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 SEM America |
| Strategic Enrollment Management WORKS |
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| SEM WORKS AMERICA E-NEWSLETTER, Volume 4, 2008 |
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INTRODUCTION
As you may expect, the December edition of SEM America highlights the recent economic downturn and its positive effects on enrollment and its negative effects on student aid. In addition, technology is changing the game of marketing and recruiting and is proving more cost effective. SEM America is a testimony to non-traditional marketing, and it is just one example of how colleges and universities can appeal to students and to those who work in the field.
Accompanying some traditional written articles and reports, you will find e-links that offer some strategies for effective online recruitment and some high-tech ways of presenting text-based materials. You will also discover some fun-to-view audio/visual clips that offer some practical enrollment suggestions and cautions.
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RECRUITMENT
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- Kettering University Scores an "A" For Creativity in Online Recruitment: Have you watched Kettering University's stickman-episodes? If not, you may be in the minority. Kettering U's decision to design a creative, funny, and informative cartoon for recruiting purposes was, at best a gamble... and at worst a potential PR nightmare. But since its original release, the School Daze link has been viewed by thousands of people and appears to be a hit with the current generation. If you are seeking new online strategies to recruit students and can appreciate the value of humor in advertising, check out this video.
- The Perfect Technological Marriage: Effective recruitment is both an art and a science, and one of your most important decisions may be about how and when to use technology versus printed-based materials when communicating with prospective students. Lawrence University has found a way to marry the tradition of page-turning printed materials with the technological click of a mouse in this very fun-to-view view-book. If you are into innovation and looking for some unique ideas for your website, click here. It may take a few minutes to download, but trust me... its ingenuity makes it worth the wait.
- Getting Applicants to Complete the FAFSA: Step number one for students who are in pursuit of financial aid is the completion of the dreaded FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). For many students this application represents an ominous and frustrating task that, all by itself, can slow down or halt the entire "I need $" process. This free and fun video offers two advantages to your college: (1) it is a free fastweb.com video that can be easily linked to your institution's website and (2) it offers your students a fun tool for understanding how to fill out the FAFSA. Hopefully that humor will hook them...but it is the content that will help them. Click here to view.
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ADMISSIONS
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- The SAT Debate Continues...You be the Judge: Smith College in Massachusetts has taken the leap and eliminated SATs from the admissions process. According to the college's student paper, the Sophian (click here for the story), a long and intense process at the college finally resulted in the elimination of the SATs based on their tendency to "correlate very highly with socioeconomic status, race and geographical area, with rural areas at a disadvantage." For faculty at Smith College the vote to drop SATs was unanimous. However, not everyone agrees with Smith College. In particular, the Philadelphia Inquirer cites here that "The SAT, the holy grail of college aptitude, is one of higher education's most perplexing paradoxes." The paper goes on to say that, despite a growing resistance to SATs, there are still large colleges who admit to its value when having to sift through thousands of applications. Also, with grading and curriculum rigor varying across high schools, some feel it is the only "reliable standard of college aptitude."
- Enrollment Opportunity for Community Colleges: It's no secret that community colleges offer an "easy-on-the-pocket" alternative to those wanting to continue their education. But in this tough economy it seems that two year schools are gaining in popularity as many students decide to attend a local community college in lieu of a more distant, expensive and possibly prestigious university. And of course, along with the savings inherent in lower community college rates, many students are discovering some of the more hands-on, high-demand careers available to them that can increase their opportunity for professional employment post-graduation. Listen to this audio news-clip.
- Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Planning — Looking Inward, Outward, and Onward: Many colleges engage in enrollment planning "out of necessity for a plan rather than as an insightful management tool." However, according to Dr. Jim Black, enrollment plans become strategic when they are adopted by senior administrators as a legitimate college-wide process; when they are designed to serve the college's overall strategic plan; when they include an honest look at internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and challenges; and when the process by which this is accomplished includes participation from all corners of the institution. In his paper entitled "The Art and Science of Enrollment Planning," Dr. Black describes how to conduct strategic enrollment management planning that is both dynamic and data-driven. Read the PDF.
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RETENTION
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- Is Graduation the Only Way to Measure Retention? For years community colleges have struggled under a strict federal definition of retention described as "graduation from a program within 150% of the normal time to completion." This can be a tall order to fill for high school seniors whose only purpose in attending community college is as a stepping stone to transfer to a four year university; or non-traditional students who often attend part-time while juggling family, work, and rising tuition costs. This "Achieving the Dream Policy Brief" offers a look at the activities and accomplishments of a six-state Work Group who are attempting to design and test-drive a new method for measuring community college performance. Read the PDF.
- Student Debt Hurts Retention — It's no secret how rising tuition costs and debt can negatively impact student retention. Whereas high tuition costs might prevent a student from being recruited in the first place, a climbing debt-load can have an equal effect on a student's ability to be retained past the first few semesters....especially for first-generation, low-income, non-traditional students who seem to be loan-averse. Locate the average debt-load in your state. The fuller report outlines student debt for the class of 2007, and includes debt by state, debt by college, low debt colleges, as well as some to improve student debt data.
- "They Don't Expect Enough of Me": According to a recently released CSSSE report, community colleges are not quite making the grade when it comes to classroom engagement and retention of their students. The CCSSE Survey Director cites that "...one of the more poignant things we hear, and we hear it relatively often, is: 'They don't expect enough of me.'" She goes on to say that while there are colleges doing a great job, higher expectations need to become more of the norm across all community colleges. Check out benchmarks of participating schools, and read more about the report.
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SPECIAL TOPICS
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- Wall Street Tremors Felt in Higher Education: Insurance portfolios aren't the only investments that felt the earthquake-like effects of the recent Wall Street "fall-down-go-boom." Plenty of colleges (especially private universities who lean heavily on the interest from monetary gifts) are feeling the pinch as the cash flow slows to crawl. Investment jargon aside - the rubber hits the road where student funding is concerned. Universities such as Brown and Cornell have imposed hiring freezes in order to conserve money in an effort to minimize the negative effect on student aid. Watch the news-clip.
- Millenial Myth-Busters: Hesel & May take exception to Howe & Strauss' claims in their book "Millenials Rising" that the students they studied accurately represent the entire millennial generation. The authors of this article have one main concern and one important caution. Their concern is with the methodology used in pursuit of the data used. Their caution to campus leaders is to "...be suspicious of sweeping generalizations that purport to describe...an entire generation" when making decisions about where to allocate valuable marketing dollars. Read their commentary on the claims of Howe & Strauss.
- Control is an Illusion: The internet has become a modern-day version of "Maria" in The Sound of Music. The phrase "How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?" applies equally to both. And Appalachian State University learned this lesson the hard way. When an in-house video was surreptitiously posted on Youtube.com, the result was a host of comments by the public suggesting they disapproved of the link as a recruitment tool. The problem is, according to Appalachian State, it was never intended as a recruitment tool. And to add insult to injury, someone created a spoof of this video profiling Utah Valley State College. The lesson? The internet and free public sites such as Youtube.com can take the power to carefully craft its own image out of the hands of the institution, and allow the public to vote with their keyboards. View the article and the ASU and UVSC videos.
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Return to Top
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This e-newsletter was edited by Maggie Killoran for SEM WORKS, based on publicly-available information. Neither the editor nor SEM WORKS assume liability for comments or information posted by others. Please send your comments to Kara Mohre, Director of Marketing at kmohre@semworks.net
407 Pebble Ridge Court - Greensboro, North Carolina 27455 - USA
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