Dr. Donald Dement’s Post

Before the 2025 Enrollment Cliff, the Search Cliff is Already Here for Higher Ed Lead Generation Between the FCC ruling on one-to-one consent and recent state-by-state privacy laws, the traditional pools of those tried and true student names are getting shallower and shallower.  This relates heavily to new rules around testing. The College Board usually offers extensive databases of student names and college preferences through SAT testing. Now, students who take the test digitally and/or during the school week are not eligible for contact from schools they don’t explicitly select. As students move toward more online and midweek testing, the lists of names offered by services like the College Board and the ACT are going to get thinner and thinner.  Over the next three years, every state will see at least a 15% decrease in available names of eligible college students; for most, this will be even more dramatic. California’s name availability, for instance, is expected to decrease by 50%+ in the next three years, while states like Tennessee and Nevada–where the ACT is the test du jour for most seniors–will see an even more precipitous decrease. All told, the total number of available names nationwide is expected to take a 38% hit by 2027. Read the rest of the story from Halda.AI below. #highereducation #edtech #highered #ACT #SAT #CollegeBoard

The Digital SAT Suite is here. So what does this mean for institutions? The days of purchasing records ad hoc from the College board have passed. Facing uncertainty is always better with a strong partner. RNL’s team of experts are ready to assist. From translating existing search models to a Connections audience strategy to building compelling in-app creative to support and monitoring through implementation—we have your back. Set up a call with an RNL enrollment expert to see how we can help your institution navigate Year 1 of Connections with confidence. You’ll be ahead of the enrollment curve and ready to not miss a beat building your class.

Ever heard of the enrollment cliff? The drop can be frightening and poses a serious threat to the future of higher education. If you haven’t seen its effects at your school, you almost certainly have seen them at other schools around the nation. With enrollment rates in the U.S. dropping at an alarming rate, it’s now more important than ever that you leverage your school’s website and digital marketing to avoid falling over the enrollment cliff. Fortunately, we’ve got a few tips that can help! Read our latest blog post here: https://lnkd.in/eTYE4PUp. Discover how a few simple tweaks to your website’s copy can make all the difference in attracting new students to your school. #digitalmarketing #newblogpost #enrollmentcliff #highereducation #contentwriting

An increasingly common question has emerged in recent years while today’s students navigate the digital landscape: Do colleges check social media during the application process? The answer: Yes…they do. With the digital SAT® on the horizon, admissions officers are increasingly aware of the digital footprint applicants leave behind. This underscores the importance of digital literacy and responsible online behavior among college-bound students. https://lnkd.in/gEQKaCvP

Deep Dive Opinion Library Events Press Releases Topics search Sign up Search Search searchclose search Ed Tech Policy & Legal Leadership Students Enrollment For-Profit Faculty and Staff Finance Closures and Mergers Fall 2023 enrollment trends in 5 charts We’re breaking down some of the biggest developments this term, based on preliminary figures from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Published Oct. 30, 2023 Natalie Schwartz's headshot Natalie Schwartz Editor A college campus with a building in the background during fall. sshepard via Getty Images Listen to the article 4 min Preliminary enrollment data for fall 2023 largely brought good news to colleges and universities. Undergraduate enrollment rose 2.1% compared to the year before, with all major institutional sectors enjoying increases, including four-year institutions and community colleges. Meanwhile, graduate enrollment rose 0.7%, an encouraging sign for the sector after headcounts dropped 0.9% in fall 2022. But initial figures also pointed to storm clouds ahead. First-year enrollment fell 3.6% this fall, nearly reversing gains colleges saw last year in this group. DiveWire Logo Boost your reach. Publish your company news instantly to 14M decision makers. Post a Press Release The findings are based on preliminary data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center as of Sept. 28. They come from 55% of the Title IV, degree-granting colleges that participate in the clearinghouse, covering about 9.6 million college students. Below, we further break down some of the enrollment trends: Short-term credentials gained steam Year-over-year percentage change in enrollment by credential type Short-term credentials continued to prove popular among undergraduate and graduate students. In fall 2023, enrollment in undergraduate certificate programs shot up 9.9% compared to the year before, while graduate certificate enrollment rose 5.7%. Degree programs didn’t fare as well. Master’s programs saw the smallest enrollment increase, of 0.2%, followed by bachelor’s degree programs, which saw headcounts rise 0.9%. First-year student enrollment fell at four-year colleges Year-over-year percentage change in first-year enrollment by institution type

"2023 was the worst year in the history of Student Search. This performance decline shows no signs of stopping." The findings in this article in Forbes by Vinay Bhaskara at CollegeVine should serve as a wake-up call to the Presidents, CMOs, and Enrollment Management leaders at institutions that rely on "top of the funnel" activities to deliver new student enrollment. Whether your Fall 2023 was up, down, or flat, one thing is now clear: the traditional methods, processes, models, and investments to grow new student enrollments will need to transform. The shift will be from lead and application acquisition-centric approaches to more cost-effective yield improvement strategies focused on middle-of-the-funnel performance. The new mandate is to transform, improve, and optimize the core middle-of-the-funnel processes that we refer to as "enrollment management." This is why we're here at enroll ml - to provide the risk-reducing, insight-driving, AI-delivered guidance that empowers institutions of all shapes and sizes to fundamentally transform and improve the processes, efficiency, and results of the mission-critical enrollment management functions that drive yield improvement. Contact us today to discover how our we empower our institutional partners to achieving extraordinary, transformative results throughout their middle of the funnel new student recruitment efforts, from top to bottom. https://lnkd.in/gNCAQs6m

