The intention of this project is to develop a mechanism to analyze Twitter data related to the freshman admissions process at Philadelphia area colleges and universities. Sentiment analysis on data culled from Twitter allows institutions the opportunity to better understand their place in an increasingly digital landscape. Twitter reactions related admissions and financial aid for an institution can provide another metric to gauge population engagement, reputation, effectiveness of communications/marketing, and many other areas of an institution.
Social media is regularly monitored by the communications departments at colleges and universities to. Specifically in admissions, staff will manually check various social media feeds for any reactions - positive or negative - around the time that admissions decisions are being released. Those preliminary sentiments can provide an informal indication in how an admissions cycle might progress. Additionally, this monitoring can identify any potential issues that were not discovered during testing.
A sentiment analysis of admissions Twitter data would add value to the following:
- Admissions and Financial Aid
- Institutional Planning
- Marketing and University Communications