From inquiry forms, application portals, text replies, and campus visit sign-ins, your admissions office likely collects a great deal of data. The question becomes what to do with it. How can your team put this information to work for your institution?
Your recruitment strategy is an ideal place to let data lead your decision-making, especially as you plan to tackle the enrollment cliff. With the college-going population projected to shrink by 15% over the next five to ten years, now is the time to find innovative ways to connect with prospective students. Using the right data, your admissions office can see what brings students in, what makes them likely to enroll and stay, and where your recruitment efforts are best spent.
In this guide, we’ll explore five key types of data that can help inform your recruitment strategy.
1. Inquiry-to-enrollment funnel data
Your recruitment funnel follows each student from their first contact with your institution to their first day of class. Funnel data shows you how many students move through every stage, so you can see where your team has the best chance to guide them toward enrollment. Working backward from your enrollment goal also shows you how many inquiries and applications you need at each stage to reach it.
To build a clear picture of your funnel, track the following:
- Inquiry sources. Note the origin of each inquiry, which might include your website, college fairs, campus visits, and text campaigns. Then compare the paths of inquiries across different channels through to enrollment to see which ones bring in students who apply, deposit, and show up in the fall.
- Conversion at every stage. Calculate the share of inquiries that become applicants, the share of applicants who are admitted, and the share of admitted students who commit, deposit, and attend. Compare these rates by program, location, and student type to see where a small change could have the biggest impact.
- Response time. Record how long your team takes to reply to each inquiry and which channels get the quickest responses. For instance, you might compare application rates for students who heard back within a day and those who heard back within a week to discover the optimal response window for encouraging students to apply.
Seeing your whole funnel in one place helps you focus your time and budget on the stages with the most potential. It also helps you find “leaks” in the funnel, where adjustments to your strategy could go a long way toward improving application and enrollment rates.
2. Yield and summer melt rates
Yield is the percentage of admitted students who decide to enroll. Summer melt refers to students who submit deposits in the spring but do not attend in the fall. Tracking your institution’s yield rate against summer melt shows you how well your aid offers, campus visits, and follow-up messages keep students excited and organized between acceptance and the first day of class.
Looking at your overall yield rate is a good start, but you’ll need to dive deeper to see the full picture. Break down yield by program, location, financial aid status, and first-generation student status to see where yield is strong and where there is room to grow.
Then watch for early signs of melt, like unfinished paperwork, unpaid balances, or missed orientation sign-ups. A student who stalls on one task over the summer often just needs a quick reminder–like a text or email from your institution–to get back on track for attending in the fall.
3. Student engagement data
One of the biggest challenges in recruitment is clearly demonstrating the value of the experience your institution provides. Prospective students want to know that they will find their people on your campus, and their families want assurance that their children will have the support they need to graduate. Engagement data shows how connected students feel to campus, and that connection is closely tied to retention. Students who find a club, a mentor, or a reason to come back are more likely to stay enrolled.
To share more accurate details about campus life with prospective students and families, consider investing in a comprehensive student engagement platform that can gather insights and metrics on involvement in one place, like event attendance, club participation, and app logins.
Ready Education recommends comparing engagement data with GPAs to see how involvement relates to student success. To retain students’ trust along the way, remember that when tracking individual students’ activity, you should protect their privacy by storing data securely and training staff on compliance each year.
4. Retention rates and first-year experience data
Strong retention rates show whether you are recruiting students who thrive at your institution and help you appeal to families comparing schools. Your student engagement platform can help you improve student retention by tracking attendance and credits earned for each student. You can also tag students by group, such as first-generation or transfer students, to see how each cohort is performing and offer support early.
Retention is most vulnerable between the first and second years of college, so you will need to ensure first-year students are settling in and building strong habits that will carry them through to graduation.
To gauge your institution’s first-year experience and retention rates, track the following metrics:
- First-to-second-year retention. The percentage of first-year students who return for a second year is the most important metric to monitor. Break down first-to-second-year retention by program, student cohort, and transfer status to see who tends to need the most support to stay.
- Credits earned and first-term GPA. These performance metrics show your team how students are settling in during their first semester. They also point to students who could use early intervention and outreach from your student affairs team about tutoring or advising.
- Orientation and advising participation. Collect participation data during orientation to make sure everyone stays on track. Track who attends orientation and who meets with an advisor in the first term, then compare retention across those groups.
Review your first-year data alongside your inquiry source to identify which elements of your recruitment strategy are most effective at bringing in students who stay. That way, your admissions team can build on the efforts that connect with students who go on to thrive at your institution.
5. Career readiness outcomes
Prospective students and their families want to know what doors a degree or certificate from your institution opens. Post-graduation job placement rates and internship participation equip your admissions team with specific information about career readiness to share in the recruitment process.
To demonstrate your institution’s focus on career readiness, track information about participation in student organizations, leadership roles, and service hours, which can sometimes impress employers more than a GPA. Look for a student engagement platform with guided journeys that let students earn badges and build a co-curricular transcript to share with employers and graduate programs. Show an example transcript to prospective students and families at campus visits to illustrate how your institution helps students build and document their real-world readiness.
Tracking these five types of data gives your admissions team a clear view of the student journey, from inquiry through employment or graduate school. Start by checking which types of data your office already tracks and analyzes. Then select one you’re missing, like yield or first-year retention, and review it with your team to build a stronger recruitment strategy.
