Author: Dwyer Education Strategies

John W. Dysart President The Dysart Group, Inc. We are rapidly approaching the end of another recruitment cycle. If you are still hoping to improve your outcomes or at least maintain your current trends, you should make sure your enrollment division administrators are doing the following: Aggressively encourage new and returning students to apply for financial aid. Send written reminders, email messages and text messages to encourage completion of the FAFSA. Don?t hesitate to get on the telephone and call students who have not applied for financial aid. Make sure all of the students who have applied for financial aid […]

John W. Dysart President The Dysart Group, Inc. As colleges and universities seek to increase enrollments, many are attempting to expand their geographic reach by trying to recruit more out-of-state students. There are real challenges for schools seeking to grow the pool of out-of-state students: Studies show that 72% of high school graduates attend college in their home state and that only 14% leave their home geographic region to enroll in college. Out-of-state students usually are not eligible for state grants and this can increase the financial aid costs for the institution. There can be new expenses associated with dedicated […]

John W. Dysart President The Dysart Group, Inc. The higher education landscape is changing quickly. Demographic realities are impacting public, private and for-profit institutions. We are seeing, at many colleges and universities, increasing numbers of minority students, first-generation college students and high need students. Such trends are likely to continue for years to come. The good news is that there are literally hundreds of institutions willing to recruit and enroll students of color, students with high financial need, students with low standardized test scores, students with lower than average high school grade point averages and students coming from families with […]

Dr. Marylouise Fennell Principal Hyatt Fennell Dr. Scott D. Miller President Bethany College Competition among peer institutions is the most intense we have seen in over 30 years, with the demand for student-centered programs, services and facilities forcing significant shifts in institutional spending. But such ?cool? offerings come at substantial cost. It?s no secret that today?s Millennial generation expects amenities beyond what their grandparents and parents could have imagined in their wildest dreams. Food courts, shopping malls, fitness centers, state-of-the-art athletic facilities, high-end residences and well-equipped recreation attractions are not only expected, but essential to driving enrollment and retention. A […]

John W. Dysart President The Dysart Group, Inc. It is that time of year again. Students and families are in the midst of the college selection process. Up until now, choosing a college has been an abstract exercise. Now that the choices have narrowed, affordability comes into play. There is no question about the importance of price and financial aid. While we may hope that the final decision will be made based upon academic offerings, the quality of faculty and the opportunities for co-curricular activities, net price certainly influences the decision and sometimes is the determining factor. The role of […]

Academic Impressions is hosting a conference on tuition discounting in December. This is a reprint of a short interview regarding tuition discounting with enrollment management expert John W. Dysart, President of The Dysart Group, a boutique enrollment management consulting firm specializing in recruitment, financial aid and retention. Several industry experts continue to warn of higher-than-ever average tuition discount rates. However, a recent Academic Impressions survey completed by nearly 100 institutions revealed several institutions experiencing net tuition revenue gains, despite offering discounts at or above national averages. Do you see these situations as merely outliers or are they proof that institutions […]

Susan Coia Galley Founder Institutional Research, Assessment and Report Consulting Cost-Effective and Return On Investment (ROI) are terms with origins in the business sector. The dictionary defines Cost-Effective: ?Producing optimal results for the expenditure.? Complementing this definition: ?Return on investment (ROI) is the concept of an investment of some resource yielding a benefit to the investor. A high ROI means the investment gains compare favorably to investment cost. As a performance measure, ROI is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. In purely economic terms, it is one […]

April Clark Strategic Sales CAS Once upon a time, direct mail was the only game in town for student communication.? Then everyone predicted that direct mail would soon be obsolete.? But direct mail didn?t die, it was put on the back burner by some, until it was discovered that such communication is both measurable and predictable.? If you understand the creative component, select appropriate lists and make the right ?offer?? direct mail performs! The next chapter reveals that lo! And behold! direct mail in combination with other direct marketing channels performs even better.? So multi-channel marketing was born and prospers.? […]

Dr. Kathleen Ross President Emerita & Director ISIS Heritage University When the Institute for Student Identity and Success (ISIS) started at Heritage University in 2011, we focused on identifying under-addressed factors in the retention and graduation of New Majority (first-gen and/or low-income and/or minority) students.? We wanted to identify and then tackle an issue that wasn?t currently recognized as vital, rather than merely adding to the innumerable national and institutional initiatives to increase retention.? What surfaced in our search was a genuine surprise.? We found that very few projects were focusing on faculty practices that responded to the specific challenges […]