The Local Market Challenge for Pre-Senior Inquiries

In previous blogs we’ve talked about the difference between pre-senior and senior inquiries – those students who inquire before their senior year behave differently than those who inquire during their senior year. Further, important sub-populations of each source behave and impact your outcomes differently.

In 2021, this was particularly noticeable in local markets – or the “backyards” of colleges and universities. Among pre-senior inquiries, we saw a clear shift in the volume of these inquiries when analyzed through the lens of geography.

Compared to 2020, pre-senior inquiries from students who live within 100 miles from our partners dropped by 4.5%. In contrast, inquiries from greater than 100 miles­ increased slightly by 0.2%.

These changes had an outsize impact further down the funnel as student deposit behavior shifted towards schools further away. Deposits from students within 100 miles of campus were down 18.6% while deposits from students beyond 100 miles were up 4.6%.

In our analysis across MARKETview partners, this trend has continued so far into the 2022 pool. Inquiry volume from students within 100 miles of campus is down a further 14%, while volume from over 100 miles is up 7%.  

It will be interesting to see if this trend plays out for deposits as it did in 2021. We will keep this and related comparative analysis top-of-mind as we work with partners across the MARKETview community to provide decision-grade analytics for better, faster decisions – each day of each stage of the enrollment cycle.