Enrollment Management
Since the mid-1970’s, when Maguire Associates Chairman Jack Maguire first introduced the concept of "enrollment management," hundreds of colleges and universities have realigned their people and processes to achieve an integrated, comprehensive approach to recruitment, student services, and retention. It is a process of continuous improvement, as each institution seeks ways to consistently achieve such critical outcomes as:
- Positioning the institution uniquely and raising its rankings;
- Targeting markets from which to draw an ideal mix of students;
- Optimizing enrollment – class size, geographic reach, quality, selectivity, gender balance, diversity, and program enrollment;
- Measuring demand for current and proposed programs;
- Setting appropriate pricing to optimize net total revenue;
- Maximizing the impact of institutional aid while keeping the discount rate in check;
- Streamlining student administrative services;
- Strengthening student satisfaction and retention;
- Assessing the institutional impact of student debt;
- Measuring student achievement – graduation rate, job placement, and graduate/professional school placement; and
- Maximizing the use of resources through organizational / operations development.
For over 20 years, Maguire Associates has applied innovations in market research, statistical analysis, and predictive modeling through tailored consulting services. These services have helped presidents and trustees, chief enrollment officers, chief academic officers, deans and directors of admission, and directors of financial aid at hundreds of institutions achieve key outcomes – even in the face of tremendous change across the higher education landscape.
Competitive Analysis and Positioning
To help position your institution uniquely and enhance its image, we work with you to:
- Identify a competition set (current and aspirational) based on institutional and market data;
- Perform environmental scans and benchmark analyses focusing on key performance indicators;
- Research prospective students, their parents, guidance counselors, and other audiences to elicit their perceptions of relative strengths, weaknesses, standing, and overall positioning;
- Review competitive communications materials.
Based on our research and analysis, we will deliver:
- A competitive map delineating how your institution (or program) is currently positioned/viewed by key constituencies;
- Insights on how parents and guidance counselors are likely to impact enrollment decisions;
- An attribute set upon which you can build distinctive messaging and positioning;
- Action recommendations on how to improve positive perceptions among key constituencies.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Increased visibility and demand
- Effective market positioning
- Clear messaging platform
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Refining Target Markets
To help institutions focus their resources on optimum primary, secondary and tertiary markets from which to attract the ideal mix of students, we:
- Analyze the dynamics of your current target markets and identify targets of interest – students with high academic quality, students of color, students from specific geographic areas, males, students with special academic interests, athletes – as well as geographic areas worthy of investment;
- Conduct market research to determine marketing approaches that can maximize your school’s attractiveness to these groups;
- Determine when and how parents of your target prospects influence enrollment decisions;
- Identify best practices for attracting audiences of interest.
Based on our research and analysis, we will deliver:
- A map of potentially strong primary, secondary, and tertiary markets;
- Recommendations for enhancing admission marketing strategies;
- Recommendations on how admissions resources might best be organized and deployed;
- Recommendations on the mix and timing of media and messages that most resonate with your target audiences.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Larger pool of more desirable candidates at all stages of the enrollment process
- Stronger market differentiation
- Increased attractiveness in target markets
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Optimizing Admissions Funnel Dynamics and Management
To help clients build and maximize potential in their inquiry pools, we:
- Analyze the historical dynamics of your admissions funnel;
- Conduct research to identify the key drivers of application to, and enrollment in, your institution;
- Audit current operational practices pertaining to each stage of the funnel.
Based on our research, analysis, and predictive modeling, we will deliver:
- Search recommendations based on optimal counts for each stage of your funnel;
- Ways to "qualify" the inquiry pool and best use your admissions resources;
- Yield forecasts for desired subgroups within the inquiry pool;
- Recommended best practices (operational and organizational) for enhancing conversion rates based on your institution’s drivers of application and enrollment.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Higher yield at each funnel stage
- More economical and effective student search process
- Streamlined admissions operation
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Market Demand Analysis
To help institutions measure demand for current and proposed programs, we:
- Research the potential market size and student interest for a given program;
- Analyze competitive programs and identify entry barriers;
- Identify areas of differentiation from competitive programs.
Based on our research and analysis, we will deliver:
- A market map of competing programs with market share and quality/desirability ratings;
- A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) of a current program or set of programs;
- Insights regarding likely future demand;
- Aspects on which to build positive positioning.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Improved return-on-investment decision making
- Better use of institutional resources
- Increased revenue and enrollment
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Strategic Pricing and Forecasting
To help institutions determine if their tuition and fees are set appropriately to optimize market position and net tuition revenue, we:
- Review past planning documents, statistical analyses, and external/internal reports, and conduct interviews with several senior members of the community;
- Identify an agreed-upon set of benchmark institutions and analyze current pricing and yield relative to cross-applications, admits, and enrollment;
- Apply predictive modeling to determine the effect of various price changes on a variety of criteria, such as class size, gender balance, geographic reach, diversity, and net total revenue.
