1. Practical Strategies for Enrollment Management Cheryl Brown, Director of Admissions Peter J. Partell, Director of Institutional Research Binghamton University State University of New York June 2001

2. Why Institutional Researchers Should Care About Enrollment Management – 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”).

3. Definitions of Enrollment Management “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

4. Definitions of Enrollment Management “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

5. How do you “do” Enrollment 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.

6. Identify the Strategic Goals of Your Institution Increase campus revenue? Improve (maintain) quality/selectivity? 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?

7. The Enrollment Funnel Feed your funnel-- Identify markets with potential students

8. IR’s Role in Enrollment Management 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.

9. 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

10. Building Your Inquiry Pool: Feeding 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.)

11. Feeding Your Funnel ( continued ) Identifying Target Markets – Analyses aimed at shaping your inquiry pool to ultimately enroll the students that meet your strategic goals. – Result will assist in deciding which names to buy, places to travel, ads to place -- using resources most effectively. – 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/county) Local data bases (identify feeder high schools or community colleges) Prospects/Name buys (e.g., ETS, Phi Theta Kappa, etc.). U.S. Census

13. Locations of Targeted High Schools

18. Segmenting 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

19. Mining Local Databases 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)

20. Turning Inquiries Into Applicants: Qualifying Your Inquiry Pool Are 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? What are your yield rates based on inquiry type?

21. 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 interest

22. Turning 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? 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. Arm your admissions recruiters to the teeth.

23. Turning Applicants into Admitted Students 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.

24. Admissions Index College 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).

25. Why Use an Admissions Index? “ to influence the size and characteristics of the institution’s student body ” - Claggett It ties your strategic goals to your admissions decisions because what the index should be built based on 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.

26. Turning Offers into Enrolled Students: Analyses 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. Who are your competitors? – Again, may vary by your target groups!!!

27. Competitors Sample of data from Enrollment Search (National Student Clearinghouse) Remember: Your competitors are likely to be different for different types of students

28. 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

29. Financial Aid and Yield

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

31. One last point on yield – Segmented Marketing Messages Unique Selling points IR as PR –defining your image –defining your message –using data to reinforce your image

32. Analyzing and Supporting 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”

33. Analyzing and Supporting Retention Identify who stays and why - analyze your satisfaction ratings, your alumni surveys. Benchmark your results against peer norms Provide the right people with the data to help them build on institutional strengths (read ‘satisfaction’) and take steps to address institutional weaknesses.

34. 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

35. Conclusion Become the campus expert on the available tools Analyze data with an eye towards marketing and PR and the enrollment funnel Work to develop and support a campus culture of shared information and shared goal setting Be recognized as THE resource for enrollment management expertise Insist that IR is at the table when key decisions are made.

36. 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

37. Resources CIRP Freshman Survey – Offered by HERI CIRP – Cooperative Institutional Research Program Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) Graduate School of Education & Information Studies University of California, Los Angeles 3005 Moore Hall, Box 951521 Phone: (310) 825-1925 Fax: (310) 206-2228 E-Mail: HERI@ucla.eduHERI@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 Testing 2201 North Dodge Street P.O. Box 168 Iowa City, Iowa 52243-0168 Phone: (319) 337-1000 Website: www.act.org

38. Resources T he Enrollment Planning Service (EPS) and Admitted Student Questionnaire (ASQ) are offered by the College Board Middle States Regional Office 3440 Market St. Suite 410 Philadelphia, Pa 19104-3338 Phone: 215-387-7600 Fax: 215-387-5805 www.collegeboard.org The contact information for ETS is: Corporate Headquarters Educational Testing Service Rosedale Road Princeton, NJ 08541 USA (609) 921-9000 FAX: 609-734-5410 E-mail:mo:etsinfo@ets.org www.ets.org

39. Resources National Student Clearinghouse: National Student Clearinghouse 2191 Fox Mill Road, Suite 300 Herndon, VA 20171-3019 Phone: (703) 742-7791 Fax: (703) 742-7792 Email: service@studentclearinghouse.org http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/