Fewer and fewer young people are enrolling in college after graduating high school. What is your higher ed institution doing to combat this trend? With Gen Z being digitally fluent and highly selective, it's a pivotal moment for your educational institution to recalibrate your enrollment campaign. That's why Josh Pheneger, our expert higher ed strategist, put together this list of 11 strategies for effective enrollment marketing tailored for the next generation of enrollees: https://lnkd.in/gQTX74xx ✨ With additional insights by Corey Rice, our Director of Strategy. #enrollmentmarketing #enrollmentstrategy #universitymarketing #collegemarketing #universities #highered #higheredmarketing

I spent a decade spending $$$ to drive new student recruitment via top of the funnel marketing, search, segmentation modeling and every other new student recruitment tactic under the sun. And I drove impressive results. But the times have officially changed, and now is Enrollment Management's time to innovate, transform and shine - to improve results for both the institution and the student. The decision to shift investment from declining performance categories to an AI platform that improves middle of the funnel yield, prioritizes every single admissions counselor's focus every day and reduces the cost of new student acquisition should be an easy one. This is what we've created here at enroll ml. Transformative higher ed leaders - give me a call.

At U.S. News & World Report, we take our editorial integrity very seriously and have strict separation between our business relationships and our editorial processes. Editorial content and U.S. News & World Report rankings products are never influenced by those relationships. I am pleased to see that the The New York Times captured this in its recent New York Times article; in particular, the article notes that our “ … contracts showed that U.S. News & World Report tells schools that licensing badges 'will in no way affect, positively or negatively, the rankings or ratings'.”   In addition to making clear that our editorial process is fully independent of our business relationships, the article also recognizes that our rankings and first-rate content help schools that offer good quality and good value – which would be otherwise overlooked – get recognized. This is especially important when college trust levels and college attendance levels are in decline.    The U.S. News Colleges and U.S. News Grad Schools contain very detailed profiles of colleges that help millions of students and parents annually gain a deeper understanding of the colleges which they are considering. These profiles play an important role as students assess their choices for colleges.    We are proud that our rankings and supporting content serve the best interest of students, helping them make the best decision for their college education. The most recent The New York Times article here: https://lnkd.in/eJ5aCn_y Also, pls see some other recent The New York Times articles: https://lnkd.in/eaTu4cRR and https://lnkd.in/e7jaWS27

US News rating was mere opinion except as to school that intentionally submitted bad information to it Favell v. Univ. of Southern Cal., 2024 WL 751006, No. CV 23-3389-GW-MARx (C.D. Cal. Jan. 23, 2024) Plaintiffs alleged that defendants conspired to inflate the US News ranking of USC Rossier School of Education by submitting inaccurate or incomplete data to US News and market the resulting ranking to the public. USC had a business relationship with 2U, an education technology startup, to develop an online Master of Arts in Teaching program. This was the first of USC Rossier’s online degree programs and went live in June 2009; 2U received an undisclosed percentage of the tuition revenue. US News calculates its education school rankings using eleven criteria, including “student selectivity,” which accounts for 18% of the school’s total score and is comprised of three objective sources of admittance data: (1) the school’s doctoral acceptance rate (6%); (2) mean GRE quantitative scores (6%); and (3) mean GRE verbal scores (6%). During the relevant period—through 2021—US News didn’t distinguish between in-person and online programs. However, USC submitted student selectivity data only for USC Rossier’s highly selective, in-person Ph.D. program, but not from its less-competitive EdD program (which was offered online after 2015). From the 2009 rankings to the 2010 rankings, USC Rossier’s reported acceptance rate dropped 40 percentage points (from 50.7% to 10.5%), and its ranking rose 16 places (from #38 to #22). US News began publishing a specialty ranking of online master’s degrees in education in 2013, when USC Rosier’s online Master of Arts in Teaching program ranked #44. USC didn’t appear on the list after that. Defendants allegedly heavily marketed USC Rossier’s rapidly rising ranking to the public to boost enrollment in the online programs. USC allegedly orchestrated this scheme through its submission of false/incomplete data, and then advertised the resulting rankings knowing that they were misleading. 2U allegedly helped “push the rankings out on a much broader scale,” and knew or should have known that the rankings were fraudulently procured. For example, 2U engaged in online advertising to promote USC Rossier’s ranking; it spent more than half of its revenue on program sales and marketing. USC likewise regularly touted USC Rossier’s ranking (and that USC Rossier was “top-ranked”) in press releases, on social media, on the Rossier Website, and in other promotional materials. Fortunately for 2U, the court thought it was accused only of puffing. The court considered two kinds of statements: (1) statements that USC Rossier was “top-ranked,” and (2) statements which included the specific numerical ranking assigned by US News. The first category was “textbook puffery.” A claim that a school is “top-ranked” is both “vague [and] highly subjective” and lacks “the kind of detailed or specific factual asserti...