Based on our analysis and modeling, we will deliver:
- Findings on the current performance of the institution relative to the competitive set;
- Scenarios illustrating the effect of different pricing/discount rate options on class size, gender balance, geographic reach, diversity, and net total revenue.
- Recommendations for near- and longer-term pricing changes.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Optimal pricing and discount levels
- Increased revenue
- Improved net tuition per student
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Strategic Use of Institutional Grant Aid – EMFASYS
Colleges and universities around the country are maximizing the strategic use of their institutional grant aid with EMFASYS™ – our Enrollment Management Forecast Analysis System. EMFASYS is a powerful, predictive modeling system for:
- Identifying the key drivers of enrollment for a particular institution;
- Examining the interaction of a wide range of current policy and financial options related to enrollment goals;
- Forecasting the effects of institutional grant aid allocations on enrollment goals, net tuition revenue, and institutional aid budgets;
- Making informed trade-off decisions to set aggressive but achievable enrollment and financial goals;
- Distributing institutional funds in ways that help achieve those goals.
Clients have successfully used EMFASYS to increase the size and academic quality of their entering classes, to apply their institutional grant aid and scholarship dollars strategically, and to increase net total revenue. As a strategic planning tool, it helps institutions proactively shape opportunities for planned growth and change amidst the rapidly shifting challenges of higher education.
We consistently hear from our clients how this methodology helps:
- Presidents and senior administrators develop solid strategic plans by weighing in advance the tradeoffs – pro and con – among different possible sets of enrollment goals;
- Enrollment management officers sculpt and deliver incoming classes with regard to enrollment numbers, quality, diversity, geographic distribution, etc.;
- Financial aid officers maximize the positive impact of institutional grant awards;
- Chief financial officers generate additional tuition revenue that can be invested in faculty, facilities, infrastructure, and the fiscal health of the institution.
An EMFASYS engagement also creates an opportunity for people in Admissions, Financial Aid, and Enrollment Management to learn how to apply new planning and analysis approaches with greater self-sufficiency.
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How We Work With You
An EMFASYS engagement typically evolves in three stages:
- Modeling – We work with you and a designated team at your campus to prepare a database of admitted students from the last two years that we can analyze using an EMFASYS statistical model. This helps determine which factors are statistically relevant to predicting enrollment for your institution.
- Goal Setting – Together, we pose "what-if" questions to evaluate a variety of institutional grant packaging strategies and their likely impact on key variables such as academic quality, net tuition revenue, yield, and class composition. This enables you to shape for the coming year a realistic set of enrollment goals and an institutional aid budget that will deliver maximum benefit for your institution.
- Awarding & Monitoring – You can select from two awarding approaches. For Option 1 – we create customized awarding rules that you can apply to optimize your use of institutional aid. We build into the model specific funding guidelines that your institution elects to use for the current year's awarding, and prepare a set of detailed matrices that you can use to allocate the grant portion of need-based and merit aid for the entering class.
Alternatively, with Option 2 – which most clients select – we use the EMFASYS model to award institutional aid for each individual accepted student. You simply send us data on all admitted students by e-mail during the awarding process, and we return the appropriate institutional grant awards, usually on the same day. The Financial Aid Office can then package these awards with other external aid sources and send them out to each student.
Unlike offerings that simply identify those students most likely to enroll, EMFASYS targets them as well as other students who will enable you to shape your incoming class as desired. EMFASYS provides a reliable forecast of likely outcomes months in advance of a recruitment cycle. We also provide regular status reports of updated enrollment projections – and details for all the variables you've deemed important in your enrollment goals. You always know how well your institution is meeting its enrollment goals as well as the likely outcomes.
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Streamlining Student Administrative Services
Students and families are increasingly expecting enhanced levels of services related to business functions such as: receiving financial aid, registering, paying a student account. As competition and customer demand increase, chief financial officers, student affairs professionals, directors of financial aid, bursars and business officers, and student financial services directors are working to reshape and integrate the delivery of student administrative services. In support of these efforts, we:
- Analyze current organizational structure, operational processes, staffing, technological support;
- Review consumer information provided to applicants, students, parents and alumni by administrative units;
- Research priorities among students and their parents for student-centered services;
- Identify opportunities to integrate business office/bursar, financial aid, student accounts, collections, and registration operations and practices.
