This study provides an understanding of how administrative leaders make decisions regarding enrollment management within academic units at a major research university in the southwestern United States. Key enrollment management functions of recruiting, admissions, marketing, orientation, financial aid/scholarships, academic advising, student…

Recruitment is an expensive business: In 2010-2011, the median cost to recruit an undergraduate was $2,185 among private colleges and universities, according to Noel-Levitz, an enrollment management consultancy. In these tough fiscal times, admissions departments are under pressure to keep those costs down even as they pursue higher enrollment and…

Though a large percentage of U.S. students enter higher education with mathematics deficiencies, many institutions allow these students to decide the timing of their enrollment in developmental mathematics courses. This study of 3476 first-time-in-college students entailed the review of student outcomes (Fall GPA, Fall-to-Spring retention,…

In recent years, the option of enrolling in honors programs and colleges at major public universities has increasingly become an alternative to elite private and public institutions for some of the brightest and most academically-talented high school graduates. To attract these high-achieving students, universities may offer applicants incentives…

Homelessness is a devastating circumstance for any child or youth, but for youth on their own, the stresses of homelessness are multiplied. The myriad of challenges faced by youth experiencing homelessness on their own puts these students at risk of dropping out or school failure. Subtitle VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act…

Correlational evidence suggests that high school GPA is better than admission test scores in predicting first-year college GPA, although test scores have incremental predictive validity. The usefulness of a selection variable in making admission decisions depends in part on its predictive validity, but also on institutions' selectivity and…

Canada's province of Ontario introduced a new policy in 2000 allowing community colleges to offer a new type of undergraduate degree. This decision was a significant policy change for the government considering the nature of Ontario's binary system, where a rigid separation has historically prevailed between the university and college sectors.…

For nearly 20 years, the Public School Forum of North Carolina has been publishing its annual forecast of the ten issues most likely to impact K-12 schools across the state. They offer an overview of the issues and a set of principles they hope will guide consideration of the issue by all federal, state, and local leaders who understand that…

Bob Uecker, the Milwaukee Brewers' quipping radio broadcaster, makes his brief and lackluster career as a major league catcher the subject of much of his humor. About catching the knuckleball, Uecker famously said, "I always thought the knuckleball was the easiest pitch to catch." Of course, there is an even better way to catch a knuckleball, and…

Marketing is an essential component of an effective enrollment management plan. The broad mission of a comprehensive community college requires multiple, targeted communications campaigns. Institutional research can contribute to marketing success at all phases of decision making.

Proponents of market-based education reform often argue that introducing charter schools and other school choice policies creates a competitive dynamic that will prompt low-performing districts to improve their practice. Rather than simply providing an alternative to neighborhood public schools for a handful of students, the theory says, school…

How colleges determine who is recruited, who merits admission, who receives student aid and of what variety, which classes are offered and when, and what kind of assistance is provided to students all comprise a complex system and an emerging field known as enrollment management. Outside of the world of higher education administration, however,…

This paper investigates higher education (HE) student recruitment practices from the standpoint of market orientation. By adopting the well-established market orientation framework of Narver and Slater [1990, The effect of a market orientation on a business profitability. "Journal of Marketing" 54, no. 4: 20-35], we examine the extent to…

We study the impact of socio-economic status on enrollment and study decisions in higher education. We use a discrete choice approach to distinguish between three channels. First, students from disadvantaged backgrounds may be more sensitive to the costs of education. Second, they may have lower preferences for education. Third, they may have…

The Texas Ten Percent Plan (TTP) provides students in the top 10 percent of their high-school class with automatic admission to any public university in the state, including the two flagship schools, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M. Texas created the policy in 1997 after a federal appellate court ruled that the state's previous…