Student Enrollment Management—Leverage It for Growth this Year

Strategic enrollment management is always top of mind for enrollment professionals. When metrics are high, campus leaders are excited to grow and scale new programs and student life experiences. But when numbers decline, proactive measures are needed to boost a school's brand.

Enrollment management offers a strategic approach to finding admissions success for prospective students. It’s also a way to monitor internal and external factors and stay directly involved in the student recruitment lifecycle.

Whether you have defined enrollment management strategies or simply want to revamps your enrollment goals, this overview is helpful for everyone.

What is Student Enrollment Management?

Student enrollment management describes the methodical way that colleges and universities oversee and control the enrollment of incoming students. Because two and four-year institutions constantly look to attract a diverse student population, having a clear approach provides predictability to the admissions committee or team.

Enrollment management also prioritizes having a level of influence on the number of students that enroll—and how the student body represents broader goals of the institution.

For example, an institution may want to recruit 2,000 new students for the upcoming year. Those students must meet certain criteria (high school GPA, standardized test scores, recommendations, or area of study). Enrollment management ensures that the institution enrolls the intended number of students while seeing that the cohort meets key standards of the admissions process.

College Admissions Trends Today

Modern higher education enrollment numbers illustrate a number of up and down trends, proving that college enrollment can be cyclical. Modern admissions policies should be designed to provide a seamless experience for new applicants.

In late fall 2023, Inside Higher Ed reported that higher ed enrollment rose for the first time since 2020, a big encouragement to the industry.

Believe it or not, macro-level trends and challenges also have an impact on enrollment management and planning. When outside factors are at play (such as nationwide economic impacts), it’s more important than ever to have a well-established process for enrollment success. This means being diligent about managing student interest, creating captivating recruiting experiences, and improving the admissions management cycle.

Why Should a School Use Enrollment Management Software?

Specialized platforms and CRM solutions give schools additional resources for analyzing data and managing enrollment efforts. Over time, such management solutions can also improve a school's image and even help retain students.

There are well-established advantages to implementing a student enrollment platform like Element451. These benefits include:

• Real-time access to student data, ranging from basic contact and demographic info to detailed enrollment and financial aid data
• Live assessment on enrollment trends and factors that influence the student admissions process from a personal or one-to-one experience
• More options for effectively marketing to students in personalized ways that support and inform enrollment and application conversion
• Expanded ability to spot red flags early to prevent churn, reduce enrollment gaps, and solve issues before they become university-wide concerns

Tips to Improve Enrollment Challenges

It’s no surprise that these processes affect all parties, and there are many external factors affecting enrollment. The right workflows can improve how admissions counselors perform their jobs and satisfy benchmarks). Additionally, modernized processes can positively reshape the holistic student experience.

Remember, students form first impressions early on in the enrollment cycle, so having student-friendly processes is critical for success.

If you want to modernize the enrollment management process, here are a few tips to get started.

Focus on a Realistic Internal Audit

Before your enrollment team makes adjustments, know where you stand. Audit any existing strategic enrollment management processes. Look for risk factors, internal bottlenecks, frustration, or points of confusion for prospective students and families.

Are there available tools or software that could alleviate your department’s frustration? Do you spot opportunities to eliminate manual work through automation or smart technology? Identifying these pieces can help you reshape the process in a way that works for everyone.

Report relevant findings to your leaders or decision-makers, who often want to see how department-level changes impact the campus vision as a whole.

Clarify the Plan for Managing Forward

Accomplishing major enrollment goals doesn’t happen without systematic goal-setting and broad adoption of plans. Enrollment leaders need to document a precise path for achieving enrollment metrics every single term. What does this look like in practice?

• Documenting current enrollment management workflows
• Updating all enrollment personnel on current problems and changes prior to new terms
• Assessing recent data to gauge impact on actual students
• Re-evaluating the process to stay in touch with current growth on campus
• Investing in tools and platforms to enhance digital enrollment experiences

Make Student Interactions Personal and Timely

Although these strategies can improve campus enrollment, they’re not worth much on their own if they don’t have a tangible impact on real students.

With personalization tools like you’ll find in Element451, that work becomes even easier.

Put power and choice back into the hands of your students, and deliver customizable messaging that’s helpful and practical. Offer timely enrollment reminders, converse with applicants authentically, and automate routine processes to improve interactions throughout the admissions cycle.

Expand Your Enrollment Initiatives with Element451

Is it time to re-evaluate the way that your school handles enrollment management? If so, look no further. Element451 is the platform you need to truly take control of engagement and student success, from application to graduation.

>> Schedule an Element451 demo today. <<