Over the past decade, a number of innovations have transformed the admissions process. Most of these innovations helped admissions officers select students who were likely to attend and thrive at their schools. However, as Allie Bidwell describes in “Find Your Match: Data Companies Transform College Applications” in US News and Word Report, a number of services developed over the past four years were designed to help prospective students manage their applications process. Education technology companies are giving students more ways to find the colleges that best fit their needs.
These services are using predictive analytics—the same techniques schools have been using to shape their student bodies.
The new “tools” fall into three broad categories:
- Those that help students manage the process and keep track of deadlines.
- Those that help students match with colleges and universities.
- Those that offer transparency to the admissions process such as college costs and outcomes.
The new matching services work something like this: A high school student enters a few facts about her background into a computer, such as GPA, SAT score, ethnicity and activities and then the student receives a list of schools that would potentially accept her.
According to Matt Pittinsky, CEO of Parchment, a technology company with its own matching service, the new innovations for students are “to a certain extent bringing symmetry to the tools universities have when recruiting students, relative to the tools students have when discovering universities.”
These tools can help students exert some control over the demanding application process. The common app streamlined the admissions process, but also allowed students to apply to a larger pool of schools. This translated in more deadlines and more application fees for students, creating demand for services that can help students compile their list of “safety, range, and reach” schools and manage their deadlines.
These new technology-based tools for students do not take all the uncertainty out of the application process. Factors such essays, extracurricular activities, leadership roles and legacy still matter to admissions officers. But the tools do provide information that can help students make better choices. Moreover, as noted by Dr. Lee Furbeck, Director of AACRAO’s Transfer Conference and Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Student Transition at Cleveland State University, “Using tools to help match students to colleges could help high school counselors as well.”
Students are not the only ones trying to reduce uncertainty. Despite their head start with predictive analytics, predicting yield remains challenging, in part because students are applying to more schools. In fact, according to NACAC’s State of College Admissions report, U.S. colleges and universities were less able to predict enrollment trends than they were 10 years ago. One way that schools are dealing with growing uncertainty is by relying more on students’ demonstrated interest—as indicated by campus visits, website visits, etc.
AACRAO will be hosting a live free webinar on Ranking and Qualifying Prospective Students with Lead Scoring. The webinar will cover best practices, and specific methods to help make your recruiting and enrollment efforts more efficient by ranking and qualifying prospective students.
To learn more and register, click here.