What is an inquiry in college admissions?

An inquiry marks the moment a prospective student identifies themselves to a university. They might request a viewbook, register for a campus visit day, message the graduate office about a program, fill in a card at a college fair booth or start a chat on the admissions website. From then on, the institution knows who they are and what they asked about. That moment is the point of capture, and it is when the student becomes an inquiry.

It helps to separate inquiries from prospects. A prospect is someone the institution has identified as a possible applicant, whether or not they have made contact, such as a name from a search service or a list from a fair organizer; an inquiry has contacted the institution on their own initiative. This glossary uses the terms in that order: prospect when you identify someone, inquiry at capture, applicant after application. The distinction matters for reporting, because an inquiry pool padded with purchased names will convert at a very different rate from one built from students who reached out.

Picture a hypothetical student who fills in a request-for-information form for a data science master's program on a Tuesday night. At that moment she becomes an inquiry, and the institution has her name, contact details, program of interest and the page or campaign that brought her. What happens next, whether that is a same-day reply, an assigned counselor or a useful answer to her question, sets the tone for the rest of her decision.

Decentralized institutions face a second problem: the same student may contact the school of management, the international office and central admissions in the same month. Capture those contacts in a shared system, check for duplicates on email and phone, and record each program of interest and source, so the student hears from one coordinated admissions team.

What counts as a re-inquiry? When a known student submits another form or asks about a different program, treat it as fresh interest on the existing record. It is a useful signal, because the student came back on their own.