Private College Enrollment And Effects Analysis Data Mining Method

As the population of high school graduates declines,the competition among the colleges and universities is getting heated.The survival and sustainability of a private college is directly influenced by the quality of applicants and the registration rate of new students. Therefore, the key issues left to private colleges is targeting potential students and marketing the college to interested potential applicants. However, how to target potential students? What factors need to be taken into consideration in marketing?There are many conflicts regarding those issues among the Recruitment Department of a private college, the college management team,and Education Bureau.The Recruitment Department usually focuses on marketing the college in the areas that offered higher registration rate in the past year. Private colleges may ignore some regions that exists potential applicants due to tight budget.Therefore, it is esscntial for the Recruitment Department to analyze the features of registered students in the past few years,and target the potential applicants that fall into those categories.Data mining is the process of extracting useful, often previously unknown information and knowledge from large,incomlete, fuzzy,and random data through data collectin, pattern seeking, and pattern representation. Therefore,the application of data mining technology in analyzing the effectiveness of college marketing strategies is an effective method to manage the current database and also help strengthen the competitive advantage of newly launched private college.This paper introduces the current shortage of students facing private colleges,and clarifies the feasibility and necessity of mining in analyzing the effectiveness of their marketing stregies. Based on that, this paper also reseaches the applicat ion of C4.5 and Apriori algoritlms in analyzing the features of new students who has registere different programs. In addition, the information could also provide evidences for the decision making by the Recruitment Department, if the college will apply for developing new programs or recruiting in new areas in the future.