May 1 has come and gone, once again, during a pandemic. At Underscore, we understand how challenging enrollment management can be in a normal year, let alone a year where there isn’t a standard to compare.
As our partner institutions confirmed their incoming Fall 2020 class, Underscore geared up for another year of unknowns as we helped identify trends and seek new ways to engage students in a fall travel season without in-person visits or college fairs. Here’s what we saw:
As our partner institutions confirm their incoming Fall 2021class and transition to a new group of students yet again, it’s critical to prepare your admissions team to begin a new recruitment cycle. Underscore discovered during this past year of unknowns that empowering admissions counselors to own their territory truly lies in Slate.
In anticipation of a traditional fall travel season, there are many tools in Slate to research the data for opportunities, plan impactful recruitment visits, and assure each admissions counselor can achieve their territory goals. Slate makes it easy to promote visits to prospective students, collect inquiry information electronically, track visit outcomes, and survey attendees to collect qualitative data on their interest in your institution.
Once travel season winds down, it will be time to convert inquiries and complete applications. Strategies like scholarship estimators, application generation surveys, and targeted tele-recruiting campaigns are all critical to engage prospective students. Slate can accomplish all of these and more to drive your application pool.
While it might seem far away, we will once again be in yield season. Think about how you communicate through all channels to help students make that final decision.
Slate can be your best tool to develop yield and anti-melt surveys, track qualification ratings and engagement metrics, and project enrollment results of your current admit pool. Slate reports are also powerful tools to monitor counselor outreach, track territory goals, and have real-time metrics on yield and melt rates.
Here’s how these strategies have directly impacted Underscore partners:
We recognize that your team has limited time and implementing these recommendations may seem overwhelming. That is why many colleges and universities have partnered with Underscore to build out these Slate tools and train the admissions team on how successfully manage their territories at every stage of the cycle. We do the heavy lifting and let your team focus on the important stuff like building relationships and counseling their students. Essentially, we are an extension of your team when it comes to planning travel season and getting students to take the next step in the funnel.
To take our territory management offerings one step further, Underscore will be premiering our new Slate territory management portal at this year’s Slate Innovation Festival. This one-stop counselor portal will bring all recruitment activities into one place and will surely create many new efficiencies. If you would like to learn more or receive a proposal of our services, reach out to us!
And for more recommendations and tips, check out our webinar, “Enrollment Strategies in a Virtual World.”
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