As student demographics continue to shift, enrollment leaders are searching for ways to better understand where the recruitment landscape might be heading. For the second part of The Changing Pell Landscape, we’ll hear from Susan Dileno, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Mount Saint Mary’s University. She’ll share what her team discovered by using MARKETview data to examine their student pool and identify populations that most commonly enroll at their institution.
A Primarily Pell Institution
Mount Saint Mary’s University is a small private liberal arts institution in Los Angeles that serves predominantly women. Dileno described how their institution has not wavered on what students they are primarily geared towards.
“We never question that Pell group. My president or the board has never said, ‘We need more full-pay students.’ We know who we are, and we’re committed to serving them.” – Susan Dileno
Mount Saint Mary’s University freshman class consistently hovers around 70% Pell-eligible, and volume of Pell-eligible enrollment has increased by 16.3% since 2020. Compared to other similar private institutions, MSMU’s student base is much less affluent overall, with about 90% of their student population earning less than $150K in total household income.
Meeting the Needs of Pell Applicants
To better serve their Pell population, MSMU surveyed admitted students to identify the ‘importance factors’ in college for these students. The top ranked items included: out-of-pocket costs, distance from home, balance priorities, faculty, campus life, graduate outcomes, alumni, wellness and completion time.
The MSMU team took this feedback and used it to help shape initiatives catered towards the needs of their low-income population. They implemented community-based programs including admitted student celebrations and application workshops in local high schools. When they do host events on campus, they distribute Uber vouchers because transportation is a challenge for a significant portion of their prospective students. And their team has dedicated resources focused on preventing melt; a clearance team to remove obstacles to depositing, and advisors available at Admitted Student Day.
Another way Dileno’s team met the needs of their Pell population was to implement Direct Admissions. MSMU saw 38.6% of their admits come in through Direct Admissions, compared to the national MARKETview Direct Admissions cohort at 7.8%. This translated into 25.6% of their total enrollments coming in through Direct Admissions, versus the national cohort enrollment at 5.1%.
Analyzing Pell Student Behavior in MARKETview
MSMU worked with MARKETview to better understand behavior patterns for the Pell population, first looking at the proportion of Pell enrollment by inquiry source to see which channels were more likely to drive activity. Purchased names, self-initiated inquiries and travelling admissions teams had the highest proportion of Pell enrollment. In contrast, only 40% of students first inquiring through campus visits are Pell-eligible.
With MARKETview’s consumer data appended at the student-record level as early as the inquiry stage, our partners have a much earlier understanding of the socioeconomic composition of their class. For MSMU, the MARKETview data showed that when students can’t be matched against the consumer database (“Unknown” income), those students turn out to be Pell-eligible 97% of the time.
The MARKETview data also showed that households labeled “Unknown” usually equate to low income. This opened a much larger pre-qualified audience. The data was also extremely accurate in identifying “Likely Pell” students in the <50K income band who constituted the largest number of total MSMU enrollments.
They also explored the academic interests of their Pell students by comparing the proportion of Pell enrollment by major. Business and Nursing had the lowest proportion of Pell students, despite Nursing making up the majority of their total enrollment.
By remaining curious and driven to understand the students they serve, MSMU is opening greater opportunities for Pell students to earn a life-changing degree.
Interested in learning more about how MARKETview can help you identify the Critical Elements to achieving your institutional goals? Sign up for a live demo with our team today.