Enrollment Management in the Consumer Era:
What We Say, What We Do, How We Do It, and Why
By David Hawsey
VP Enrollment Management
Albion College, Albion, MI
Somewhere between two and three million students graduate each year
from high school, and a large percentage of these students look for options
in higher education across a wide range of colleges and universities.
Let's go back to the early 1970s. It was once a fairly simple process
to prepare well for college-level work. Just visit a few schools, apply
to those that were an honest match for the student, and be accepted into
one or two favorites. Going to college was seen as a pretty good deal,
and without actually knowing the specific outcomes of a college degree,
Americans were fairly comfortable believing that it almost ensured a better
job, an enhanced career, or untold opportunities down the road. For most
people, that was just good enough. The few who focused on the Ivies and
a handful of other top schools almost seemed destined to attend, while
many of us assumed someone on the "inside" made their path to
acceptance easier than that of the average person.
Today the entire process of searching for, selecting (and being accepted
to) a college, and, of course, learning how to prepare for managing the
investment required in order to afford and finish college has become one
of America's last great consumer product/service stories. From the outside,
it seems to applicants and their families, as well as anyone else on the
student's advocate list, that colleges themselves are holding all the
cards. Face it: Those of us in the higher-education business know what
we do-and why-and you don't. But you'd like to know it all beforehand
so you can play the game and get into the school of your choice through
savvy research and knowledge of the answers to questions we haven't even
considered yet! Right?
Hang on. The rules of engagement between customer and college change
almost daily. Higher education is an industry that sells a largely intangible
service with a fairly high price tag. So far, no college or university
has been able to definitively lay claim to products, services, or experiences
so superior that they guarantee any individual an advantage over the average
American in matters of careers, personal wealth, or happiness. Thanks
to economics, however, the demand for college education has gone up, despite
the lack of outcome proof for the investment, or even full disclosure
from the schools themselves.
What we do know, as colleges and as consumers of higher education, is
that as demand for a college education increases, the American system
of admissions and financial aid planning becomes agonizingly more complex.
The price for attending goes up as well, except in rare cases when the
price seems to go down. Even then, we sometimes learn that the net cost
for the family may not have changed at all! It's a strange litany of jargon:
Differential application, acceptance and deposit deadlines, Early Action
this, early acceptance that, non-refundable deposits (except in special
cases, also ill defined and rather flexible), special pricing, discounts,
and regulations from athletic-governing bodies. Also factor in impressions
of college formed in young people's minds based solely on which team wins
what football/basketball/baseball game, unintelligible statistics from
the colleges themselves, almost-useless and vague tools, surveys and magazine
guides from the media (US News & Word Report, etc.). Add to that a
whole host of other influences and issues that have grown along with the
competition for students, and for a spot in colleges that may or may not
really be all that selective after all, and what do you have? Who knows?
And under what conditions do you have all this? And more importantly:
How did it ever get this complicated?
America's 25,000+ high school districts have been using a college search
"toolbox" that is based on benchmarks, perceptions, and assumptions
about preparing for college that are decades old. In the meantime, the
nation's 3,300+ colleges and universities have gone through recent and
dramatic changes, including:
§ The post-Vietnam boom in college-bound students, followed by:
§ An erosion of almost a third of college-bound students in the mid-1980s,
due to fewer children born to the Baby Boomer generation;
§ Economic recession, stagflation, and other financial challenges
that directly affected colleges;
§ A subsequent period of growth in marketing colleges and universities
amid consumer confusion;
§ Our current consumer-oriented era, where American families have
responded to college marketing, inconsistent admissions, and financial-aid
practices by attempting to equate a college education to the consumption
of other consumer products and services;
§ The present economic situation that has caused some colleges to
close their doors forever or to take serious actions to address financial,
human, and physical-plant priorities in a drastically different way than
in the 1970s; and
§ An all-time high in the level of confusion about just what happens-and
why-to any well-prepared student's application and financial aid information.
This has resulted in enormous growth in third-party, independent counseling
services that claim to understand the secrets about getting acceptance
letters and scholarship dollars. (By the way-some of these counselors
do know the secrets.)
Something seems to be missing here. The chasm between reality in marketing
higher education and that of the process of matching students with individual
institutional priorities has grown as far apart as it has ever been. It
appears that the American public its advocates who want to help solve
the mystery of admissions and financial aid in higher education have filled
a niche (and responded to a scenario) caused by all of us in the trade.
Consequently, colleges have developed individual models of admitting
students and offering various forms of financial aid that reflect the
unique needs of each school. Regardless of the perceived quality of the
college or university, colleges use ever-changing criteria and reasoning
to decide who gets in, why they get in, and where the school will invest
its merit, talent, and need-based financial-aid resources.
On the other hand, students and their advocates in the college-search
process believe that there is a singular magical formula for success.
It seems to involve: (1) getting the highest grade-point average, (2)
taking every available AP and honors-level class, and (3) filling all
free time with various co-curricular activities. Oh, and let's not forget
(4) volunteer service, (5) leadership activities, and (5) achieving the
highest possible standardized test scores. Then, and only then, will the
student be a choice (as in worthy) candidate for almost any top school.
Work hard in school, get good grades, and you'll get into a good school!
That maxim no longer applies in today's college-search scenario as students
and their advocates wonder:
What are colleges really looking for in candidates?
How do we know if we're under-prepared (or over-prepared)?
What do they actually do with all of our financial information?
Why does the whole system seem like a big mystery lately?
Students, parents, teachers, guidance professionals, the media, third-party
vendors, non-profit associations, and any advocate of a student's quest
to attend college have all helped create a free market system, spawned
and nurtured by a myriad of economic, social, legal, demographic, and,
now, business dynamics. The only way to understand and manage the systematic
differences among college-admission and financial-aid practices is to
learn to ask the right questions. And, just as important, look at the
process from the college's point of view.
Note: We'd like to hear from you. What do you think
the right questions are? Please share your thoughts about the causes of,
and the trends that describe the current state of admissions and financial
aid in American higher education. And if you think you have a better system
to address the current state of affair, please share your insights! Send
your comments to davidh@CollegeConfidential.com
Editorials represent the opinion of the author, not
necessarily that of CollegeConfidential.com, Inc. Do YOU have an opinion
about the college process you would like to articulate here? For consideration,
send your editorial to editorials@collegeconfidential.com.
