Practical Strategies for Practical Strategies for Enrollment ManagementEnrollment Management

Cheryl Brown, Director of Admissions

Peter J. Partell, Director of Institutional Research

Binghamton University

State University of New York

June 2001

Today’s ActivitiesToday’s Activities

IntroductionWhy get involved?Old and new modelsDefinitionsTools (Practical Stuff)

IntroductionsIntroductions

Name and Institutional AffiliationWhat are your primary tasks related to

enrollment management?Why are you interested in EM?

Why Institutional Researchers Why Institutional Researchers Should Care About Enrollment Should Care About Enrollment

ManagementManagement

– A way to contribute to one of your college’s or university’s primary strategic goals.

– It allows you another avenue to be involved in influencing policy and decision making on campus.

– It is interesting and fun (read “stressful and anxiety-producing”).

Traditional ModelTraditional Model - The Islands- The Islands

Independent Offices sometimes working on common goals, sometimes not.

AdmissionsFinancial AidStudent ServicesInstitutional ResearchFaculty/Deans, etc.

Traditional ModelTraditional Model Examples of working on conflicting goals: 1. Admissions wants to bring in the right number

of new students. They may not be doing this with an eye towards student retention.

2. Financial aid interested in access and making sure new students have “need” met. This may conflict with Admissions if they have goals pertaining to quality and quantity.

Traditional Model-Traditional Model-More ExamplesMore Examples

3. Orientation office interested in registering students for courses and not concerned with summer melt (securing fall enrollments).

Institutional Research can provide the analytic focus that gets all of these offices working toward common goals. Why?

Institutional Research Already Institutional Research Already doesdoes…… (or could do)(or could do)

Research to support marketing

admissions analyses financial analysis (tuition

discounting, revenue/enrollment projections)

alumni satisfaction surveys

Outcomes assessment cohort analyses

(retention/graduation) student opinions/attitudes

surveys evaluating program

effectiveness

These are all related to enrollment management

The Continent of Enrollment The Continent of Enrollment ManagementManagement

A holistic view for the institution.

Definitions of Enrollment Definitions of Enrollment ManagementManagement

“Enrollment management is an organizational concept and a systematic set of activities designed to enable educational institutions to exert more influence over their student enrollments. Organized by strategic planning and supported by institutional research, enrollment management activities concern student college choice, transition to college, student attrition and retention, and student outcomes.” --Don Hossler

Definitions of Enrollment Definitions of Enrollment ManagementManagement

“Enrollment management is the coordinated effort of a college or university to influence the size and characteristics of the institution’s student body... enrollment is “managed” through a variety of strategies including admissions, pricing, financial aid, and advising. Well designed and well executed institutional research is the key to successful enrollment management.”--Craig Clagett

Goals of Enrollment Goals of Enrollment Management Management (from Dixon 1995)(from Dixon 1995)

“Define the institution’s nature and characteristics, using both objective and subjective techniques”

“Incorporate into marketing plans and activities all relevant campus sectors, making sure that all parties recognize that institutional goals are being served”

Rebecca Dixon: GoalsRebecca Dixon: Goals

“Make strategic decisions about the role and amount of financial aid needed to attract and retain the right students, making certain that this expense serves the institution’s goals”

“Make the appropriate commitment of human, monetary, and technological resources”

Who does EM in the new world?Who does EM in the new world? Admissions Financial Aid Student Services Institutional Research Faculty/Deans, etc. Career Development Groundskeepers Campus Police

Housing Orientation Athletics University Relations Registrar Alumni Relations Cafeteria Workers and so on and so on...

Let’s skip to the practical part...Let’s skip to the practical part...

How do you “do” Enrollment How do you “do” Enrollment Management?Management?

Chances are, you are already doing some of it, remember these?– Research to support

marketing– admissions analyses– financial analysis (tuition

discounting, revenue/enrollment projections)

– alumni satisfaction surveys

– Outcomes assessment– cohort analyses

(retention/graduation)– student opinions/attitudes

surveys– evaluating program

effectiveness

How do you “do” Enrollment How do you “do” Enrollment Management?Management?

