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Education Dive
Colleges just got a lot more leeway to recruit students
Hallie Busta
Sept. 30, 2019
Dive Brief:
The National Association for College Admission Counseling's (NACAC)
Assembly voted to remove three provisions from its Code of Ethics and
Professional Practices.
The vote during the association's annual meeting last week was an
effort by NACAC to get ahead of a two-year investigation by the U.S.
Department of Justice's antitrust division, which found several of the
code's measures limited competition and could lower costs for students
if removed. They include banning incentives for early decision
applicants and recruiting students who have committed to a college.
Admissions experts say the changes will heighten competition for
students, particularly among colleges struggling to fill their classes,
and could make it harder to determine yields.
Dive Insight:
The changes aim "to advance a good-faith compromise with the department
and to mitigate the potential impact of other actions the department
might take," NACAC wrote on its website. And they have the effect of
turning college recruiting into a year-round event.
Perhaps the most significant change is removing language from the code
stating that "once students have committed themselves to a college,
other colleges must respect that choice and cease recruiting them," and
that "May 1 is the point at which commitments to enroll become final,
and colleges must respect that."
It also struck language banning colleges from offering exclusive
incentives to early decision applicants, such as special scholarships
or more financial aid. And it scratched a requirement that colleges
forgo soliciting previous applicants who enrolled at another
institution in order to get them to transfer.
While the period after May 1 has traditionally been a slow one for many
colleges, recent reports suggest that a growing number of institutions
aren't able to fill their classes by then. Continued concerns about
attrition of admitted students throughout the summer also could be
amplified.
John Barnhill, assistant vice president for academic affairs at Florida
State University, expects schools that are struggling to fill their
classes will actively recruit into the summer and beyond.
"That kind of continual recruitment, if you will, has never really
happened and I could see some schools adopting a policy like that," he
said in an interview with Education Dive. "If they could pick up
another 10 or 15 students and transfer, whether it's mid-year or after
a year or two, that's something that may be worth doing if their costs
are just simple emails (for) staying in touch."
Efforts to counter the changes' effects may include colleges raising
students' deposit fees and adding incentives for early decision
applicants, wrote Jon Boeckenstedt, vice provost for enrollment
management at Oregon State University, in a blog post ahead of the
vote. The changes may also spur the need for better tracking of whether
students have submitted deposits. And they could, indeed, have the
effect of lowering college costs, he noted.
They could also help improve equity in admissions. "Often the most
vulnerable students are later to the admissions process," said Annie
Reznik, executive director of the Coalition for College, which focuses
on college access. She added that the changes could be a positive for
those students, "ending the notion that things are really over at May
1, and you needn't bother trying still."
However, the lack of a stated policy could end up favoring students who
are more aware of how the admissions process works, she said.
Barnhill agrees with the Justice Department's assessment that current
policies limit competition. But he is concerned that the changes will
make picking a college — and staying there — more difficult for
students.
"There's some good and bad there" for students, he said. "They will
certainly receive a lot more correspondence and a lot more recruitment
efforts, and hopefully that won't be too confusing or off-putting to
them."
Reznik hopes colleges will take a beat before changing their
recruitment strategies. "Especially in light of what's happened in the
last six months, really carefully understanding why certain practices,
procedures, timelines were in place in the first place, and whether or
not those continue to make sense" is important, she said.
NACAC still expects the Justice Department to take steps to enforce a
complaint and consent decree, The Wall Street Journal reported. The
probe is in line with other recent moves by the federal government to
involve itself in the operations of colleges and universities. And it
comes as NACAC finds itself making structural changes to address its
own financial woes, according to Inside Higher Ed.
A NACAC representative was not available to speak with Education Dive on Monday.
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