As student recruitment consultants, higher ed institutions ask us to focus on a range of pain points. We see an increasing number of institutions, driven by global competition, evolving markets, economic pressures, changing immigration policies, and more, seeking strategic realignment of their admissions and enrollment processes. The evolving ed tech marketplace brings new tools and AI to the process adding to the intrigue. Could technology be the critical player to winning the game? Sometimes, yes.
It was no surprise to us when international enrollment officers packed the room for a presentation on Admission Process Analysis during the most recent AIRC conference. The conversation was led by Steven Boyd of Quinnipiac University and Intead’s Chief Strategy Officer Britt Godshalk who spoke directly to concerns we are hearing straight from enrollment staff. Concerns like:
- “We need to know where our best markets are. We have an incredibly high volume of applicants with a very small yield.”
- “Sometimes we have enough applications. But how do we make sure students actually enroll?”
- “I need to figure out how to move from our current enrollment plateau. And I feel like we’ve tried everything.”
- “We have a communications coordinator specifically for admissions and I don’t know how to use him."
Sound familiar? You could write a book with the number of times we hear comments like these. In fact, our friend and colleague Dr. David D Maria, SIO and Vice Provost for International Education at UMBC, literally did (find his Achieving More with Less: Lean Management in International Student Office in the NAFSA bookstore – highly recommend).
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Relying on our experience working with a wide range of institutions, public and private, over the past 15 years (and the guidance from David’s book), we have helped admissions leaders identify the admissions pain points that drive students away rather than drawing them closer in. Importantly, this fascinating day-long exercise uncovers opportunities to fix the problems and the improvement measures to track results. Ah yes, some good news.
Process mapping is a simple idea on the face of it. Like any problem-solving session addressing a complex, multi-layered process, the key to success is getting the right people in the right room to wrestle the right questions. We’re sure you know just what we mean. Practical to downright critical cross-departmental conversations are too few and far between.
IT, Marketing, Enrollment, Admissions, and faculty (at the graduate level) all play a role. Credential evaluation always comes up as a pain point (more on that in just a bit). Yet, when institutions bring all stakeholders together for one full day to critically examine how their roles interconnect, the clarity is remarkable. We’ve seen even the most efficient teams benefit. And by the end, everyone has a new appreciation for sticky notes and our whiteboard is filled with sound ideas, big and small.
The litmus test for us is always this: at the end of the day, does everyone see a clear, achievable path forward? From the clear immediate wins to the more time-intensive improvements, a shared vision for a more efficient process will result. That’s the point of process mapping. Read on…
Admissions Process Mapping is one of those exercises where you get out of it what you put into it. And trust us, there is always something to glean. The work has everything to do with better understanding each of your colleague’s experience in the admissions process and why certain steps may take longer than others. The focus throughout: the prospective student experience.
What draws the prospective student closer to you? What pushes them away?
Let’s use the international student segment as an example to review how the process works.
→ Get everyone in the same room.
This is a requirement; otherwise, the process is for naught. Get everyone together to talk frankly about what their individual roles are and to learn how those roles interact to move an application through to enrollment.
Moderated well and with positive energy, you will see the team gel around specific areas. Consider your IT folks for their data tracking and control of edtech systems. Your marketing folks are producing messaging and controlling the CRM (customer relations management) system (are you using Slate?). Your Enrollment and Admissions folks already have an ongoing dialogue with each other (hopefully an effective one at that). Someone in Admissions is managing the credential evaluation process. Your Dean of the Graduate School hopefully has insight into how various department heads are managing (or not) their role in admitting at the graduate level. From the junior evaluator who is in the trenches every day, to the senior leader who holds the purse strings and has the ear of higher leadership, everyone has an important voice at the table. It is quite remarkable to be a part of it.
→ Start with your admissions goal.
You want to raise international enrollment by X% in Y number of years. That should come from your institution’s leadership and your strategic plan. Is this realistic? How far off from the goal are you? A specific target is important. Many institutions lack this clarity and, if you don’t have that, it may take some market research to determine a wise and realistic enrollment goal.
→ Define parameters.
Your focus is all processes from inquiry to enrollment for each cohort. You will need a day (can be reduced to 2/3 of a day) to discuss one international (or domestic) cohort at a time, e.g., undergraduate, graduate, transfer. As you get your team oriented to the task ahead, keep in mind the 80% rule. Focus only on those activities that apply to 80% of applicants in the cohort being discussed. There are always so many anomalies that will come up during the assessment. When (not if) someone raises an application situation that is not relevant to 80% of the applicants, set that problem area aside. Be strict about this. (At every session we hear someone yell from a huddle, “80 percent rule!”)
→ Map everything.
Who does what, when, and how. Lay it out visually – sticky notes are great for this type of conversation. You won’t believe the pain points that reveal themselves…and often, the simple solves (some simpler than others). Frequent culprits that lead to admissions inefficiencies: transcript evaluation delays, large volumes of incomplete applications, confusing website content that delays necessary student actions, ineffective and confusing email messaging – many things that go far beyond the basic operations.
→ Move past the culprits.
Only once you identify the bottlenecks, can you alleviate them. (Our Chief Strategy Officer’s favorite mantra is, “you can’t solve a problem that you can’t say out loud.”) It’s not always an overnight fix, but often there are a few that can be resolved in 48 hours.
A recent example demonstrating the power of new edtech opportunities: a private institution in New England we work with applied a new, up-and-coming edtech tool to process 11,000 applications in one day. Compare that to the 1,500+ hours that would normally take with humans spending an average 8 minutes per application.
MyDocs is an AI-powered platform able to review transcripts (PDFs, JPEGs, photos) and make them machine readable. That means you can compare them en masse, extract just those applications that meet specific criteria (have a 3.0 GPA or better, have an AP class with an C+ or better).
The new wave of edtech tools for enrollment management and admissions leaves a lot to be desired largely in terms of their actual ease of implementation. Like most tech, they tell you about the fast and seamless integration and then reality sets in. Nevertheless, we are very impressed by John Reese's latest initiative (some of you may recall him as the founder of Parchment). When he called us seeking our marketing counsel for the launch of MyDocs, we learned a lot and offered a lot. We’ll talk more about why we found his latest enrollment-focused edtech worth our time, and yours, in our next blog post. Stay tuned.
So, back to our admissions assessments. You’ll want to define your next steps. As the assessment wraps up, you and your team will consider these questions:
- What will take your team from its current state to the ideal in a measurable amount of time?
- How can technology help and where is the human touch needed?
- What can you realistically afford to do now?
- Who will be responsible for seeing each fix through?
- How will you track the results to confirm improvement toward your goal?
Recently, our colleague Jon Boeckenstedt posted on LinkedIn, “Attend quickly to things you can fix, like archaic processes and broken systems that fight against enrollment success.” We couldn’t agree more. Good advice made simpler when the entire enrollment team comes together to work through the pain points and pull the opportunities through. And, the Intead team is available to support (we love this stuff). Be in touch.
