Incorporating a Direct Admissions policy at your institution can be a challenging endeavor — especially if you aren’t well-versed with this barrier-breaking strategy. To provide firsthand insight on this topic, the MARKETview team collaborated with three enrollment leaders experienced in Direct Admissions to create a list of ‘best practices’ for institutions thinking about using it on their campus.
This is the second part of our blog series exploring the nuances of Direct Admissions. If you missed the first installment, you can read it here. In this edition, you’ll expand your Direct Admissions knowledge with expert advice from:
- Michelle Kowalsky Goodfellow, Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management at Western New England University
- Reggie Hill, Vice President for Strategic Enrollment and Career Advancement at University of Missouri–St. Louis
- Ken Woods, Vice President of Strategic Enrollment at Whittier College
We hope these four tips will help you feel more confident about how you could implement (or enhance) Direct Admissions programs on your campus.
1. Plan out your process with internal stakeholders.
Due to the unconventional ways Direct Admissions students flow into admissions systems, it’s vital to get all your campus stakeholders involved from the outset. Communicate with your financial aid team, registrar team, admissions operation team, and anyone else at your institution whose normal processes might be affected. Make sure everyone is aligned on the changes that each individual department needs to make to accommodate this new strategy.
“Think about this from an innovation and technology standpoint, an access standpoint and an internal stakeholder standpoint. Bring the campus community together around this new and innovative way to think about college admissions.”
– Reggie Hill
2. Be realistic in your expectations.
Before setting your goals and expectations for the year, it’s important to understand the advantages and potential challenges that come with using Direct Admissions. Introducing this strategy can provide a big boost to your top-of-funnel application and admit volume, but that doesn’t mean this surge in activity will maintain the same momentum downstream. The fact is, Direct Admissions students often don’t yield at the same rate as traditional admits. However, if you can get adequate volume that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, it can still offset the yield rate drop. MARKETview data has also revealed how yield varies depending on different variables and vastly improves with students less than 50 miles from campus.
“You’ll see more applications, no doubt about that, but they’ll yield differently. Understand and be realistic about what your results might look like, especially after your first year, because it’s new to students.”
– Ken Woods
Direct Admissions: Best Practices from Three Enrollment Leaders
Is Direct Admissions “having a moment” or is increased usage in the past cycle indicative of a growing shift that’s here to stay?
Hear from three enrollment professionals who are also long-term practitioners of Direct Admissions on their perspectives around this barrier-breaking decision type.
View the Webinar
3. Don’t ostracize students in your Direct Admissions pool.
While Direct Admissions can net a higher volume of applicants and admits, each student still needs individual attention. Don’t assume these students need less focus than students that enter the funnel through normal means. In fact, it’s the opposite. There’s a brand building aspect with Direct Admissions admits, since they may not know as much about your school as a traditional applicant would. Therefore, they may need even more outreach and personalized messaging to clearly understand your institutional identity.
“It’s important to not treat these students any differently than others. We fold them fully into our funnel, treat them like an accepted student, but also recognize that there is information that they might not know about us.”
– Michelle Kowalsky Goodfellow
4. Go all in!
If you decide to use Direct Admissions, don’t take half measures. When only making a partial investment, students may question the validity of the offer and become confused. Having a consistent message will also help your admissions counselor community. If you only dabble in Direct Admissions, it can create situations where students from the same school apply in different ways and both receive acceptance offers, leaving it to the counselor to explain any discrepancies. Whether you decide to use Direct Admissions or not, just make sure you commit to a specific direction if your budget permits!
“You can’t say, ‘We’re going to kind of do Direct Admissions.’ You have to make a clear decision that this is the direction you want to go, or you’re going to muddy the water even more than it already is.”
– Michelle Kowalsky Goodfellow
For a deeper dive into the 2024 MARKETview Direct Admissions data, you can access our new eBook highlighting additional key insights we uncovered. If you want more expert perspectives from our Direct Admissions partners, you can download the recording of our recent panel discussion webinar. And make sure to keep an eye out for the final installment of this series, where we’ll cover how Direct Admissions breaks down barriers for students seeking a college education.
Rethinking Direct Admissions
See the latest findings based on MARKETview partner institutions that incorporated this barrier-breaking decision type in 2024.
Download the eBook
Find out how MARKETview can help you reach your enrollment and revenue goals by scheduling a live demo with our team.