Ruffalo Noel Levitz Blog: Higher Education Enrollment, Student Retention, and Student Success
The blog of Ruffalo Noel Levitz, the leading enrollment management consulting firm.
Download a new infographic from Ruffalo Noel Levitz to see eight highlighted findings from our latest e-Expectations survey of high school students and their parents conducted by Ruffalo Noel Levitz, NRCCUA, CollegeWeekLive, and OmniUpdate. Watch for the full study to be released in fall 2017.
Also, join me for my webinar on Wednesday, September 6, 2017, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Enrollment referrals from high school counselors can make a big difference in college student enrollments. By building strong relationships with counselors, colleges and universities can develop “pipelines” that bring students year after year.
Download a new BUZZ SHEET from Ruffalo Noel Levitz to learn six facts about how to strengthen relationships with high school counselors to increase their enrollment referrals.
Also, join me for my presentation at the NACAC National Conference in Boston on Saturday, September 16, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
My daughter, Kylie, graduated from a private, liberal arts college in Iowa this spring. I experienced her graduation ceremony both as a proud parent and as a higher education professional, observing what the college did right in celebrating the class of 2017.
You may have been following along on my parental observations over the past five years as Kylie visited potential colleges, went through orientation and arrived on campus, reflected on her freshman and sophomore years, and began her senior year.
Since I manage the Satisfaction-Priorities Surveys for Ruffalo Noel Levitz, the keynote speaker at my daughter’s graduation ceremony was definitely speaking my language when he told students he hoped they were satisfied with their experience! (Yes, he really said that, and my ears perked up!) As they left the college, he wanted them to feel that their investment of time and tuition had been worthwhile. (I would definitely echo that from the national data perspective, and further point out that a 2015 study indicated that institutions with higher satisfaction levels also have higher alumni giving). But the speaker also said he hoped the students were dissatisfied enough with the world around them that they would want to find what they were passionate about and make a change in something that matters. (This fits with how I advise institutions to improve the college experience for students in areas that matter: areas with high importance and low satisfaction to the student body).
A few observations on how the speakers motivated the audience toward college completion and giving back to the college:
Are you implementing acknowledgments like these during your graduation ceremony? Are there additional ways you can motivate students toward completion and celebrate students who blazed a trail or continued a legacy? How else can you reinforce the value of the tuition to the students and their families so they will continue to feel positive about your college? And what is going to motivate your new alumni to stay engaged with your institution as they move on to the next phase of their lives? [Read more…]
RNL regularly publishes expert insights and new research on enrollment management and student success. In case you missed any of them, here are our most popular enrollment management blogs of all time and also from the past academic year.
These are the most-read posts we have published on the blog.
Here the most popular enrollment management blogs from the past academic year.
RNL publishes trend reports, conducts webinars, and hosts events to help campus professionals stay on top of the latest strategies and developments in higher education.
And if you want to speak with one of our experts, please contact us and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.
This post is adapted from an article in the current issue of University Business.
What have we learned about early FAFSA filing as of mid-2017? Let’s begin with a quick review.
In an earlier post, my RNL colleague Todd White examined FAFSA filing rates nationwide for the 2017-18 academic cycle. The post used ED data on FAFSA filing to compare current data to the previous year based on the number of weeks after filing became available (i.e. January 1, 2016 compared to October 1, 2016). White reported the initial findings showed a 27.4 percent increase in FAFSAs in the first four weeks of filing. This increase in filing, combined with a 12.4 percent drop in FAFSAs rejected during that period, resulted in a 34.1 percent increase of completed FAFSAs. Furthermore, a review of a group of RNL campus partners who were tracking FAFSA filing rates showed that by early January, the average parent income for admitted students with need for 2017 was $89,541, which was a 10 percent increase from the 2016 figure of $81,335. Average EFC for the same groups of students was $12,134 in 2017 compared to $10,444 in 2016, a 16.2 percent increase.
Although filing rates slowed (the early lead mentioned above had disappeared after eight weeks of filing), it only took until the end of March to have as many filers in 2017 as at the beginning of June in 2016. Moreover, by May 5, 2017, there was a 15.8 percent increase in filers compared to June 3, 2016 which translates into more than 291,000 additional students.
A recent publication by the Institute for College Access and Success showed that the burden of college costs is much greater for students from low-income families, contributing to wide college enrollment and completion gaps by income. Underrepresented minorities are also disproportionately affected. In this first year of early FAFSA filing, have students—especially those from under-served social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds—been able to take advantage of the early FAFSA filing and extended decision making period?
