college retention strategies Archives - Ruffalo Noel Levitz Blog: Higher Education Enrollment, Student Retention, and Student Success

How graduation ceremonies can motivate students to complete college and give back

July 20, 2017 by Julie Bryant Leave a Comment

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).

What did they celebrate during the graduation ceremony?

A few observations on how the speakers motivated the audience toward college completion and giving back to the college:

The president acknowledged first-generation students and their families for blazing the trail and persevering. She also had legacy students stand and be recognized. There was one student who was a fifth-generation legacy, along with several who were fourth- and third-generation students. I was impressed with the strong family commitments to the college, but can you imagine the expectations those students felt to continue the family tradition?
The college’s young alumni award was presented during the graduation ceremony. (My alma mater presents it during homecoming.) By acknowledging the young alumni during graduation, it encouraged today’s graduates—and their younger peers in the audience—to see what they can accomplish within ten years after graduation. These young alumni stories were an inspiration and a validation of what can be done with a degree from the college.
As part of the Senior Giving Campaign, students who pledged to give back to the college were given a cord to wear with their cap and gown as a visible acknowledgment of their commitment. Kylie commented that she heard several classmates signed up because they wanted some “bling” for the gown, and the Senior Giving commitment was up 10% to 60% with this first year of the graduation cord offer.

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…]

Using college student satisfaction data to take action to improve: Examples from campuses

May 22, 2017 by Julie Bryant Leave a Comment

I recently heard someone say, “Schools don’t lack for data. However, they often lack the ability to take action with their data.” Do you agree? As you gather student feedback data on your campus, I encourage you to look for survey tools that are going to give you data that is prioritized and actionable.

Student satisfaction surveys from Ruffalo Noel Levitz are one example of an actionable survey tool. These surveys gather student perceptions of the current experience at your institution and prioritize the findings. Many institutions assess student satisfaction on a regular basis with these tools. College student satisfaction data can serve as the “student voice” for informed decision making for student success efforts (i.e. retention improvements), strategic planning, and accreditation purposes.

Prioritization drives action

The college student satisfaction data from the RNL Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) are prioritized based on two types of scores students assign to each survey item:

– importance scores (a level of expectation)
– satisfaction scores (student perceptions of their current experience)

The survey uncovers priority items for improvement by identifying areas where students express a high level of importance along with a low level of satisfaction, based on national norms. Survey items measured in this way are actionable by changing institutional policies and procedures, immediately or in the near future, and by adjusting student perceptions.

To take action, you also need the following:

Supportive leadership
Budget dollars (but there are things that can be done with a small investment)
Individuals who will take responsibility for new initiatives
Additional direction from students–through focus groups or other qualitative methods–to be sure you fully understand what the item on the survey means on your campus.

Examples from campuses putting college student satisfaction data to work

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YES, your institution CAN be ‘student-ready’ on Day One for diverse college populations!

May 1, 2017 by Dr. Tim Culver Leave a Comment

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.

Benchmarking: another important first step for serving diverse college populations

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.

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INFOGRAPHIC: 5 insights to increase student retention and college completion rates

April 26, 2017 by Ruffalo Noel Levitz Leave a Comment

Click for full-size PDF of this infographic

Want to strengthen your student retention strategies?

Learn more about our solutions for student success, or contact Ruffalo Noel Levitz with your student retention questions and challenges.

Will your institution be ‘student ready’ for diverse college student populations on Day One?

March 28, 2017 by Dr. Mari Normyle Leave a Comment

This is part one of a two-part post on preparing for diverse college student populations. Read part 2 here.

In my more than 20 years working on college campuses, a common theme of conversations has been “are the students we are enrolling ready for college?” This applies to the full range of students: traditional-aged students coming directly from high school, transfer students, adult learners, law school students…. No matter the type of student, faculty and staff frequently ask “are they ready”?

However, now I’m increasingly concerned about whether institutions themselves are “student ready.” Do we know enough about our students as they enter our institutions, either as freshmen or transfers? Do we understand what they are experiencing as they make numerous transitions in their first and second years of enrollment? And do we have nuanced understandings of our diverse college student populations by race/ethnicity, first-generation, by age, and by gender? What do students have in common? Where are their divergent experiences, pressures, and challenges? How prepared is the institution to meet the needs of entering students where they are now, and how solidly in place are the structures for support on day one? Also, do we know what information would be critical to ensure we are “student ready” on day one?

