Seventy percent of Americans who have pursued a Bachelor’s degree qualify as nontraditional students, according to the 2016 College Experience Survey from Strayer University and U.S. News & World Report’s Marketing and Business Intelligence Teams.

Adult Degree Completion programs appeal to the non-traditional student in two primary areas, convenience (work-friendly schedule) and cost. In the 1990s when these programs began to become prominent the institutions at the leading, and often bleeding, edge were able to capture large segments of the non-traditional population seeking to equip themselves for new jobs or career advancement. Now the number of institutions offering such programs has exploded making a much more competitive market and reducing the slice of the “pie” for everyone. Even the larger institutions are experiencing a tightening of the belt as students have become savvier in their shopping for an institution and a credential. The most common credential is a bachelor’s degree but more and more and seeking to attain their master’s degree. Although convenience and cost continue to be the primary considerations, students are also looking for other differentiating factors when considering an institution. There are a variety of these factors but key to any of them is making sure that the prospective student knows they exist AND why that factor(s) should be the deciding point in choosing an institution. In other words, if students aren’t aware of how your institution is distinctive, then your institution will be gauged solely upon convenience and cost, and lumped in with many other institutions. This speaks to branding and marketing, including website and social media, but is realized through an admissions model which the best institutions have been using all along.

Admissions for ADC programs has always been, to a large degree, a numbers game in which leads convert to applications, which convert to acceptance, which convert to enrollments, which convert to attendance and, hopefully, graduation. Leads were, and are, often purchased in large numbers. In the 1990s there were so many students and so few schools that it look relatively little effort to move prospective students through this conversion process. Not so today. Any lead is in the hands of multiple institutions, as are the applications and acceptances. Those institutions which are attempting to achieve their enrollment goals through brute force tactics of depending upon large numbers of leads and forceful selling are struggling; trying to make an old model fit a new reality. This results in high turnover in Admissions staff and incredible stress for everyone working in admissions.

The numbers game hasn’t entirely gone away, but it is now being built upon a model which is more effective in moving students through the conversion process. A model, as I mentioned above, which the best institutions have been practicing all along. The model can be summed up in one word: relationships. Relationship admissions depends upon Admissions personnel being able to build relationships. Relationships, as in genuinely caring about the goals of the prospective student, and seeking to find the best way for them to achieve those goals; as in making genuine connections with area businesses which is mutually beneficial. Relationship Admissions to be truly effective requires two things: First, it requires the right personality. You might think this would be all about the “Woo” strength from Strengths Finder, but that would be wrong. The best recruiters are social but they are also people who are passionate about genuine connections AND achievement of goals. Managing Admissions Staff is always a fine line between accountability to the numbers, which is the blood of the institution, and making sure they keep relationships first. When you get the right individual this seems to happen automatically. Second, Relationship Admissions requires the staff person to be in place long enough to build and nurture these relationships. High turnover in Admissions Staff is almost certainly a recipe for high stress and low enrollments.

All of this may sound obvious, however, I have seen many leaders and Admissions Staff for whom it seemed like rocket science. In the new economy in adult higher education it will be relationships and a true distinctive which will result in positive enrollment trends. I will write more about growth in ADC programs and the Sine Curve in a future post.