New SkoolPool™ application built on Facebook® Platform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
London, Ontario | October 19, 2007

Across North America, this year’s freshman class at college and university is the first to arrive on campus already using popular social utility Facebook, which was opened up to high school students in September of 2005. Not just using it, in fact, but obsessed with it: Academica Group’s annual survey of almost 90,000 post-secondary education (PSE) applicants found that fully 75% of this year’s incoming class was comprised of Facebook users.

“The post-secondary decision process looms over high school seniors, generating much anxious discussion in school hallways and on Facebook,” explains Academica Group VP Ken Steele. “For some time now, our college and university clients have been debating whether or not they should join in the discussion. Some have decided not to intrude. We believe that it’s always better to listen to what the marketplace has to say, so we’ve come up with an approach that students actually welcome.”

After months of development and testing, Academica Group today officially launched SkoolPool™, the first application built on Facebook Platform designed specifically to facilitate dialogue about PSE choices. Students can add SkoolPool™ to their Facebook profile, and indicate which colleges and universities they are considering, in what order, and why. They can instantly see which of their friends are considering the same schools, and will automatically be notified when their friends apply to, or are accepted by, the schools in their pool. A visual dashboard on the AcademicaGroup.com website will display overall trends and real-time data on applicants’ favourite activities, interests, television shows and more.

“For students, SkoolPool™ represents a handy utility to help them consider their options, dialogue with their peers, and announce their decisions,” says Philip Bliss, Chief Operating Officer of Academica Group. “Our dynamic PSE TrendSpotter™ Dashboard will be available on our website shortly, or at www.skoolpool.com, for everyone to see some of the trends driving today’s education market.”

For media information, please contact:

Philip Bliss, Chief Operating Officer
tel. 416.504.7228 ext. 200
phil@academicagroup.com

Ken Steele, Senior Vice-President, Education Marketing
tel. 519.433.8302 ext. 205 1.866.922.8636 ext. 205
ken@academicagroup.com