Jim Scannell

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 pr…Read more

Here are our 12 for '12: Will always base marketing, recruitment, and awarding decisions, as well as retention interventions, on empirical evidence and data analysis. Will create a “culture of evidence” among the enrollment management leadership team. Will mentor and provide professional development opportunities for the enrollment management leadership team. Will be sure that the admissions office and financial aid office share the common goal of net tuition revenue for new students. Will ensure that the admissions office appropriately resources the recruitment and enrollment of transfer students based on the transfer market share of new students. Will make sure the admissions office is armed with proof statements of the return…Read more

The importance of the campus visit has risen to the top of the priority list for deans and directors of admissions at colleges and universities across the country – public and private, large and small. In fact, a cottage industry of experts has even surfaced focused on evaluating and recommending how each campus can “put its best foot forward” with the campus tour, open house, and accepted student day events. So it’s clear that colleges have gotten the message: “We only have one shot to make a good first impression.” Lots of creativity is now pouring into making the campus visit a memorable one, creating WOW moments and WOW connections with the campus community. But there’s a fundamental piece of the puzzle missing – sellin…Read more