The key is to use the data that you currently have at your disposal and look at it in different ways.

Analyses need to be guided by your institution’s strategic plan so that all the offices involved work towards the same goals.

Identify the Strategic Goals of Identify the Strategic Goals of Your InstitutionYour Institution

Increase enrollment revenue? Improve quality? Change demographics? (diversity – geographic

and race ethnic, talent, programs, schools, non-traditional, traditional, e-learners, freshmen, transfer, graduate, etc.)

Goals have to be aligned with the reality of your campus - can your institution support the students it is trying to attract?

How do you “do” Enrollment How do you “do” Enrollment Management?Management?

Example: Ux’s strategic goals include increasing enrollment while maintaining quality and selectivity. What sorts of indicators are going to be important to their enrollment management activities?

Yield Rates

Understanding yield in the context of quality

Where can we find more high quality students?

Understanding retention -- recruiting efforts wasted if we do not retain the new students we enroll.

The Enrollment FunnelThe Enrollment Funnel

Feed your funnel--Identifymarkets with potential students

IR’s Role in Enrollment IR’s Role in Enrollment ManagementManagement

Spearhead analysis, reporting, and data collection that is about how to move prospective students (and then students) through the various stages of the enrollment funnel.

You can help tie the campus You can help tie the campus togethertogether

Some Tools:– EPS - Enrollment Planning

Service– CIRP - Cooperative

Institutional Research Program

– Alumni Surveys (e.g., AOS)– Student Opinion Surveys

(e.g.., SOS)– College Board -- Admitted

Student Questionnaire, Admitted Class Evaluation Service

– National Student Clearinghouse

– Surveys (e.g., US News, Kiplingers, Wired) and articles -- What are they saying about your institution?

– Campus data files– Others that we have

missed?

Building Your Inquiry Pool: Building Your Inquiry Pool: Feeding Your FunnelFeeding Your Funnel

You can’t enroll without adequate inquiries. As there is pressure to grow, the inquiry pool must be large enough to sustain the growth. This is true by market segment.

Example -- Our goal for Engineering School was set too high because we asked only half the questions - can you teach more students? Should also have looked at the funnel.

Build Inquiries based on the segments you would like to enroll and their fit with your institution - what do you know about who succeeds? (grades, retention, etc.)

Feeding Your Funnel Feeding Your Funnel ((continuedcontinued))

Identifying Target Markets– Result will assist in deciding which names to buy, places to

travel, ads to place -- using resources most effectively. – Analyses aimed at shaping your inquiry pool to ultimately

enroll the students that meet your strategic goals. – Sources to tap:

High school market research (identify target schools that graduate the types of students you want)

Population projections (e.g., high school grads by state) Local data bases (identify feeder high schools or community

colleges) Prospects/Name buys (e.g., ETS, Phi Theta Kappa, etc.) . U.S. Census

High School Market ResearchHigh School Market Research

For example, EPS allows you to locate areas of the country where there are pockets of students, based on the factors you choose, e.g., SAT, high school GPA, income, location, migration patterns

Factoid: Nationally 59% of freshmen are from within 100 mile radius of the campus they attend - is this true on your campus? Do you know?

100 Miles

200 Miles

300 Mile

s

BU

NJ

RI

MA

CT

MDDE

VA

NY

VT

NH

OH

PABridgeport

Newark

WorcesterBoston

Providence

Washington

Baltimore

Philadelphia

Akron

Cleveland

Pittsburgh

SyracuseRochester

Buffalo

Selected Cities Within a 300-Mile Radius of Binghamton University

Legend

NJ-10 Bergen Co.

PA-12 Allegheny Co.

PA-4 Montgomery Co.

PA-10 Southern PA (East)

OH-6 Northeast Ohio

MD-2 Montgomery Metro

CT-5 Hartford&Tolland Co.

NJ-6 Somerset & Mercer Co.