13 facts about entering student diversity that influence completion rates

National data on entering students in 2016 was gathered by RNL’s College Student Inventory from 99,300 students attending 290 institutions across North America. Here are some of the key findings, all statistically significant:

By race/ethnicity:

Asian, Hispanic, and African-American entering students anticipate that they will be more satisfied with the college experience than white entering students. This is important because there is a relationship between satisfaction and retention, graduation, and alumni engagement (see this satisfaction research).
41 percent of non-white entering students report they have the financial resources necessary to finish college compared with 53 percent of white entering students.
Entering students of color are more receptive to assistance from the institution (and are already requesting help as they enter their institutions) in every category than white students: academic assistance, career guidance, personal counseling, social enrichment, and financial guidance.

By first-generation vs. students with college-educated parents:

Incoming first-generation students are much less confident in their ability to grasp scientific ideas and write college-level papers than their peers with college-educated parents.
The first-generation students also report lower levels of family support and financial security than their peers with college-educated parents.
These students are entering college with a greater percentage of them asking for help in improving their writing and math skills than their counterparts (math: 56 percent vs. 46 percent; writing: 55 percent vs. 46 percent).

By gender:

Entering female students continue to express a stronger commitment to achieving their educational goals than males: 94 percent vs. 89 percent.
More women than men agree that reading has broadened their horizons and stimulated their imaginations: 61 percent vs. 48 percent.
And women are entering college with much stronger established study habits: 68 percent of entering women report that they study hard for all of their classes, even those they don’t like, vs. 53 percent of men.

By age:

Adult learners are entering college with stronger intellectual interests and more positive attitudes toward reading.
These students are also reporting stronger study habits than their traditional-age colleagues.
While less inclined to get involved in campus social activities, entering adult learners report greater tolerance for persons with different political and social ideas.
And these students are more receptive to getting academic assistance and career counseling.

Now is the time on most campuses across the country to begin preparing for welcoming new students in the summer and fall. What is driving your decision-making about how to prepare for your newest students? If you’re relying on the traditional (and limited) metrics of high school GPA or transfer student GPA and SAT or ACT, you’re missing significant information that is relevant to student success programs. Having motivational, non-cognitive data available can help you fill in the gaps left by old metrics and ensure that you are “student ready” on Day One.

Read part 2 and see more of our reports on entering students

2017 National Freshman Motivation Report

Download now

Read part 2 of this blog series here, where my colleague Dr. Tim Culver shares strategies for getting your institution ready for student success on Day One.

Interested in learning more about preparing diverse college student populations for success? See all of our reports here on entering students, including the 2017 National Freshman Motivation to Complete College Report and its Addendum by Race/Ethnicity. Questions? Contact us by email or call me at 800.876.1117.

Share your student success assets with others

February 7, 2017 by Janene Panfil Leave a Comment

We all live in and enjoy the benefits of a sharing economy, where individuals are able to borrow or rent assets owned by someone else. We see this regularly when the price of the asset is high (a car, a home) and not fully utilized all of the time, think Airbnb, Uber. But it can also apply to the sharing of information technology and intellectual resources. It’s that sharing of intellectual resources, specifically, college student success assets, that I want to focus on today.

As educators, the reality of our work today is that we face intense pressure to address our college student success needs. Think performance-based funding, budgeting and net revenue issues, accreditation, local, regional, and national employment trends. And student needs are changing as demographics change; we have less time and resources to design an effective solution, not to mention we have very little room for error. Instead of designing something from the ground up, we often take advantage of our student success sharing economy and frequently look to established best practices, associations, vendors, and colleagues for an idea that can be customized to fit our unique needs and situation.

Descriptions of more than 170 award-winning retention programs

I hope you’ve taken advantage of the body of knowledge Ruffalo Noel Levitz contributes to the student success sharing economy. One way we contribute is by celebrating effective college retention programs with the Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Awards (REAs). More than 170 colleges and universities have been honored with Retention Excellence Awards and they all have shared their retention assets via our compendium. If you’re looking for new ideas to serve minority students, to create a comprehensive retention plan, to recruit back stop outs or virtually anything else, check out the retention assets your colleagues have shared.

Apply for a Retention Excellence Award

Naturally, giving is as important as receiving in the college student success sharing economy. I invite you to share your retention assets by applying for a 2017 Retention Excellence Award (REA). Applications are now being accepted and must be completed by March 17, 2017. The application process is brief and is similar to submitting a proposal to present at a conference. Up to three winners will be recognized and the honor includes a free conference registration to the National Conference on Student Marketing Recruitment and Retention being held in Denver, July 26-28, 2017. Winners are featured in a national webinar hosted by Ruffalo Noel Levitz and will serve as a judge in selecting the 2018 winners.

Please take the time to contribute to the student success sharing economy. I encourage you to review the application and consider applying. The process is easy, and the rewards for your campus and our student success sharing economy are many!

