This year’s National Small College Enrollment Conference was held in Louisville, KY. A historically rich city which is home to some BIG cultural icons- Kentucky Fried Chicken, Louisville Slugger, UPS’ worldwide air hub, and the Kentucky Derby. For 143 years, Churchill Downs has attracted equestrians from across the globe for the legendary Run for the…
What’s next? At this point in the year, we know most schools have the full court press on for finishing out the 2018 enrollment cycle. Enrollment and admissions teams are also thinking about the year ahead – how to be more effective and how to innovate. It’s a perfect time to spur some new ideas,…
I’ve just returned from SACAC – a few days in the Miami sun among partner schools and colleagues. As I thought about the conference and all of its conversations, my reflections tended to run along a theme. Admissions and enrollment in 2016 is, in no way, “business as usual.” We all know that one of…
If you’re a baker or have ever made buttercream icing, you know the moment the mixture of egg whites and sugar transforms from viscous egg and grainy sugar into a fluffy whip of heavenly meringue. You can recognize it even without seeing it, as the steady whirr of the mixer changes, in one quick moment,…
I remember sitting in front of the blank Excel spreadsheet, provided by our CFO, with emotions ranging from a soaring sense of anything is possible to something that could be more closely described as that poignant scene from Oliver Twist, “please sir, can I have some more?” Budgeting in higher ed can feel like an…
This post is going to continue deconstructing Student Search myths. Last week started with the myth of buying more names, and now, we’re turning our myth-busting efforts to the promise of CRM in Enrollment Management. The appeal of these three letters can be so captivating. Most of you know of someone who has been disappointed…
Student Search season is about to begin (again). Admissions and enrollment offices have closed the binders on their summer retreats and annual planning sessions and codified the year’s goals for the division. I’m going to guess that no one’s goals include “reducing the quantity of names purchased.” I’m also betting no one’s sheet of divisional…
It’s conference season. Over the past couple of months, we’ve held three Ideastorms (two private, one public) and presented at an Academic Impressions conference all about Communication Flow Planning. And now we are gearing up for our “Best Ideas” presentation at ACT’s Enrollment Planners Conference, our September Ideastorm at Marian University, and NACAC. It’s a…
I’d like your help in championing a grassroots effort to start a word of mouth campaign to change the name of what we currently call Student Search in enrollment management. Progressive, forward thinking leaders are leaving behind the inefficiencies of traditional Student Searching and calling their student recruitment campaigns Student Find campaigns. Recently, I’ve rallied…
Response rates produced by Student Search campaigns are, in many ways, meaningless. What? Keep reading before you decide that I’ve totally lost it. Here’s where I’m coming from: It is better to receive a response rate your admissions staff can handle than to get a response rate that overwhelms your team’s time and resources. You…