0 50

miles

100

New York

Maryland

New Jersey

Massachusetts

Ohio

Virginia

Pennsylvania

Connecticut Rhode Island

Delaware

Locations of Targeted High Schools

(Based on # of Students w/1200+ SAT, Considering Out-of-State Colleges, etc.)

(Note: High School Locatios are Based on the "Centroid" of the ZIP Code in which the School Resides

Segmenting Targeted MarketsSegmenting Targeted Markets

Buy names from the markets you identified based on how you choose to segment them (again, strategic goals)

Examples may include - gender, geography, income, schools/programs, race/ethnic and socio-economic diversity, SAT/ACT Scores, GPA

Personalized mass communication

Mining Local DatabasesMining Local Databases Now that you know your target markets - can your

alumni help (cover recruitment programs, meet with students, etc.)? Mine your alumni database - where do they live?

Feeder schools– Understanding which schools give you the highest

numbers of students and which could give you more - analyze through the lens of the funnel

– Shape the message to each high school (CIRP ASQ)

Turning Inquiries Into Turning Inquiries Into Applicants: Qualifying Your Applicants: Qualifying Your

Inquiry PoolInquiry PoolAre you collecting inquiry data? Are you collecting appropriate/useful inquiry data?

How interested is the student? How often and in what form have they inquired? Inquiry Source - self-initiated v. school initiated - Would you

expect there to be a difference? Early indicators of the quality of the student - self report gpa,

psat score, etc. What are your yield rates based on inquiry type?

– May want to use multivariate analysis, such as logistic regression (are there interactive effects?)

What’s the dependent variable?

Students falling in this area will not enroll unless the institution does something to influence their decision.

Least likely to enroll at your school no matter what you do.

A

Most likely to enroll at your school no matter what you do.

Influence

C

B

Distribution of student interestDistribution of student interest

Turning Inquiries into Applicants - MarketingTurning Inquiries into Applicants - Marketing

Understanding why students apply. What they respond to (Academic Programs, Financial Aid and Scholarships, etc.) Who does not apply and why?

Who are your competitors?– Again, may vary by your target groups!!!

How do students learn about colleges? Data on success, strengths, e.g., grad rates, placement

rates, surveys, rankings, USP,etc. Understanding who will persist or succeed. Which inquiries are the most promising? Arm your admissions recruiters to the teeth.

Competitors Competitors Sample of data from Enrollment Search Sample of data from Enrollment Search

(National Student Clearinghouse)(National Student Clearinghouse)Institution frequency PercentBrandeis University 10 0.7Cornell University-Arts 17 1.2Cornell University-Agr/unclassified 21 1.5Cornell University-Eng./Arch/IRL/ 27 2Long Island U.-CW Post 30 2.1New York University 43 3.1Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 18 1.3

Remember: Your competitors are likely to be different for different types of students

Turning Applicants into Admitted Turning Applicants into Admitted StudentsStudents

Who should be offered admission to shape your class (strategic goals of size, quality, diversity, etc. ) -- projection, projections, projections.

Example: Always tuned to the quality of our freshmen, yet our forecasting of yield did not involve quality at all -- only school of application -- our actions were not in synch with one of our strategic goals.

Admissions IndexAdmissions IndexCollege qualification -- often based on

combination of – high school performance (GPA, Rank, etc)– test scores (SAT, ACT, TOEFL)– rigor of high school coursework (AP?)– applicant’s interest in attending? (see Wall St.

Journal 5/29/2001).

Why Use an Admissions Index? Why Use an Admissions Index? ““to influence the size and characteristics of the institution’s to influence the size and characteristics of the institution’s

student bodystudent body” - Claggett” - Claggett

It ties your strategic goals to you admissions decisions because what you put in it, should be what matters to your institution.

Aids in more consistent admission decisions across counselors.

Gives you a more accurate yield analyses/class projection. Allows for the control and tracking of the students you want. If you are making competitive offers, you have to analyze the

supply and demand.

Turning Offers into Enrolled Students: Turning Offers into Enrolled Students: Analyses to Assist with YieldAnalyses to Assist with Yield

What do we mean by “yield?” -- deposits versus enrollment - which should you use?