Questions? Please contact me directly by email or call me at 800.876.1117, ext. 8787.

Retention as a revenue-driver: Case example of a small increase bringing nearly $500K

March 8, 2016 by Mary Piccioli Leave a Comment

Last year, the student success coordinator at a client institution of mine shared a story that may be familiar to those who lead the efforts to improve student retention and graduation rates on your own campuses.

A faculty member was nonplussed when the most recent freshman cohort retention figures showed that first-to-second-year retention had improved by about 2 percentage points. A “what’s the big deal” comment was followed by “is it even statistically significant?” After hearing this story, I suggested to the student success coordinator that if her colleague doesn’t see improved student success as good news for both students and the institution serving them, than an appeal to her colleague’s understanding of the bottom line might be convincing.

In this case, net revenue per freshman was about $15,000/year, and a 2 percentage point increase in retention rate translated to 12 additional students persisting to sophomore year. That’s $180,000 in additional net revenue in the second year, not counting room revenue. Using average persistence rates to junior year, 10 would still be enrolled, and eventually 9 students would persist to senior year. That equates to $150,000 and $135,000 in years three and four. In total, the 2 percentage point improvement in retention was likely to result in about $465,000 additional net revenue over a three-year period for the first cohort alone, not counting the additional revenue gained from each subsequent cohort cycle. For small, tuition-dependent institutions, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Calculating revenue from specific majors

At the same institution, the institutional research officer was interested in gaining a better understanding of the internal migration patterns of students who change majors, especially those who began as biology majors. They were seeking to answer not only the question of whether students in a particular major were leaving the institution at higher rates than other majors, but also whether they were remaining as science majors or migrating to majors within another academic division. This need for additional data aligned nicely with the fact that an intentional by-product of our retention predictive modeling and best-practice review is to encourage our clients to do a better job of tracking retention by various subpopulations. To that end, we provide reports to demonstrate movement among majors over time. In this instance, a custom report was designed that the IR director could then replicate internally. This provided the institution with valuable data for planning as they sought to identify majors that, even though initial demand (first-time majors) may not have been strong, showed enrollment increases over time as a result of internal transfers. The financial consequences of enrollments by major would not have been obvious from looking exclusively at initial enrollment data.
[Read more…]

Does student retention require a culture shift on your campus? Second part of a two-part article

June 18, 2014 by Ruffalo Noel Levitz Leave a Comment

This is the second part of a two-part article featuring excerpts from a popular Noel-Levitz white paper originally released in 2000, The Earth-Shaking But Quiet Revolution in Retention Management, by Randi Levitz and Lee Noel, founders of Noel-Levitz. Read the first part of the article here or download the original white paper.

Does student retention require a culture shift on your campus? Second part of a two-part article

Institutions must deliberately establish a plan to increase student retention.

Those of us who have been working in this field of student retention almost from the very beginning have learned a great deal. The main thing we have learned is that institutions must deliberately establish a plan to increase student retention. Retention does not just happen. Retention is something we can control. We have learned that this control comes when we put students squarely at the center of a campus. That is what it is all about today at the undergraduate level—thinking about students, understanding students, listening to students, figuring out who is in the classrooms, who is on the campuses. If an institution has residence halls, it needs to ask who is living in those residence halls. We need to move with students, learn with students, understand them and help them succeed. Institutions that put this kind of personal effort into effect can, in fact, experience a tremendous degree of student and institutional success. Retention improvement proceeds on two planes simultaneously—campuswide for all students and directly with individual students.

This necessarily requires a greater emphasis on assessment. Assessment helps us predict dropout-proneness before the student drops out, academic difficulty before it occurs, and educational stress before the student experiences it. It also helps us determine an incoming student’s receptivity to institutional help so we can leverage our time by intervening intensively with students who are likely to respond.

This approach is perhaps best termed “progressive responsibility.” It does not encourage everyone on campus to “hold students’ hands forever,” which is often the faculty’s greatest fear. However, it does advocate additional support to help students get off to a strong start. What it tries to do is provide “stepping stone” approaches so students get the support they need when they enter, thus securing a solid foundation from which to progress to greater degrees of responsibility and independence until they are able to stand independently.
[Read more…]

Does student retention require a culture shift on your campus? First of a two-part article

June 12, 2014 by Ruffalo Noel Levitz Leave a Comment

This is the first part of a two-part article featuring excerpts from a popular Noel-Levitz white paper originally released in 2000, The Earth-Shaking But Quiet Revolution in Retention Management, by Randi Levitz and Lee Noel, founders of Noel-Levitz. Read the second part of the article here or download the original white paper.

