GoalQuest Inc. and Western Oregon University today announced that they have exceeded the University's performance goals with their joint programs to affect the school's recruiting, enrollment yield and school-to-parent communication efforts. WOU uses GoalQuest eCRUIT™, EYOp™ (Enrollment Yield Optimization) and PICS™ (Parents Involved in College Selection) products.

GoalQuest eCRUIT helps colleges and universities increase the quality and quantity of their application pools, while EYOp works to matriculate those students who have been offered admission to the University by mitigating common yield impediments such as summer melt and multiple deposits.

Each of WOU's programs was custom written and designed by GoalQuest project teams working in concert with school administrators and under their oversight. This approach reflects the way in which GoalQuest works with all of its clients. During an extensive setup process, GoalQuest researched all aspects of WOU's existing recruitment and yield efforts. The company then assigned teams of writers and editors capable of producing the desired voice and tone and of expertly covering key topics. Topics created for WOU's GoalQuest programs include:

• Consideration Criteria: Outcomes
• Paying for Your Education
• Thinking About Your Major
• Close Encounters of the College Kind
• Breaking Out of Your Shell
• Thinking About Your Career
• Study Skills
• Life at WOU
• Preparing Your Student for Departure

Two of WOU's programs feature GoalQuest's UPeers™ online community tool. UPeers lets admitted students share their personal and academic interests, concerns and questions with a network of other admitted students. A parent version of UPeers is included in WOU's EYOp parent program enabling participants to begin building relationships with other soon-to-be college parents.

"For year one, we exceeded our performance goals and we're very excited to use the products more often in the future," said Rob Findtner, Director of Admissions. "The reaction as a whole has been very positive, especially from the parents. The programs give the family much more flexibility, and they are always disappointed when they end – they always seem to want more info. Because of our success in the first year, we're excited about the prospect of utilizing more GoalQuest tools in the future."

In addition, all of WOU's GoalQuest programs take advantage of the company's proprietary survey, assessment and reporting tools, which offer administrators access to real-time, actionable data to help the admissions staff monitor students' likelihood to submit an application or accept an offer of admission.

According to Tracy Howe, co-founder and executive vice president at GoalQuest, "We are extremely pleased to be entering the third year of our successful relationship with Western Oregon University. The excellent return on investment that our eCRUIT and EYOp programs have historically yielded for our clients was bolstered this past year by the introduction of new and more powerful reporting tools as well as highly popular user features such as UPeers."

About Western Oregon University
Western Oregon University (WOU), a leading liberal arts school, is committed to changing lives, strengthening communities and transforming the world. Located in the Monmouth-Independence area, the heart of Oregon's lush Willamette Valley, WOU is about 20 minutes from Salem, the state's capital and about 75 miles from Portland, the state's cultural hub. Founded in 1856, WOU, the oldest institution in the Oregon University system, has continued to adapt and transform itself to the needs of society and a changing world. From its origins as a normal school, WOU has become a nationally recognized leader in teacher preparation. In the seventies, WOU expanded its offerings with broad-based liberal education programs. Since then, the University has continued to emerge as a leading comprehensive public liberal arts institution, with approximately two-thirds of its students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the rest in the College of Education.

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.