General rule: the more refined your look at the yield data, the better able you are to directly impact your strategic goals [Go to spreadsheet example]

Be careful that analysis not too refined so as numbers are too small to be meaningful.

Enroll (yield)Enroll (yield)Turning offers into enrolled students.

– Financial Aid Who you can and can’t impact How much money it takes to affect a student’s

decision.

– Monitoring deposits: melt rates

Financial Aid and YieldFinancial Aid and YieldHigh Q Low Q

#enrolled

#notenrolled

% needmet

% needmet

High Need

Avg $ Avg $Low Need

Enroll (yield)Enroll (yield)

– Deposit Analysis - monitor deposit rates to determine whether you’re on track to yield the class (Summers are hot, who’s melting?)

One last point on yieldOne last point on yield

– Segmented Marketing Messages Unique Selling points Data made sexy - IR as PR

– defining your image

– defining your message

– using data to reinforce your image

Analyzing and Supporting Analyzing and Supporting Retention Retention

Identify who left and why - use data! Do not rely on “conventional wisdom”– Example - IUT denials leave - internal pressure was based

on conventional wisdom - data didn’t support

Analysis may incorporate:– National Student Clearinghouse– Surveys (homegrown, CIRP, SOS - verify reliability - Recent SOS

Results)– Exit Interviews/Focus Groups– Look at impact of financial aid– Look for courses - “Killer Courses”

Analyzing and Supporting Analyzing and Supporting Retention Retention

Identify who stays and why - analyze your satisfaction ratings, your alumni surveys.

Benchmark your results against peer normsProvide the right people with the data to

help them build on institutional strengths (read ‘satisfaction’) and take steps to address institutional weaknesses.

Conclusion Conclusion

Enrollment Management is at the heart of success for every type of institution

Analysis of data provides the keys to successful enrollment management

Who has the potential to impact data collection, analysis, and dissemination to the people who make decisions: Institutional Researchers

Conclusion Conclusion Become the campus expert on the available toolsAnalyze data with an eye towards marketing and PR

and the enrollment funnelWork to develop and support a campus culture of

shared information and shared goal settingBe recognized as THE resource for enrollment

management expertise Insist that IR is at the table when key decisions are

made.

Conclusion Conclusion

•Knowledge is Power!

Thank you!Thank you!

Contact us:

Cheryl Brown

Director of Admissions

cbrown@binghamton.edu

Peter J. Partell

Director of Institutional Research

partell@binghamton.edu

Binghamton University

State University of New York

June 2001

ResourcesResourcesCIRP Freshman Survey – Offered by HERI CIRP – Cooperative Institutional Research Program Higher Education Research Institute (HERI)Graduate School of Education & Information StudiesUniversity of California, Los Angeles3005 Moore Hall, Box 951521 Phone: (310) 825-1925 Fax: (310) 206-2228 E-Mail: HERI@ucla.edu Website: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alumni Outcomes Survey & Student Opinion Survey – Both offered by ACT ACT - American College Testing  American College Testing2201 North Dodge StreetP.O. Box 168 Iowa City, Iowa 52243-0168 Phone: (319) 337-1000 Website: www.act.org 

ResourcesResources

The Enrollment Planning Service (EPS) and Admitted Student Questionnaire (ASQ) are offered by the College Board  

Middle States Regional Office3440 Market St.Suite 410Philadelphia, Pa 19104-3338Phone: 215-387-7600Fax: 215-387-5805www.collegeboard.org The contact information for ETS is: Corporate Headquarters

Educational Testing ServiceRosedale RoadPrinceton, NJ 08541 USA(609) 921-9000FAX: 609-734-5410E-mail:mo:etsinfo@ets.org

www.ets.org  

ResourcesResources

 

National Student Clearinghouse:

National Student Clearinghouse2191 Fox Mill Road, Suite 300Herndon, VA 20171-3019

Phone: (703) 742-7791

Fax: (703) 742-7792

Email: service@studentclearinghouse.org

http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/