To fill out enrollment numbers, Ohio University turns to marketing

In recent years, college applications have been flooding Ohio University's admissions offices. Part of the reason could be a revamped marketing strategy that includes targeting out-of-state, transfer and international students, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

The school broke its record with 14,000 applications three years ago, and has already shattered that benchmark this year, when there are still four months left in the application period, the newspaper notes.

Craig Cornell, vice provost for Ohio University's enrollment management, told the news outlet that a much higher percentage of applicants living outside the state were seeking to become students. The school's goal is to have 38,000 students in 2016.

"The university has boosted its marketing efforts along the East Coast, in every state that touches Ohio and in several countries in southeast Asia, South America and the Middle East," the newspaper reports. "The university also created an online virtual campus tour."

Colleges across the country have ramped up their marketing efforts. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a small business in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, called TargetX has been running university and college email programs that send messages to the ever-shrinking pool of graduating high school seniors.