Strategic Development of the Prospect Pool: an integral component of an effective enrollment management plan

Oklahoma State Higher Education Conference on Enrollment Management

Oklahoma City February 2, 2006

Oklahoma State’s freshman prospect pool as of 1/10/06

2006 grads 48634 2007 grads 21628 2008 grads 8807 (will increase 16K via PLAN) 2009 grads 8618

The total number of prospective students that currently reside in OSU’s freshman prospect pool is in excess of 85K with 16K more soon to be loaded into our student information system…over the past three years we have significantly increased the quantity, diversity and quality of our pool

2006 transfer prospect pool

We have just recently created an additional recruitment pool for transfer prospects that now contains over 12K prospective transfer students.

a separate recruitment plan, similar to our freshman recruitment plan, has been developed that directs the communication flow for this particular cohort

Objective:

The purpose of this presentation is to facilitate discussion pertaining to what our institutions are doing relative to prospect pool development and to then provide insight relative to EM tools and strategies that are related to strategic prospect pool development. Effectively developing your prospect pool will greatly enhance your probability of success as each of you strive to meet your institution-specific enrollment objectives.

The top of the enrollment funnel

Traditional methods of collecting student data

1. ACT and SAT score senders

2. College fairs

3. High school visits

4. Campus visits/events and outreach programs

5. Referrals

6. Phone requests

Enrollment Management tools and strategies to further assist with the development of your prospect pool

Online/integrated electronic student inquiry forms

ACT Enrollment Information Services (EIS) SAT Enrollment Planning Services (EPS)

Targeted outreach programs ACT Educational Opportunity Search (EOS)

SAT Student Search Service (SSS) Transfer Connection (PTKers), NRCUA

Student Poll Vol.5 Issue 5 2004

Students use of the internet (January 2003 Art and Science group Student Poll)

This is where they research colleges during the decision making process

This is where they communicate/converse This is where a significant portion apply Research indicates the web is more

influential than expensive print publications Provides interactive communication

More Student Poll results

40% reported that they use institutional websites as their primary source for gathering college information

Note that this was a larger proportion than those who cited using print materials such as view books, brochures and catalogs as their primary source.

Online prospective student inquiry form

http://admissions.okstate.edu/onlineinquiry.html

These forms should be designed in such a fashion that they capture ALL prospective freshman and transfer information that is required to develop a customized message to each student. The form should then ideally be integrated with your SIS so the student data is electronically populated into your prospect pool. The student can then immediately be inserted into your recruitment communication flow.

ACT’s Enrollment Information Services software (EIS)

EIS is a comprehensive market research tool that assists with enrollment planning by pinpointing the schools and geomarkets where your best prospects can be found

Contains the data on all ACT tested juniors and seniors that have tested on one of the six national dates

EIS can help enrollment managers:

Locate markets that contain students that have a high probability to enroll at your specific institution

Identify your competition Identify your institutions market position/share in

certain market segments Determine your yield in different market segments

(Freshman Class profile service) Provide longitudinal trend analysis data

EIS -continued-

Identify primary secondary and new markets Assists in development of certain recruitment

messages in certain areas Provides decision makers with quantifiable data to

assist with establishing policy and realistic enrollment objectives

Can help guide budgetary/travel and staffing decisions

Help identify specific areas of interest/majors and help improve faculty/departmental relations

Applying EIS to practice: example

26556 graduating seniors in 2004 took the ACT

10514 had a 22> 3603 scored either a 22 or a 23 Moving from a 22 ACT to a 24 ACT

eliminated 34% of the Oklahoma test taking pool from being fully admitted to OSU based upon ACT score alone

Educational Opportunity Service (EOS)

After strategic analysis of EIS data you can then intelligently utilize ACT’s EOS option. EOS is a great tool to help you build your inquiry/prospect pool by purchasing qualified cohorts of targeted students that meet your desired institutional student profile.

ACT assessment data

Two primary types of data

1. Cognitive data- scores, subscores, predictive data2. Noncognitive data- the student profile section

(SPS)

The ACT Information Manager ( AIM )software can be used to manipulate all student data collected from the ACT assessment

Applying EOS to practice: example

1.2 million 2004 seniors took the ACT test 26556 Oklahoma 2004 seniors tested 6911 had a 24 ACT or greater 3946 of these students did not self select and send

their scores to OSU

EOS enables us to capture all of those Oklahoma students and then add them to our score senders communication flow. These students are now recruited just as if they had self selected OSU as one of their initial college choices.

Targeted outreach programs

We have recently developed a series of outreach programs/Senior Spotlights that we host in our highest yielding markets for recruitment and yield purposes. The residual benefits of these programs has been the increase in prospects that are entering our pool as score senders from these areas due to our visible presence in their communities.

Other services to acquire names

We have also strategically utilized other services such as the National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCUA) to acquire Junior High school student names and the Transfer Connection to acquire high priority transfer recruits.

Conclusion:

Effectively developing your prospect pool, beyond traditional methods, is relatively easy as long as resources exist and institutional enrollment goals have been clearly articulated. Predictive modeling can assist you immensely with the development and management of your pool.

Goodluck with developing and managing your prospect pool and in delivering the right message, to the right students, at the right time.

Don Pitchford Ph.D.

Associate Director

Undergraduate Admissions

Prospective Student Services

Oklahoma State University