e Practical Side of Enrollment Research

Tim  Fuller  Vice  President,  Performa  Higher  Educa6on  

July  28,  2011  © Performa Higher Education, LLC 2011 All Rights Reserved. Confidential Material: These materials may not be distributed without the consent of Performa Higher Education, LLC

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Why is enrollment research important?

•  Pushing  past  stereotypes  •  Pu@ng  people  people  in  the  right  places  at  the  right  Ames  

•  Tracking  trends  –  leading  vs.  lagging  indicators  •  Building  confidence  levels  on  campus  •  EvaluaAng  ROI  •  Informing  intuiAon  

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Where does research get bogged down?

•  It  sounds  scary  or  boring  to  start  with!  •  A  lack  of  clarity  about  the  purpose  of  the  research  •  Everything  studied  leads  to  the  need  for  more  studies    

•  Problems  with  methodology  and  sample  sizes  •  Sporadic  research  efforts  •  Lots  of  data  gathered  but  liRle  analysis  completed  

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Building an Admissions Research Agenda

•  What  to  study  o  Travel  –  ROI  o  Yield  rates  along  the  funnel  (major,  gender,  territory,  etc.)  o  Incomplete  app  analysis  o  Deposit  Melt  o  Admi%ed  Student  Research  (ASR)  o  Impact  of  various  types  of  campus  visits  on  yield  o  ApplicaAon  and  deposit  trends  by  month  o  Feeder  high  school  trends  o  The  compe77on    o  Predic7ve  modeling  o  Strategic  financial  aid  analysis  o  NACCAP  benchmarking  /  comparison  data  

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Admitted Student Research

•  What  do  you  need  to  learn?  –  What  was  important  to  them?  –  How  did  they  evaluate  you?  –  Who  influenced  their  decision  on  and  off-­‐campus?  –  CommunicaAon  preferences  –  If  they  visited  campus,  what  impact  did  that  make?  –  Non-­‐matrics  –  where  did  they  go  and  why?  –  Matrics  –  why  did  they  choose  you  and  who  was  their  second  choice?  

•  How  o_en  should  you  do  this?      –  At  least  every  other  year  

•  But  wait  –  we  gather  this  info  throughout  the  cycle  .  .  .  –  On-­‐line  survey  responses  in  the  summer  can  be  very  different  than  what  they  said  in  the  heat  

of  the  moment  –  Hearing  directly  from  them  instead  of  through  staff/student  filters  can  add  value  and  depth  

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Insights from admitted student research

•  PercepAons  of  academic  quality  factors  are  criAcal  – General  reputaAon  –  Can  I  get  a  job/get  into  graduate  school?  – Who  will  be  teaching  me?  – Academic  faciliAes  

•  Campus  visits  change  percepAons  •  When  in  doubt,  communicate  with  Mom  •  Use  a  mix  of  communicaAon  methods  (and  don’t  abandon  old  school)  

•  Matrics  and  non-­‐matrics  overlap  and  differ  

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Understanding Your Competition

Where  and  how  do  you  gather  this  informaAon?  •  SAT/ACT  shared  score  reports  •  FAFSA  data  •  ApplicaAon  data  •  Tele-­‐counseling  summarized  results  •  AdmiRed  student  research  •  NaAonal  Student  Clearinghouse  What  do  you  do  with  this  informaAon?  •  CriAcal  to  get  beyond  anecdotal  data  collecAon  •  Even  more  criAcal  to  use  this  informaAon  to:  

–  Train  staff  –  Inform  faculty  and  others  –  Consider  different  levels  of  compeAAon  –  do  you  compete  with  these  same  schools  for  faculty,  

donors,  media  aRenAon,  athleAc  triumphs  .  .  .?

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Benchmarking Key Enrollment Variables

Great  Lakes  Region  –  NACCAP  2010  ABS  • The  average  admission  team  includes:  

– An  FTE  of  11  professional  and  4.6  support  staff  members  

– A  recruiAng  FTE  of  7.2  professionals  – An  average  of  nearly  200  hours/week  of  student  help  

• The  average  cost  to  recruit  a  student  is  $2,373  • On  average  each  recruitment  FTE  produced  55  new  students    

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Benchmarking Implications for Your Campus

•  As  St.  Francis  said:  “if  we  compare  ourselves  with  others  we  either  become  vain  or  biRer.”  

•  The  data  only  tells  part  of  the  story  –  insAtuAonal  differences  are  a  factor  

•  Benchmarking  data  can  provide  a  road  map  to  strategic  decisions  about  resources,  staffing,  funnel  opportuniAes  

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Summary

•  Build  your  research  agenda  •  Gather  the  data  •  Analyze  it  •  Share  it  •  Make  changes  as  indicated  •  Repeat!