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, […]
If you’re confused by the headline, so am I. I don’t speak Russian, but I remember this from a speech given by Ronald Reagan, when he quoted a Russian proverb in a speech about nuclear disarmament. Translated, the title means, “Trust, but Verify.” Fortunately, our purpose today is a little less compelling. But it does […]
IPEDS just released data from Fall 2023 enrollment surveys, and there are some interesting trends. Here’s a snapshot of the high level data. It’s interesting to see what appears to be a post-COVID rebound happening slowly for undergrads. That’s to be expected (the slow part, I mean). It should be obvious, but a very bad […]
I can read your mind. You probably take last year’s tuition, look at how much your expenses will increase, and raise tuition by that amount. Problem solved, right? Then why doesn’t it work? It doesn’t work because the tuition colleges set carries almost no resemblance to what students actually pay. Of course, state and federal […]
The current sense of enrollment managers is that the present is hard, and the future is going to be even harder. In light of that, it’s natural to look in different directions to bolster enrollment, and it’s generally not long before someone points out that “it’s cheaper to retain a student than it is to […]
Perhaps you’ve seen the story of what might be the largest wave ever surfed (the news media are calling it the largest wave ever, but of course that’s not true.) It got me thinking about all the waves we’re dealing with in higher education: Shrinking enrollments, structural budget deficits at even some of the highly-resourced […]
Nothing is so discussed–and perhaps so misunderstood–as college discount rates. And my opinion about the meaning of discount rates is changing, to boot. You probably know that discount rates are calculated by dividing unfunded institutional aid by gross tuition revenue. So if you charge $100M in gross tuition and offer $40M in aid, your discount […]
You and your board have probably all had stories about the WICHE projections sent to you numerous times. If you read just the headlines, you’re probably despairing. Are they that bad? Yes, but perhaps no. The headlines tell you the number of high school graduates is likely to plummet by over 11% between 2025 (the […]
Much of the hype in media and watercooler talk centers on institutional prestige, often using the selectivity of university in first-year admission as a proxy. Should you try to make your institution more selective to increase its prestige? If you think the answer is “yes” you might want to reconsider. From 2001 to 2023, first-year […]
As we turn a calendar page on another year, I’m pleased to announce the launch of EnrollmentVP, a new service to college and university presidents, provosts, boards of trustees, and anyone connected to or concerned about enrollment. This is the companion site, where I’ll be posting about what I see and how I can help. […]
Enrollment VP 