Young adults are mercurial by nature. Throw them into a complex enrollment environment and they become even more inscrutable. During yield, students absorb information rapidly, introducing difficult-to-predict enrollment behavior. From application to enrollment, their understanding of college choice matures even as their stable essential identity is emerging.
So, what changes and what remains the same? More importantly, how should you respond to these changes to maximize yield?
Eduventures’ unique national data sets allow us to track, at an individual level, shifts in priorities from application to enrollment decision. To do so, we examined data from more than 6,000 high school seniors who participated in both our Prospective Student Survey and our Survey of Admitted Students this past enrollment cycle.
In December, they told us their thoughts about application decisions; in May, the exact same students told us how they made their enrollment decision. What is the difference between the two funnel stages? How does that relate to students’ essential mindsets? How have they expanded their worldview during this time? What is the implication for yield strategy?
To keep things simple, let’s answer these questions through the lens of three of our six Prospective Student Mindsets: Social Focus, Career through Academics, and Career Pragmatist students. Here is a quick refresher on who these are (for more information, read our In-Depth Report 2017 Prospective Student Survey: Mindsets During Search):
- Social Focus: For these students, college is primarily a social experience with lifelong friends and a job at the end of the road.
- Career through Academics: These students expect an integrated academic and career experience that will lead to a long-term career.
- Career Pragmatist: These students seek the immediate return on investment of a job right after graduation. They want an affordable education in a supportive community.