Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management

Published with the American Association for Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), the Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management is the comprehensive text on the policies, strategies, practices that shape postsecondary enrollments. This volume combines relevant theories and research, with applied chapters on the management of offices such as admissions, financial aid, and the registrar to provide a comprehensive guide to the complex world of Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM). SEM focuses on achieving enrollment goals, and sustaining institutional revenue and serving the needs of students. It provides insights into the ways SEM is practiced across four-year institutions, community colleges, and professional schools.

More than just an enhanced approach to admissions and financial aid, SEM examines the student's entire educational cycle. From entry through graduation, this volume helps SEM professionals and graduate students interested in enrollment management to anticipate change and balancing the goals of revenue, access, diversity, and prestige. The Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management:

• Provides an overview of the thinking of leading practitioners that comprise SEM organizations, including marketing, recruitment, and admissions; tuition pricing; financial aid; the registrar's role, academic advising; and, retention
• Includes up-to-date research on current issues in SEM including college choice, financial aid, student persistence, and the effective use of technology
• Guides readers creating strategic enrollment organizations that fit the unique history, culture, and policy context of your campus

Strategic enrollment management has become one of the most important administrative areas in postsecondary education, and it is being adopted in countries around the globe. The Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management is for anyone in enrollment management, admissions, financial aid, registration and records, orientation, marketing, and institutional research who wish to enhance the health and vitality of his or her institution. It is also an excellent text for graduate programs in higher education and student affairs.

Preface xi

About the Editors and Contributors xvii

About AACRAO xxiii

PART I: SETTING THE CONTEXT 1

1 Origins of Strategic Enrollment Management 3
Don Hossler

2 Understanding the Context 18
Bob Bontrager and Don Hossler

3 Successful Strategic Enrollment Management Organizations 31
Don Hossler, David H. Kalsbeek, and Bob Bontrager

PART II: CHOICE, MARKETS, AND ADMISSIONS 47

4 Understanding Student College Choice 49
Eunkyoung Park and Don Hossler

5 Markets and Market Niches 77
David H. Kalsbeek and Brian Zucker

6 Admissions and Recruitment Marketing 103
Tom Hayes

7 Understanding Transfer and Articulation: Implications for Enrolling Transfer Students 124
Bruce Clemetsen, Lee Furbeck, and Alicia Moore

8 How Admission Decisions Get Made 147
Jerome A. Lucido

PART III: PRICING AND FINANCIAL AID 175

9 Economic Perspectives on Pricing and What It Means for SEM 177
Gabriel R. Serna and Matthew Birnbaum

10 Understanding Financial Aid and Its Effects on Student Enrollments and Institutional Finance 196
Jacob P. K. Gross

11 Using Campus-Based Financial Aid Strategically 213
Stephen Brooks

12 Budgets, Aid, and Enrollments 228
Guilbert L. Brown and Jacob P. K. Gross

PART IV: STUDENT RETENTION, PERSISTENCE, AND SUCCESS 245

13 New Context for Retention and Persistence 249
Doug Shapiro and Afet Dundar

14 Models of Student Retention and Persistence 268
Amy S. Hirschy

15 Students at Risk in Residential and Commuter Colleges and Universities 289
John M. Braxton, Harold V. Hartley III, and Dawn Lyken-Segosebe

16 The Persistence of Students of Color 311
Willis A. Jones

17 Nontraditional Students and Student Persistence 333
Mary K. Hutchens

18 The Role of the Institution in Increasing College Student Persistence 351
Mary Ziskin, Jerome A. Lucido, Jacob P. K. Gross, Donald Hossler, Emily Chung, and Vasti Torres

PART V: THE IMPORTANT BACK ROOM 375

19 Delivering Effective Admissions Operations 377
Jennifer DeHaemers and Michele Sandlin

20 The Registrar of the Future 396
David M. Sauter and Howard E. Shanken

21 The Role of Financial Aid Operations in Fostering Student and Institutional Success 408
Tom Green

22 The Role of Technology in Supporting SEM 427
Wendy Kilgore and Brent Gage

PART VI: DATA, POLICY, AND STRUCTURES 447

23 Campus-Based SEM Research 449
Darin Wohlgemuth

24 Tracking SEM Policy Trends 471
Mike Reilly and Michelle Mott

25 Strategic Thinking Enrollment Organizations 490
Adam J. Herman

26 Emerging SEM Organizations for Graduate and International Students 508
Jay Goff and Monique Snowden

PART VII: PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER 529

27 Strategic Enrollment Planning 531
Bob Bontrager and Tom Green

28 Trends in Strategic Enrollment Management 549
Don Hossler

29 Ethics and Strategic Enrollment Management 565
Marc M. Camille

30 Summing Up: The Present and Future Tense for SEM 585
Don Hossler and Bob Bontrager

Name Index 591

Subject Index 603

DON HOSSLER is a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Indiana University at Bloomington.

BOB BONTRAGER is senior director of Consulting and Strategic Enrollment Management Initiatives for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO).