choice of GoalQuest reflects the uniqueness of our recruiting and retention tools as well as our ability to work as an extension of NJIT's forward-looking technology and communications teams."

About New Jersey Institute of Technology
With its four-pronged mission of education research, service and economic development, New Jersey Institute of Technology plays a critical role in shaping New Jersey's future. As a major public technological university, NJIT is an important conduit through which technology flows into society. The university's educational programs prepare students to be leaders in the technology-dependent economy of the 21st century. University researchers seek new knowledge to improve processes and products for industry. Through public and private partnerships and economic development efforts, the university helps to grow new business ventures that fuel the economy.

About GoalQuest
GoalQuest, Inc. is a New York City-based software company specializing in innovative solutions for higher education. The Company's proprietary software assists colleges and universities in maximizing recruiting, enrollment yield, retention, parent communication and advancement efforts. Its suite of products, including eCRUIT™, FYRe™, PICS™ and AlumNet™ as well as its Universe™ tools such as UPeers™ and UPortfolio™, are based on a revolutionary technology that immerses participants in highly interactive content. The tools provide clients with a full-featured reporting center and automated activity alerts that monitor the real-time interest trajectory of users. GoalQuest is a NASPA strategic partner.