Author: Dwyer Education Strategies

Dr. Scott D. Miller President Wesley College Leveraging formulas and predictive modeling programs have become popular in recent years. Using historic trends, tracking individual characteristics of aid recipients and calculating conversions and yields can be useful. College and university administrators should be cautious, however, when purchasing such services. Financial aid is certainly an important influence in the college selection process. It would be a mistake to overestimate the impact of the amount of aid or aid structure in decision- making. So many other factors can influence college choice. Location, academic reputation, facilities, co curricular opportunities, academic support services and even […]

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Douglas E. Clark Vice President of Enrollment Management Ferrum College Enrollment managers are, with the possible exception of those with unlimited budgets, confronted with the need to make choices about how their marketing dollars are spent. When resources are scarce, it is important to maximize the results from every marketing dollar.? One ongoing issue is how to divide the dollars between advertising activities and direct marketing activities. This article will argue the dollars spent on direct marketing have more impact than advertising dollars. So the next time you are pressed by admissions ?experts? who want you to spend your scarce […]

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John W. Dysart President The Dysart Group, Inc. Colleges and universities generally raise the price of tuition every year. While there are the rare exceptions, most institutions raise prices to deal with planned improvements, annual increases levied on their own budgets by various vendors and the need to address salary adjustments and increases in benefit costs.? Sometimes, leaders need to consider approaches to pricing that are more aggressive than typical. I worked with one Southern college that made the difficult decision to implement a significant increase in tuition in 2005. The college leadership had held tuition increases to modest levels […]

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Louis Dupart Associate Fleishman and Walsh, LLP Colleges and universities are continually looking for new sources of funds. Naturally, people turn to Washington, D.C. and the federal appropriations process ? especially the Fund for Post Secondary Education (FPSE). But, like a field that has been plowed over and over, this source of funds is generating a lower yield because there are too many requests and not enough money. The answer is to target little used federal accounts that can be promising sources for funding. For example, federal money is available for highway and related infrastructure such as garages, sidewalks, overpasses, […]

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Tom Wogan President Edge Teleservices Not too long ago, the use of a teleservices vendor from outside the institution would have been unthinkable. Yet today, more and more of those responsible for increasing enrolment have realized that outsourcing offers a number of advantages. These include:?

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Douglas E. Clark Vice President for Enrollment Management Ferrum College In the enrollment management model of organization where admissions and financial aid both report to the same senior enrollment officer, it is not unusual in many small, private, liberal arts colleges for that officer to have more of a background in admissions than financial aid. Indeed, in many instances, the enrollment management model may actually have originated with (or least that may be the perception) ?putting financial aid under admissions.?? In such cases, it is not unusual to find the VPEM may have been a director of admissions and once […]

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Mike O’Grady Senior Vice President Student Loan Corporation The higher education industry has changed dramatically over the last thirty years. Separate offices devoted to financial aid, recruitment and retention have often been collapsed into enrollment management divisions.? The trend has been at some cost to financial aid professionals. In many cases, representatives in the Financial Aid Office no longer control the parameters of institutional scholarship and grant programs, even those based upon financial need. They are lucky to have a seat at the table as these programs are constructed but are still held accountable for their impact on expenditure levels […]

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Dr. Earl Brooks President Tri-State University The first step in successful implementation of an enrolment management plan is to clearly delineate responsibilities. Each division must understand its role in enrolment management.? The defining of roles and responsibilities begins in the Office of the President. The President is charged with setting the vision for what institutional leaders wish to accomplish. In addition to vision, the President must monitor overall implementation activities and ensure accountability in the process.? The Admission Office is very important. Representatives in the recruitment effort must achieve new student enrolment objectives in line with the strategic plan. New […]

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Dr. Jack P. Calasero President Ohio Dominican University Ohio Dominican University (Columbus, OH) is a four-year liberal arts institution, founded in 1911 in the Catholic and Dominican tradition. The university has over 2,500 students and offers undergraduate degrees in more than 35 majors as well as several Master?s level, graduate degree programs.? Ohio Dominican has been engaged in a number of significant activities in the past several years. These have included a major commitment to technology for the campus, a change in enrolment foci, the decision to expand at both the graduate level and in non-traditional programs (on and off […]

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April Clark CAS Approximately twenty percent of the population changes residence in any given year. Further, only 4-5% of these people take the time to notify the US Postal Service of the move. These two facts can have a huge impact on maintaining accurate databases and keeping open your communication channels with prospective students.? There are few things more discouraging for college and university marketing or admission divisions than stacks of undeliverable mail. At least with returned mail, one has an idea of the extent of the problem. Consider that significant amounts of mail are never received by the intended […]

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