The issue of declining undergraduate enrollments has received considerable national attention over the past decade. The pandemic has exacerbated these concerns as year-on-year enrollments in several states have been severely affected by the pandemic. While this period has been unique, these trends have been a feature of political science…

Robust strategic enrollment management plans include an integrated focus on student retention. While Piedmont University has seen steady new student growth over the past few years, retention rates had dropped from the mid-70s to an alltime low of 62 percent. Significant and immediate action was necessary. The Retention Vortex was created as a…

This article describes the strategies employed to make a university-wide commitment to student success, persistence, and graduation rates. The shift in culture has made student success everybody's business, and there has been a high level of buy-in to the enterprise. The predictive tools that have been developed have given focus to serving those…

With an increasing number of institutions chasing a shrinking pool of prospective applicants, most schools are actively on the lookout for new recruitment strategies for reaching and converting potential students. A key component of the prospective student experience and an important factor in students' decision-making process, faculty are better…

AACRAO partnered with a large public university in the southwestern United States to examine a multi-year data set and to complete a student survey in order to gain insights into variables that contribute to excess credit accumulation at graduation. Until state legislatures began to decrease funding for public colleges and universities, excess…

Writing a strategic enrollment plan can be overwhelming, but a good plan is essential to any higher education institution. Involving the right people on campus and ensuring that the plan is developed on the basis of facts and relevant data are critical. Once the goals of the plan are determined, building a model for testing various enrollment…

Peer mentorship at colleges and universities is often thought of in the context of formal programs. This paper examines mentorship from an informal lens as the everyday advice students give their peers. This study utilized focus groups to see how students responded to questions their peers asked about their experiences. Four themes emerged that…

Institutions typically invest heavily in the first-year experience to promote persistence, yet colleges are also experiencing a pattern of attrition in the second year. The second year is viewed as a period in which students encounter increasing academic, developmental, and social demands, yet the institution tends to provide less support relative…

The field of strategic enrollment management has become increasingly invested in data-informed practices. In 2015, The College at Brockport, State University of New York implemented a recruitment strategy that incorporated both predictive analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) technology. This effort both reduced budget expenditures…

Students and their families evaluate net price when determining whether they can afford a college. But what affects net price? There are factors, such as instructional inefficiencies, administrative expenses, federal financial aid, and state appropriations, that have been noted in the literature that have an impact on costs and tuition. This study…

In its earliest form, Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) focused on recruiting students, but soon included a focus on student success, defined in terms of retention and graduation. Several researchers have noted that developing effective student services, as well as establishing strong lines of communications across departments, are key…

Four-year institutions, as the recipients of community college transfers seeking their baccalaureate degrees, must become more proactive participants in the transfer process and conversation. Currently, enrollment management models and data reporting requirements allow four-year institutions to take a passive approach to the issue of transfer. As…

In this article, the Ontario Committee on Student Affairs and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance partnered to examine the availability and use of international student support services at Ontario universities. Results of the recently administered Ontario Committee on Student Affairs, Canadian Bureau of International Education, and…