Based on our research and analysis, we deliver:
- A listing of services desired and prioritized by students and parents;
- Recommendations for improving and integrating services;
- Recommended best practices (print and electronic) and organizational changes;
- Customer-service training.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Increased student/parent satisfaction
- Improved institutional cash flow (through better receivables management, policies, procedures)
- Cost savings from organizational change, automation, and outsourcing
- More efficient use of human and operational resources
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Strengthening Satisfaction and Retention
To help institutions build strong, long-term relationships with students, faculty, and staff, we:
- Review your historical retention trends and apply logistic regression analysis to pinpoint key drivers of dissatisfaction and decisions to withdraw that are particular to your institution;
- Compare retention rates with a benchmarked competitor set;
- Research levels of overall satisfaction among students, faculty and/or staff and identify factors contributing to satisfaction/dissatisfaction;
- Segment students who are dissatisfied but remain as well as those who are satisfied but withdraw to investigate underlying causes;
- Apply predictive modeling to identify likely retention rates over time.
Based on our research, analysis, and predictive modeling, we will deliver:
- Findings of causal factors of dissatisfaction and withdrawal;
- Recommended prioritized actions that can increase satisfaction and retention of students, faculty, and staff.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Increased student retention
- Reduced faculty and staff turnover
- Reduced recruiting costs
- Increased pool of potentially engaged alumni
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Educational Debt and Financing Assessment
Student and parental debt is growing as educational costs increase and grant awards remain the same. Students and parents continue to borrow extensively from institutional and private loan programs. Thus, the perception of institutional affordability includes the level of debt they must assume to meet the student’s educational goals. The level of debt impacts enrollment, diversity, retention, and alumni giving during the estimated 30-year loan repayment period.
Increasingly, presidents, chief enrollment officers, chief academic officers, alumni directors, directors of financial aid, vice presidents of student affairs, and offices of minority enrollment and services are working to develop plans to address the impact of debt levels, support fund raising and promote affordability by addressing educational financing and financial aid. In support of these efforts, we:
- Conduct alumni research on total (multiple programs, multiple institutions) borrowing and debt levels as related to alumni salaries, the impact;
- Research satisfaction levels of current and former students along with the impact of student debt levels on enrollment, attrition and repayment;
- Investigate opportunities to support institutional fund raising for financial aid;
- Evaluate different strategic pricing and discounting alternatives;
- Calculate costs and payments over four years.
Based on our research and analysis, we deliver:
- Findings regarding the near – and longer – term impact of borrower debt on the institution;
- Recommendations for alternative pricing and discounting options;
- Recommended practices in counseling students and parents on debt repayment trends.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Increased student retention
- Improved perception of affordability
- Increased opportunity for alumni giving
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Student Achievement Outcomes Surveys
With increasing emphasis among families, accrediting institutions, and government on measuring the value of investments in higher education, senior administrators are more actively monitoring – and where necessary, improving – student achievement outcomes associated with their institutions. In support of these efforts, we:
- Compile and evaluate information on student graduation rates from the client institution and competitor institutions;
- Research job placement and graduate/professional school placement of alumni from a client institution;
- Determine levels of satisfaction and perceived value by alumni.
Based on our research and analysis, we deliver:
- A comparative evaluation of student outcomes including the competitor set and normative national data;
- An overview of contributing factors affecting graduation rates and alumni satisfaction for the client institution;
- A report categorizing job placement and graduate/professional school placement by major and/or program area along with recommendations for areas for targeted improvement.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Increased graduation rates
- Refined information on job placement
- Refined information on graduate/professional school placement
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Organization Development and Operations Improvement
Since the concept of enrollment management was introduced 20 years ago, institutions have developed different organizational structures and practices – all with the goal of building effective, efficient operations. Each approach offers value and constraints. What’s more, as an institution evolves, it can outgrow structures and processes that once – but no longer – serve the institution well. To help an institution embrace organizational structures and operational practices best suited to its current needs, we:
- Review past and current enrollment organizations and trace the evolution of various enrollment positions within the institution;
- Interview senior and middle management to identify perceived organizational strengths and constraints;
- Inventory the collective skill sets of the enrollment staff;
- Chart the workflow of all touchpoints with students and their parents throughout the admissions, financial aid, and enrollment process.
Based on our research and analysis, we deliver:
- An assessment of strengths and shortcomings in organizational structure, staffing, and operational practices;
- Alternative organizational structures, if appropriate, along with associated job descriptions;
- Recommended enhancements to the current workflow process including suggestions for where paper-based processes should be retained or converted to electronic workflow;
- A training and development plan for enrollment personnel to streamline the transition to new organizational structures and/or operational practices.
We can also work with you on an implementation program that includes activities, schedules, and measured outcomes.
Key outcomes addressed:
- Higher admissions yield
- Earlier warning on admissions and/or retention problems
- Cost savings
- Improved productivity
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