Scannell & Kurz Enrollment Management Blog

Whenever interviewing a team of admissions recruiters, there is likely a “rookie” or two in the group. I always ask the “rookie” how they were trained to meet the challenges of their first tour of duty and on a scale of 1 – 10, with 1 being petrified and 10 being confident, how prepared they felt in the first week or two of fall travel. The response in the vast majority of cases is typically a shadow experience or two, and then it’s pretty much on the job training (OJT) and self-rating of 2. By the way, OJT is a proxy for no training program at all. With turnover of recruiters in admissions offices being the norm, you’d have thought that admissions leadership would have figured out how to introduce a new team member to the profession. We …Read more

While I certainly don’t agree with everything President Obama recently proposed related to higher education financial aid programs, the idea of increasing funding for federal work study can be a win–win–win for students, their universities, and their future employers. Some believe that doubling work study would simply subsidize universities, not really provide additional funding for students. I disagree. Many of our clients would like to open more on-campus jobs for their students, but lack the funding to do so. And working on campus provides benefits that go well beyond simply putting money in students’ pockets. It provides students with a resume building experience, in some cases related to their future careers. We know from freshman CIR…Read more

OK, I admit it. I am addicted to the television show "Parenthood." So imagine my husband’s surprise a couple of weeks ago when I began shouting at the TV during a recent episode... “CALL THE FINANCIAL AID OFFICE.” One of the characters, Hattie, had just gotten accepted into Cornell, and her parents were thinking they would have to tell her to withdraw the application because the father had lost his job and was now working with his brother in a start-up company. It occurred to me that shouting at fictional characters on the TV was probably not the best way for me to express my concern – hence this blog. I urge you all to take another look at the communications you have regarding affordability and financial aid to be sure that you have inc…Read more

Retention is one of the hardest “needles” to move. Yet colleges and universities often set retention targets based on hopes and aspirations rather than a realistic assessment of what is likely to be possible based on both the institution’s history and external benchmarking. One tool that can be very helpful in setting realistic retention goals is The Education Trust’s College Results Online Advanced Search site, which can be found at www.collegeresults.org. Using this tool, you can identify other institutions that resemble yours in terms of some key factors that often influence retention such as institutional size and type; median SATs and selectivity; percent receiving Pell Grants; percent enrolled part-time; etc. As can be seen in the ta…Read more

I was recently talking with someone from an institution where a key leader in admission and financial aid had given very short notice of his departure during a critical part of the enrollment cycle (application evaluation time and the beginning of financial aid awarding). This discussion got me thinking about another situation I encountered a few months ago at a small institution where financial aid packaging was done manually by one individual who had not documented the process. How reliant are you on key individuals with specialized knowledge? What would happen if these people were suddenly not available? Since financial aid packaging season is here, and you can’t afford inaccurate or delayed offers of financial aid, take a moment to ev…Read more