February 2010 Lawlor Focus

The View From the Trenches

During this month’s Lawlor Forum in Chicago, The Lawlor Group gathered senior admission, financial aid and marketing administrators from private colleges and universities across the nation to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities they find themselves facing at this point in their recruiting cycle. While the conversation spanned a wide array of topics, the following emerged as top areas of interest:

Increase in applications—At most institutions, the number of applications is up over this time last year, along with admits and deposits at several institutions. Many are seeing an increase in high-ability applicants, and some institutions have noted that the average expected family contribution of their FAFSA applicants thus far is running higher than last year’s average. Yet, as one participant noted, “We still feel like we’re on thin ice, because we don’t really know what all these numbers will mean” for fall matriculation. The possibility that more applicants will attempt to leverage their financial aid by playing institutions against one another is causing apprehension among admission officers. “We are recruiting students who have lots of other options,” said one participant.

More overlap with public institutions and community colleges—Several institutions are experiencing changes in their competitor sets. The trends could be viewed as favorable to private colleges in some respects, yet unfavorable in others. For example, the increase in cross-applications with public institutions might reflect an influx of applicants who would normally prefer a public but are worried that academic quality and availability of courses are suffering at publics due to budget cuts. At the same time, however, the increase in cross-applications with community colleges among high-ability students may be reflecting the marketplace’s frugality.

More students of color applying—Participants engaged in much speculation about the reason that institutions across the board are seeing an increase in the number of applications from students of color—especially among Hispanic applicants. But given that goals to expand diversity often place a strain on financial resources, the most important question seemed to be, “How do we afford our increase in diversity?” With the applicant pool seeming “bipolar,” as one participant put it, in terms of academic quality at several institutions, many colleges are now focused on achieving a critical mass of “middle” students when it comes to income and ability.

State grants in jeopardy—Concern was universal with regard to potential cuts in (or in some cases, elimination of) state programs for tuition grants. Between one-third and one-half of the student body at most institutions could be affected, so administrators are busy making the case to legislators that the grants are justified based on private colleges’ success in serving middle- and lower income students and their high persistence and graduation rates.

Strong fall-to-spring retention—Somewhat of a pleasant surprise was the large extent to which first-year students persisted at their institutions between the fall and spring semesters. The predominant explanation was that they could be “hunkering down” due to the financial uncertainty of making a change. A related topic of discussion was the warning signs of attrition, and participants shared several tips for, if not preventing withdrawals, at least knowing that they are coming.

Social media’s role in lead generation—With the advent of the Cappex and Zinch web sites, as well as tools like the NRCCUA’s My College Options and Hobson’s Active Match that integrates with Naviance, institutions are finding more opportunities for name-buying intended to “help create better matches.” There was discussion regarding at what point it’s appropriate to place inquirers from social networks like Facebook into the communication flow, and one of the participants described his institution’s recent efforts toward implementing a full-blown social media communication plan that encompasses lead generation as well as engagement.

Lawlor Recommends

All signs indicate that prospective students are actively “shopping” for options this year. The distance between an admitted student and a matriculant is great, despite the short timeframe you have for conversion. While the financial aid package may indeed be the determining factor for more families this year, private colleges and universities must nevertheless stress value as much as possible. Here are a few ways to engage:

• Stress benefits—Explain what students will experience and why it matters, especially when discussing persistence and graduation rates, access to courses, and personalized advising.
• Explain financial aid—In particular, let families know exactly when they can expect to receive their packages.
• Push applicants to visit—Manage the experience of the campus visit to ensure that families are getting an authentic picture of the life of the college.
• Pay attention to transfers—Take advantage of the “swirling” phenomenon (more students attending multiple institutions on their way toward a degree) as a possibility for boosting your matriculants.

In the news

In “Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It’s Awesome,” The New York Times reports that University of Pennsylvania researchers determined the most-e-mailed newspaper articles have positive rather than negative themes and are lengthy treatments of intellectually challenging topics—and that readers mostly want to share articles that inspire awe.

Did you know?

More Americans believe their financial condition will be worse in six months (30%) than better (21%), with the remaining half expecting it to remain the same.

Source: Harris Interactive