As the number of students wanting to pursue higher education continues to decline, learning the best college recruitment strategies and how to increase student enrollment in your college or university becomes ever more important. In this article, we will see how universities can encourage new applicants with a promise of further education and a successful future, which will in turn help increase student enrollment.
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Is enrollment in colleges and universities going down?
Universities and colleges are working hard to recruit stellar students, employing new recruitment and retention strategies and exploring advantageous university partnerships to attract them. Unfortunately, the trends indicate that the number of students opting to join colleges and universities is on the decline.
In recent years, the enrollment decline continues to worsen and figures show that the current total postsecondary enrollment has fallen to 16.2 million, marking a drop of 4.1% or 685,000 students. This enrollment decline is at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
More statistics show:
- Public community colleges and four-year institutions saw a total drop of over 604,000 students – equaling a 5% decline.
- More statistics also demonstrate that undergraduate enrollment accounted for most of the decline, dropping 4.7% or over 662,000 students. In other words, the undergraduate student body is now 9.4% or nearly 1.4 million students smaller than before the pandemic.
- Public four-year college enrollments were down by 3.4%%.
- Private four-year institutions saw their enrollment numbers drop by 1.7%.
- Private for-profit colleges, which are the smallest higher education sector, showed a 0.2% decline.
All these statistics are an indication that the enrollment numbers have been plummeting in the near past. And there is no guarantee that there will be an upturn in these numbers in the future unless your school starts working on enrollment strategies to attract more students. To do this, you must first learn the reasons behind this drop. Some of the biggest ones include:
What can be done to increase student enrollment in your college or university?
Interested in increasing student enrollment at your college or university? BeMo's university student benefits program aims to provide students with unlimited access to the admissions support they need, as well as personalized career coaching and professional skill development such as interview skills. What do universities gain? They attract more talented students and increase their enrollment numbers by showing they can offer unique student benefits and perks.
If your college or university is also facing a decline in student enrollment, there are a few steps you can take to alleviate the problem.
These include:
Why admissions consulting would increase your student enrollment
Among the ways we have seen above, the role college admissions consultants play is critical. Companies like BeMo Academic Consultants can offer a way to increase college enrollments.
How?
Should the students reach their final year and graduate with high scores, your college will be willing to work towards their further education in medical school, law school, MBA program or graduate school of their choice by investing in an admissions consultant who can help get them a seat.
And then there is the fact that international students might not have an idea about how to go about the whole application process of a postgraduate school and are just hoping it will all sort itself out once they graduate from college. These students would be glad to know there is an international student scholarship consultant that can specifically help them navigate these waters and increase their chances of landing a seat in a post-graduate course once they leave your college.
All in all, they might even find the whole admissions process to be daunting, complicated, and a worthless effort that is beyond their reach.
Therefore, it makes sense to offer the graduating students the chance to plan with the help of MBA admissions consulting, a medical school admissions consultant or dental school admissions consultants, to list a few examples.
Advantages of admission consultants
Let us have a look at a list of the advantages students can expect from admissions consultants:
- The students will learn how to write admission essays, letters of intent, and more as the consultant takes them under their wing.
- The students will have a chance to take mock interviews to prepare them for the real interviews.
- The consultants will take the students’ back stories and help them create in-depth profiles that can be used in writing admissions essays.
- They will also help build their postgraduate resumes to understand what they should and shouldn’t mention in an interview.
- They will spot strengths that can be leveraged to create a stronger image for the student to use in admissions applications.
- Admissions consultants have an ace up their sleeves – they know what admissions committees want to read and hear from a candidate and can guide their application process to avoid pitfalls while reinforcing the positive attributes.
- A grad school admissions consultant can also help the students find the schools where they can realize their aspirations and achieve professional goals. They can help with creating profession-specific components addressing why they are ideal for the profession.
The consultancy offer can be made to students looking to join your institution to make them aware that they can go on to submit MBA applications, law school applications, and medical school applications to pursue their dream occupations.
Conclusion
Including the prospect of your graduating students meeting and working with MBA college admission consultants, medical school admission consultants, and nursing admissions consulting is one of the best ways of increasing enrollment in your college or university.
It gives potential applicants a clearer path towards the professionals they intend to become – and in some cases, it can light a path towards a career they had never dreamt of pursuing. This will not only increase retention rates and motivate them to work hard to achieve high scores with the intent of going to graduate school.
FAQs
1. Should colleges be worried about the number of college students walking in their doors?
For now, there are enough students to fill classrooms in colleges. But, there are trend indicators that show the numbers will be falling sharply in the future. Many reasons can be cited for this downward trend including financial problems making college too expensive, readily available and well-paying jobs that require less qualification, and a general outlook that college debt is really not worth it.
2. Should colleges be worried about student retention rates?
Just like enrollment rates, colleges should also keep an eye on their retention rates. They should be able to graduate as many of their students as possible. After all, the number of graduates does serve as a KPI that helps with a college’s reputation and reliability as a solid educational institution.
3. Can colleges increase their student enrollment rates?
Yes, but they need to offer more than just an education. They need to reach out to students and offer them quality education and a chance to gain even more qualifications. They need to stand out from other competing educational institutions. A good offer or promise to make would be to promise graduates with high marks that they will have an offer to work with an admissions consultant to help them get into postgraduate schools of their choice – and in any field they choose.
4. How will the offer of a postgraduate admissions consultant help the students?
Well, for one they will have a goal set in their minds that if they work hard, they will have an increased chance of getting into a top-ranked postgraduate school where they can pursue further studies in fields of their choice. This will make their college education worth it. It will inspire them to reach further and even start dreaming of careers they had never considered before.
The main thing is that it will keep them focused and inspired throughout their college education. After all, a high enrollment rate is nothing without a graduation rate that is as close as possible to 100%.
5. Is it worth going to college anymore?
Yes, it is. Degree holders are paid more than their less-qualified counterparts. Jobs that require degrees pay more than those with no such requirements – and there are many such jobs out there.
6. Is it difficult to apply to postgraduate school on my own?
The higher the rank of a postgraduate school, the more competition you can expect. This means the institutions have the luxury of admitting the most-qualified students that they choose. Unless you are in that top bracket, you will find the competition to be really tough. Besides, the application process to enter a postgraduate school is a long and tedious process with many stages. Unless you are well-prepared for it you might find it a bit daunting.
7. Will an admissions consultant help with getting me a seat in postgraduate schools?
Yes, admissions consultants have trained staff who have themselves gone through the admissions process and have first-hand experience. They will help guide your admissions process from start to end. They will advise you on your shortcomings and even show you how you can be a more successful candidate that stands out from the crowd.
A good university admissions consultant will not only help you with your application processes but also help develop skills and strategies that you will find useful after you have started your studies.
You will have better interview strategies, study techniques, and college essay writing methodologies that you can use anywhere – not just during the application process.
8. What if I were to seek the help of an admission consultant on my own?
That is a possibility. You can go out and seek an admissions consultant on your own instead of just waiting for your college to do it for you. But, remember that the price of working with a consultant could range from a couple of hundred dollars to over $10,000 which could be a costly affair for a new college graduate.
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