“The success of an institution and the success of its students are inseparable.” If you take this credo seriously, you commit your institution—and every individual in it, from the president to faculty members to support staff—to a path of radical and permanent change.

Why embark on such a course? As budgets tighten, as pools of potential students shrink, as competition for resources of all kinds increase, as regents, legislators, taxpayers, and prospective students and their families take up the cry for institutional accountability, colleges and universities that put students first will thrive just as their students will.

If this sounds daunting, don’t be misled. For nearly every institution, substantial gains in retention are possible if managed properly. On the other hand, improvement in retention does not happen without careful thought and considerable energy. Successful retention management involves “distance philosophy” which assumes that the main purpose of education and, therefore, the main business of the institution, is to change people’s lives. When administrators, faculty, and staff fully appreciate the need to retain students, it will show in their attitude toward students. Students will no longer be impositions on our work. Students will be the purpose of our work.

As a result, daily interactions will be less mechanical. Relationships between students and faculty, staff and administrators, will develop naturally. And this camaraderie among members of the campus community will demonstrate itself through loyalty to the institution. When students learn and feel successful on campus, they stay.

In contrast, whereas moderately dissatisfied students may remain on campus, these students certainly will not recommend that their acquaintances attend the same institution. This can have a far-reaching impact on enrollments since most institutions recruit new students from the same high schools, neighborhoods, and work places each year. What’s more, if students become substantially dissatisfied, they’ll simply leave the institution to explore “greener pastures.”

On the other hand, the student who is experiencing the right combination of support and independence at college will appear more personally developed and will feel more satisfied. This noticeable growth, in and of itself, will be a statement about the institution’s quality of programs and services. The student’s excitement about these aspects as he or she discusses them with friends and family are an added bonus. The extent to which current students leave campus feeling satisfied and excited about what they have experienced on campus helps determine the ease with which the institution is able to recruit in those areas in subsequent visits and subsequent years.

Those of us who have been working in this field almost from the very beginning have learned a great deal. The main thing we have learned is that institutions must deliberately establish a plan to increase student retention. Retention does not just happen. Retention is something we can control.

Read the second part of this two-part article, or download the original white paper here.

For more information and insights
Come to Chicago, July 8-10, 2014, for the Noel-Levitz National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing, and Retention, where you can choose from presentations such as:

Mentoring and Mentoring Programs: Powerful Tools for Engaging and Retaining Students
From Swirl to Success: How to Make Your College the Final Destination for Transfer Students
Enhancing Student Success by Identifying and Re-Recruiting Stopouts, Dropouts, and Re-admits
Adult Undergraduates in 2014 and Beyond: Profiles, Priorities, and Paths to Persistence and Success That Guide Their Decision-Making Processes
The Academic Success Program: A New Intervention Model That Doubles the Retention Rate of Students on Academic Probation

See the conference agenda and register.

Improving college student retention in the private postsecondary sector

May 6, 2014 by Candace Rodeman 3 Comments

The rising cost of college attendance has made students more critical of attending postsecondary institutions. While a college degree is still valued, spiraling costs have triggered emphatic discussions about student debt and the actual worth of a college degree. This critical eye has perhaps impacted the private postsecondary sector the most. I think Fred Lockhart of the Arizona Private School Association (APSA) put it best when he told me that students entering private post-secondary schools want the best education in the least amount of time with the biggest return on investment.

The demographics of the students in this sector have also changed, especially the growth of adult/nontraditional learners who tend to be more purpose driven. Students in the private postsecondary sector also face critical issues impacting student retention, including academic preparedness, a student’s financial wherewithal, student communication, relationship building, tracking and documenting student interactions, and graduate outcomes.

Improving college student retention in the private postsecondary sector

What can private postsecondary institutions do to help more students complete their educational goals?

Thankfully, the schools in this sector have a great deal of support through state and national association memberships. The Association of Private Sector Schools and Universities (APSCU) and private postsecondary state associations feel strongly that school leadership needs to embrace a culture of caring and giving, and leaders need resources to make informed decisions. The associations also provide educational training and resources to their member schools. The national and state organizations act as resources for member institutions on public policy related to the sector and provide support for workforce development that will ultimately affect the students they serve. They also provide training at conferences, webinars, and online teaching modules for instructors that address the diverse learning styles in the classroom.

Still, it is important to know your students, and schools that demonstrate caring and giving to the individual needs of the students have more successful retention and graduate outcomes. Administrators and instructors need to be aware of the students’ academic preparedness, learning styles, and student engagement in order to affect student success. In particular, there are three ways campuses can reach out to students, alleviate barriers and stress, and convince them to remain enrolled and on the path to educational completion.
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