In an effort to answer this question, a preliminary review of FAFSA filing rates of students admitted to a group of RNL campus partners showed that a larger percentage of students filed FAFSAs through April of 2017 compared to April of 2016 (as shown in the table below). Interestingly enough, the actual number of students has increased for both Pell and non-Pell eligible students. However, the percentages from each group have remained almost unchanged in both years. Further research will be necessary to determine the extent to which lower income families took advantage of early filing.
Having such a large number of students filing FAFSAs two months earlier in 2017 than in 2016, as well as the increase of admitted students filing FAFSAs at RNL’s campus partners, would suggest there is a desire among a significant portion of prospective students and their families to get earlier information on institutional financial aid. College and university enrollment leadership should respond by providing earlier aid awards to applicants who take advantage of this opportunity. At the same time, communications plans should be carefully reviewed to ensure that messaging on affordability and value appear earlier in the recruitment cycle. In addition, earlier aid awards will mean longer periods to fill with yield activities, making the case for the institution’s distinct advantages, engaging students, and responding to their interest in return on investment, academic programs, housing, and campus security.
Now is also the time to re-calibrate trends for enrollment targets, including applications, admits, deposits, and enrollment. Keep in mind that, in the long term, carefully leveraging financial aid funds to create affordability will help advance initiatives like early FAFSA and will improve access to higher education for all who wish to pursue it.
More analysis is needed to fully understand the effect of early FAFSA and to identify for the nation as a whole exactly who took advantage of early filing. In addition, as the 2017-18 enrollment cycle comes to an end this summer and recruiting begins for fall 2018, it will be important to determine what was learned from campuses that took advantage of early FAFSA by packaging earlier. Did the socioeconomic profile of their freshman class change? Did they see any other advantages? The answers to these questions will determine whether or not early FAFSA filing truly benefited those it was intended to help.
Email me or call 800.876.1117 to confidentially discuss any questions you may have regarding how your institution is working with early filers and affordability to build enrollment. We’ll be happy to share with you how campuses similar to yours are responding to students’ concerns about costs as we listen carefully to your situation.
Campus professionals have a lot on their minds. With reduced budgets, tightening enrollments, changing demographics, rising college costs, and increased financial need, you are primarily focused on the students you serve and the resources you need to serve them. Those concerns can cause you to overlook one of the most important resources at your disposal: yourself and the campus colleagues who work beside you.
When the budgetary reins get tightened, professional development for campus staff is often one of the first expenses on the chopping block. Campuses certainly have to make many painful cuts in times like these, but cuts for higher education professional development can often have long-term repercussions that far outweigh the minor, temporary budget relief that they bring. In fact, it’s during times like these, when you’re forced to do much more with much less, that training, knowledge, and teamwork become paramount to working efficiently and meeting your goals for enrollment and student success.
There are many big benefits to higher education professional development, but here are five particularly strong ones:
Let’s say you spend $1500 to attend an event on student retention. During the event, you learn strategies for early-alert programs that help you retain three more students and bring in $15,000 of net revenue that would have been lost had those students withdrawn. You’ve far exceeded the relatively minor investment you made to attend that event. The same would apply if you had learned strategies that helped you recruit three more students.
What often gets overlooked in cutting higher education professional development is the cost-effectiveness of expanding your professional knowledge. Learning new strategies, especially strategies that are already working at other campuses, can pay big dividends, both immediately and down the road. And as the example above illustrates, even small improvements in your enrollment can far exceed your original investment.
Routine tends to stifle change and innovation in any organization, and campuses are no exception. We get so used to the way things are that we don’t see how things could be.
In today’s environment, college affordability is a top enrollment concern for high school students and a top re-enrollment concern for college students. Colleges and universities that successfully address this concern earlier and systematically will be at a competitive advantage over those that don’t.
Download a new BUZZ SHEET from Ruffalo Noel Levitz to learn 6 eye-opening facts on college affordability and ways institutions can address students’ concerns.
Download the full BUZZ SHEET to see all 6 facts and effective ways to respond
RNL recently released the 2017 Discounting Report which provides discounting benchmarks from nearly 300 colleges and universities that worked with the company last year to strategically allocate their financial aid.
