Scannell & Kurz Enrollment Management Blog

Although you are at the very beginning of a new school year, we suspect many of you are already thinking about retention. Hopefully this checklist of best retention practices will provide some food for thought and discussion on your campus as you now work to keep those students you labored so hard to enroll. Implement EARLY warning systems – and by early we mean in the first two weeks of the term—that identify students not attending class; doing poorly on initial graded work; exhibiting behavioral problems in the dorms; not meeting their financial obligations. Remember the system needs to not only identify at risk students, but also include a follow-up plan to be implemented for each student identified. And, by all means, if you have…Read more

Although our blogs clearly show that we are biased in favor of data, we also know how critical stories are to marketing, recruiting, retention, and alumni relations. Yet most institutions aren’t very deliberate about capturing and sharing fresh stories. As you prepare for summer training for recruiters and orientation leaders, here are some strategies we have seen work for collecting compelling anecdotes: Run a contest. Saint Bonaventure recently asked incoming students to submit a short video about why they chose SBU. Not only was it a way to keep new students engaged, but now they have posted the top contenders on YouTube. You could do the same thing with current students, with faculty, with alumni, etc. Stay in touch with current students…Read more

Higher education institutions love to benchmark with other institutions on a variety of factors such as faculty salaries, endowment per student, research dollars garnered, tuition charges, etc. But often institutions don’t conduct the type of benchmarking that we think is most important. Here is our top list of enrollment management benchmarking “dos” and one “don’t”: When attempting to gain an understanding of your market position through benchmarking, DO benchmark with competitors, rather than peers or aspirants. DON’T just compare yourself to competitors on sticker price—compare discount rates; “prestige measures” like test scores, U.S. News rank, and accept rates; and measures of socio-economic and ethnic diversity,…Read more

While I certainly don’t agree with everything President Obama recently proposed related to higher education financial aid programs, the idea of increasing funding for federal work study can be a win–win–win for students, their universities, and their future employers. Some believe that doubling work study would simply subsidize universities, not really provide additional funding for students. I disagree. Many of our clients would like to open more on-campus jobs for their students, but lack the funding to do so. And working on campus provides benefits that go well beyond simply putting money in students’ pockets. It provides students with a resume building experience, in some cases related to their future careers. We know from freshman…Read more

Retention is one of the hardest “needles” to move. Yet colleges and universities often set retention targets based on hopes and aspirations rather than a realistic assessment of what is likely to be possible based on both the institution’s history and external benchmarking. One tool that can be very helpful in setting realistic retention goals is The Education Trust’s College Results Online Advanced Search site, which can be found at www.collegeresults.org. Using this tool, you can identify other institutions that resemble yours in terms of some key factors that often influence retention such as institutional size and type; median SATs and selectivity; percent receiving Pell Grants; percent enrolled part-time; etc. As can be seen in…Read more