I have a friend. We’ve been great pals since the second day of first grade. He has a son who is going through the admissions process this year as a high school senior, and his grandparents really want him to go to Purdue. But the word on the street or in the school is that […]
I admit it. I’m not a refined or sophisticated person. My tastes run toward what some might call “pedestrian.” And at the end of last year, when my Spotify Rewind popped up, I was sort of ashamed to share it publicly. It’s not that my friends would be surprised–far from it–but I thought I had […]
As many as a dozen or so colleges and universities have returned to requiring the SAT or ACT for admission to the first-year class, after almost the entire country went to a test-optional admissions approach in response to COVID, when testing opportunities dropped dramatically. Should you? That depends. First, you probably know that imitation as […]
You know you’ve heard the death knell for sometime: Colleges are closing at an alarming rate, and it’s only going to get worse. But are they? And will it? To the second part, I recall the words of Mark Twain, who once said, “I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I […]
Look at this quick view of Fall, 2022 discount rates (x-axis) and average net revenue (y-axis). The approximately 1,000 bubbles, each representing a single institution, are colored by Carnegie type (a roll up into large categories), and are sized by draw rate. Some quick definitions: I noticed that Georgetown University in DC and Georgetown College […]
Enrollment is boring. Yes, this profession I’ve chosen is boring, and it’s likely my family would tell you it suits me just fine. It’s also complicated. Ditto. But you have to pay attention to it, and you have to be bored by it. You have to do so, engaging more than Elevator Guy. You have […]
It’s a big question, and one many, if not most, colleges talk about and reflect upon regularly. And of course, recent Supreme Court decisions and changing political climates have made the issue even more difficult to navigate. What’s more, we measure diversity a lot of different ways, and ethnicity (the focus today) is only one […]
Of all the things we’re asked to worry about, now people are concerned about men. Like my post earlier (the one with the headline in Russian that people were afraid to read, apparently), you should realize that the narrative about male enrollment is true, but maybe not so dire as you think. It should come […]
The reason Higher Education can’t change is simple: We all put forth very similar, undifferentiated offerings, which makes risk very, well, risky. If you take a big gamble and you win, your competitors all fall in line, and any advantage you might have is short-lived. If you take a big gamble and lose, all the […]
I recently had the chance to congratulate a colleague who announced her retirement on LinkedIn. “Well done,” I typed. “You made it out the other side unscathed.” It was, of course, a bit hyperbolic, a knowing nod from me to someone who also worked in enrollment management at a large public university. In our jobs, […]
Enrollment VP 