Since the Great Recession of 2008, we’ve seen a steady increase in campus discount rates. These increases are due to a number of both internal and external pressures. The internal pressures can be caused by an institutions’ desire to grow or attract a stronger or higher quality group of students. Some of the external issues are the shifts in demographics, reductions from both federal and state sources, and changes in student behaviors. In most cases, campuses only have a handful of options. They can challenge “willingness to pay,” which is not a bad strategy but errors in this area can be costly, or they can strategically use their financial aid dollars to help meet their institutional needs.
In the 2017 report, we segmented our campus partners’ data into public and private institutions. In addition, we have provided regional comparisons of the data for private institutions to help answer the question about whether the location of a campus can have an effect on discount rates.
For the first time, we’ve also broken out data for transfer students. This “under the radar” population has traditionally been neglected from analysis, but we know this has become a more important group for campuses to meet their new student targets. Do these students have the same enrollment behaviors as the first-time-in-college population? Are discount rates higher, lower or the same as other populations of students?
Download the report for the full discounting benchmarks from our campus partners and feel free to reach out to me or other members of our financial aid services team with questions about our service.
How can these discounting benchmarks inform awarding strategies and help you manage your discount rate? Attend our free webinar on May 17. I will be co-presenting and sharing awarding strategies that are helping campuses use their resources more efficiently so they can increase the enrollment impact of their awarding. Learn more and register for the webinar.
This is part two of a two-part post on preparing for today’s diverse college populations, to increase their college completion rates. See part one.
A few weeks ago my colleague, Dr. Mari Normyle, posted a blog with a question: Will your institution be ‘student-ready’ for diverse college populations on Day One? My response is YES, you can be!
To be ready, first look carefully at the needs of the diverse populations within the entering class. When you understand the needs of our entering students by race/ethnicity, first-generation vs. students with college-educated parents, gender, age, or any other diverse category, you can begin to make decisions how to strategically use the data to impact outcomes.
One way to gain a solid understanding of entering students’ diverse needs is to gather motivation data by population. For example, the first part of this post provided 13 facts in four diverse categories about 2016 entering freshman which were collected from 99,300 students who completed RNL’s College Student Inventory. All 13 facts are what we call leading indicators, or early alerts, which can help to determine what entering students need to persist, progress, retain, and complete. Most of you know we at RNL are all about being data-informed and spend most of our time working with you to move data into action.
Before you set strategy, it is also helpful to understand normal outcomes for your institution type. In the 2017 Student Retention Indicators Benchmark Report you will find benchmarks for persistence, progression, and retention for four-year and two-year institutions. For example, you will find persistence outcomes from term one to term two and term two to term three for first-time-in-college students regardless of race/ethnicity, first-generation vs. students with college-educated parents, gender, age or other attributes.
This blog post was co-authored by Lisa Browning, executive consultant for Ruffalo Noel Levitz
How does the New York free tuition program implemented this month change the environment for college student recruiting, marketing, and enrollment management? For private institutions in New York, the potential effect of the free college tuition program is multi-layered. Will yield decline? Will students at privates transfer to publics at a higher rate than in the past? Should private institutions opt-in to new the ETA program? And what about out-of-state schools that recruit in New York—is there potential for a higher melt rate for students from New York for 2017-18, and might the New York portion of the admit pool decline in future years?
When New York state legislators voted on their FY2018 budget in early April, two new financial aid programs for state residents were created.
For public two-year and four-year institutions, the Excelsior Scholarship claims to “make public college tuition-free” for students from families with an adjusted gross income up to $100,000 starting in the academic year 2017-18. The income ceiling increases to $110,000 for 2018-19 and to $125,000 for 2019-20. Below is the program description from the website of New York State Higher Education Services Corporation’s (NYSHESC):
“An Excelsior Scholarship recipient can receive up to $5,500 from the Excelsior Scholarship, minus any amounts received for TAP (New York’s state grant program), Pell or other scholarships. The remainder of your tuition charge will be covered through a tuition credit paid through SUNY or CUNY.”
Note that mandatory fees are not covered, nor is any portion of room/board.
For private colleges and universities, the Enhanced Tuition Award (ETA) was also created:
“An Enhanced Tuition Awards recipient can receive up to $6,000 through a combination of their TAP award [an existing state grant], ETA award, and a match from their private college. For example, a student who receives a $1,000 TAP award would receive an additional $5,000—half of which would be paid by the ETA and half by his or her college.”
For students who receive ETA funds, the institution must commit to freezing their tuition for their time at the school.
When considering the implications of the Excelsior program on New York’s private institutions, there are some important and practical “devil in the details” topics to be addressed: