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Education Dive
Pandemic has shaken colleges' future enrollment prospects: survey
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
Oct. 19, 2020
Dive Brief:
More than half of college enrollment officers said in a recent survey
they expect the pandemic to significantly affect how they build their
applicant pools going forward.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling, in
conjunction with software company Salesforce, surveyed nearly 400
admissions officers in August and September to gauge their enrollment
strategies and the data used to bolster them.
The findings suggest the coronavirus will likely influence colleges' ability to recruit and retain students for years to come.
Dive Insight:
NACAC's survey focused on data sources colleges rely on for
recruitment, as well as which pieces of their enrollment process they
keep in-house and those they outsource. Retention efforts, for
instance, are most frequently conducted by universities, according to
the survey. But the search for potential students is handled by outside
vendors and institutions about equally.
More than 320 admissions professionals answered a question about how
the pandemic has impacted enrollment prospects. Nearly 53% said they
anticipated either a "substantial" or "profound" effect on creating
applicant pools for fall 2021 and beyond.
College enrollment already looks shaky this fall, with undergraduate
counts down by 4% compared to last year, as of late September.
Community college enrollment, in particular, took a hit, down by more
than 9% year-over-year.
NACAC said in a statement that the virus has stymied the operations of
testing providers and other organizations that provide colleges with
information about prospective students. "And as a result, the data
colleges have traditionally depended on to find right-fit students is
no longer available to the same extent," the group wrote.
COVID-19 has deeply affected testing companies, which have estimated
vast contingents of students couldn't take the SAT or ACT in the spring
or fall. Exam dates keep getting canceled, and a rapidly expanding
number of institutions have moved to test-optional policies, albeit
some temporarily.
Colleges buy information students share with test companies and use it to target prospective applicants.
To mitigate data deficiencies, colleges are increasing the sources and
parameters they use to find applicants, and they are purchasing more
student names, the survey found. Out of 209 enrollment officers, about
a quarter said nothing is being done to correct the absence of data.
Institutions are also trying to "better utilize" data, according to the
survey, and look for more opportunities to outsource.
Angel Pérez, NACAC's president, said in the statement "it will be
critical" that admissions staff become proficient at interpreting data.
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