Overcoming Higher Ed’s Climate to Exceed Enrollment Goals

Challenge

Wagner College is a competitive, four-year private college in Staten Island with its own curriculum that unites deep learning and practical application. Each year, its enrollment leadership commits to finding the right students and supporting them through enrollment. However, this past recruitment cycle brought new obstacles including a looming demographic cliff (especially for northeastern states), a failed FAFSA rollout, and public discourse around the value of higher education. With recruitment and yield numbers in danger at schools across the country, the Wagner team was determined to support students through enrollment.

Solution

To overcome these challenges, the Wagner team tapped into its Encoura technology and expert partners to find and engage qualified students who would enroll and thrive at its college.

Together, they strengthened their enrollment funnel by ensuring they understood their prospective students. Specifically, they visualized and evaluated their search data with predictive modeling before purchasing, reviewed Wagner’s various data sources with their historical and current performances, corrected data from other sources and filled in holes, and added Encoura parent/guardian profiles to ensure they could engage the whole prospective student family.

Lastly, Wagner’s Director of Admissions Operations integrated Encoura’s predictive model score into its Slate CRM to empower the admissions team to personalize engagement and support to students according to their likelihood to enroll.