Geocoding of Addresses Applied to Students at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

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Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Universities across the country struggle to recruit new students. Address geocoding provides the opportunity to show exactly where the students are coming from. It's very important to distinguish between in-state, out-of-state, and international students for recruiting purposes. To apply address geocoding, the US census bureau database was used. During the process, some addresses came back as not found, especially foreign addresses that were not recognized. In response to this, these addresses had to be done manually using other mapping websites such as Google Maps. The final results showed student locations at the three levels, state-wide, country-wide, and worldwide. At the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, the majority of students come from the state of Pennsylvania itself. It is the assumption of this poster that this information is essential in the decision making of how to recruit new students.