Sneak Peek at Article

Here's an article that's going to be in the member newsletter for member colleges in April. I've blogged about this in the past but here's the "official" article going to colleges:

The Changing Admissions Funnel

There is no doubt that the ever increasing usage of the internet by high school students is changing the way that admissions personnel are able to predict the enrollment numbers for each semester. With college websites getting more and more informative and students becoming savvier about finding information, response rates to conventional methods of recruiting are quickly declining due to many students choosing not to identify themselves until very late in the decision making process. For many of the 2009 Noel Levitz surveys and white papers the focus has been on helping colleges rethink their admissions funnel from inquiry to enrollee to more accurately predict student numbers going into each college session.

Much of this change is a side effect of a good website. Having a website that allows students to not only learn about entrance requirements but also student life and make a connection to the school before ever telling the school s/he is interested can be good and bad for the admissions department. On one hand the school is unaware of the student and cannot reach out to him/her, but on the other hand the student is already making the connection via blogs, videos and other media on the website as well as ultimately reducing the workload in the admissions office. The NRCCUA president, Don Munce said of this change: “Student search must shift from being a feedback mechanism to a brand awareness initiative that uses a multi-year, multi-pronged approach— rather than a single search campaign—to identify and communicate with students in target markets.” (2009) According to the latest Noel Levitz Survey (2009) students are less likely to send in a feedback inquiry based on the information they find on the web, and there has been a 10% increase in the past year to an average 57% of students who do not identify themselves before starting the enrollment process. (Noel Levitz, 2009)

Another effect of the web is the online application. The ease of which this can be filled out and submitted is changing the nature of how they are processed at the college end. Results are beginning to show that the web applicant is a less committed applicant, but this is offset by a larger number of web applicants. Another 18% of the students who begin a web application do not return to the website to finish it. (Noel Levitz, 2009) In this new application funnel Noel Levitz has found a slightly different set of numbers compared to the traditional admissions funnel using conventional recruiting practices. The new average benchmarks for each step in the admissions process they found were: 23% went from inquiry to application, of those applications 68.5% were admitted, and of those admitted 34.5% enrolled in classes. (2009) Looking at this a different way it could be said that in a pool of 100 web based inquiries, 23 applied, 15.75 were admitted and 5.4 actually started classes. (Incidentally, this is close to what many colleges with Anycollege.com are reporting from Information Request results. A school receiving between 90-120 Information Requests in a year can get around 5-6 enrollments from that lead source alone. Depending on the institution of course, this can be more or less- we would love to hear your results!)

In conclusion, much of the conversation in 2009 not only through Noel Levitz but also on blogs and Twitter for higher education admissions and marketing has been on trying to figure out how to accurately predict how many students will actually shake out of the online inquiries or applications. Many of the highly active higher-ed bloggers agree with Noel Levitz in recommending that online inquiries and applicants be subjected into a different funnel than the students who have been conventionally recruited. This seems to make sense, as the students has a completely different sense of the college when they finally choose to make their presence known to the school, and will be an interesting field to watch as colleges adapt to this type of prospective student!


Sources:

Noel Levitz. Retooling the Enrollment Funnel. (2009) Retrieved on March 30th from: https://www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Papers+and+Reports/Campuswide+Issues.htm

Noel Levitz. Fall 2008 Funnel Benchmarks. (2009) Retrieved on March 31st from https://www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Papers+and+Reports/ResearchLibrary/Fall+2008+Admissions+Funnel+Benchmarks.htm

Ruben, Rachel. Blog. (2009) Retrieved on March 31st from: https://www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Papers+and+Reports/Campuswide+Issues.htm