In order to create an inviting college atmosphere where students find meaningful campus connections and feel included, it is crucial not to treat student deposits as the finish line after admission letters go out. Instead, that is merely the start of their transition. Enrollment and admissions strategies need to include a proactive bridge—built from pre-enrollment strategies—that fills the gap between admissions and full student enrollment. Without attention to this critical period, schools can lose students.
Helping students find campus connections before they arrive can strengthen yield, reduce melt, and build long-term loyalty. This translates into more success while the students are enrolled and more involvement and support from alums. To put it simply, an investment in pre-enrollment strategies has both short-term and long-term benefits. It’s a true win-win for the students and the college or university.
This blog post explores how admissions teams can implement strong pre-enrollment connection strategies to get students feeling at home well before move-in day.
Why Early Connection Is Critical for Yield and Retention
As Maggie Hicks writes for EdSurge, there has been a shift in the post-COVID era. Many students are now entering college with extra apprehension about navigating the social and cultural dynamics of campus culture. In fact, “These days there’s a greater interest (and expectation) from students and families in the need to help students feel like they belong on campus.” Students and parents alike are more likely to see pre-enrollment activities as a benefit rather than a burden on their schedules.
These emotional and behavioral benefits of early engagement go both ways. Students find themselves more at ease with campus connections that can help them smoothly transition into student life. Also, colleges get students who are more likely to enroll and persist. These kinds of pre-enrollment connection strategies can be particularly important for student populations at higher risk for isolation. These groups include first-generation, international, or out-of-state students.
As Business Insider explains, “Up to 40% of low-income students don’t enroll in college the fall after high school graduation despite being accepted.” This so-called “summer melt” makes it difficult for colleges to accurately plan for their incoming classes and leaves many would-be college students floundering.
When enrollment and admissions strategies include intentional outreach during this crucial gap between acceptance and enrollment, students can visualize their place on campus. This helps them overcome the barriers that might keep them from attending.
What Students Are Craving After Admission Offers
What is it that students are looking for to support their campus connections?
The answers are simple—students want foundational connections with other humans—but profound in their long-lasting impact. Students want direct access to people, not just disconnected information. They want to meet the faculty and staff, interact with mentors, and build friendships with other students. As Ashley Mowreader reports for Inside Higher Ed, these friendships are key to students’ ongoing mental health. In fact, 40% of students reported turning to a friend for mental health help on a regular basis. Those who struggled the most “were least likely to have people to turn to, with only one in five saying they could turn to a friend for mental health information.”
Students are more likely to find meaningful connections if they can envision the life they’ll have once they’re enrolled. They want detailed tours and interactions with housing, campus activities, and academic spaces like classrooms and libraries.
Finally, they want straightforward answers to logistical questions around the next steps for things like:
- Financial aid
- Getting books and supplies
- Signing up for meal plans
- Getting a dorm assignment
Often, these kinds of logistical barriers contribute to summer melt.
Tactics to Build Campus Connections Before Day One
Creating meaningful campus connections as a pre-enrollment strategy does not have to require reinventing the wheel. Many existing enrollment and admissions strategies can be adapted or built upon to achieve these goals.
Many college campuses already have peer ambassador and peer mentor programs. Pairing students up with these mentors and ambassadors shortly after admission can start building on that momentum earlier in the process. These connections build a sense of belonging. They also provide students with a peer who can offer advice if they begin to feel overwhelmed.
Providing small group Q&A sessions with faculty and student life staff can give students a chance to overcome any enrollment barriers with support and scaffolding. Seeing that other students also have questions can alleviate any doubts. You’ll help students see that they belong and can successfully navigate the last stretch to enrollment.
To meet students’ desire for a meaningful understanding of their place on campus, create meetups based on academic interests or identity groups that include other incoming students, current students, faculty, and staff. Offer these meetups in both virtual and in-person formats to meet a variety of student needs. FlippedApp allows admissions teams to identify shared interests, backgrounds, and academic goals. This data, in turn, allows for targeted introductions and personalized pre-enrollment engagement that’s meaningful and curated.
Digital Tools That Support Early Belonging
In addition to in-person activities, enrollment and admission teams should be leveraging technology to build campus connections in ways that feel seamless and accessible to incoming students.
Providing social media takeovers and behind-the-scenes content from current students allows accepted students to picture themselves on campus in real, authentic ways. Slick marketing materials play an important role in showcasing the college or university’s academic strengths. But students also want more down-to-earth takes from current students about student life, dorm living, and campus culture.
Technology also offers opportunities for real community building between incoming students even before they’ve come together in person. Dynamic virtual events, small group discussions, and student panels can all take place online in ways that allow for real-time interaction.
When enrollment steps are centralized in a robust online environment, students can have personalized onboarding microsites that walk them through the next steps of their individual enrollment process. Rather than providing students with vague generalities about what needs to happen, these sites can provide step-by-step instructions tailored to their personal needs.
Personalizing Pre-Enrollment Touchpoints at Scale
The kind of personalization that makes pre-enrollment campus connections most meaningful can feel overwhelming for lean admissions teams. The overwhelm gets worse when so many schools are seeing cuts to enrollment and admissions teams among budget concerns.
There are some key steps colleges and universities can take to make these pre-enrollment strategies more effective and efficient. The use of segments, which can be built into a program like FlippedApps, can sort students by interest. Segmentation allows for tailored messaging and programming that gets the right message to the right people.
Behavioral data can trigger automated communication built with personalization and customization in mind. Students will get responses tailored to their situation, making connections feel more genuine and advice seem more useful.
Pre-Enrollment Strategies Can Pave the Way to Stronger Campus Connections
Enrollment and admissions teams must recognize the importance of early campus connections for accepted students. Without a meaningful and relevant touchpoint to the college or university, these students are at high risk for melt, especially if they are from groups at increased risk for isolation.
Take the time to seek out these students from the early stages of admission. Then, build bridges into the campus community. This will provide ongoing benefits for both the students and the school. These actions will increase yield and build long-term engagement that will cyclically reinforce a strong campus culture for future incoming students.
In the face of high melt and enrollment numbers that lag behind actual admissions, enrollment professionals should conduct audits of their current pre-enrollment engagement plans. Look for gaps in communication. If your school was in touch frequently before admission and then dropped off the student’s radar, the student may start to feel disconnected before enrollment. Consistent, personalized touchpoints through emails, calls, and texts will remind them that they matter and belong.
Another red flag is a lack of access to peer networks. Connection with other students is one of the main factors in long-term engagement. When students do not have a meaningful way to make these connections and encouragement to do so, they’re missing out on this chance to build relationships. The school will then miss out on the opportunity to create campus connections.
Assess whether information is one-way or two-way. If the information about the next steps of the enrollment process is only moving one way, schools may be missing opportunities to answer questions and provide the guidance students need to overcome barriers. Onboarding materials should not just provide a checklist of to-do tasks. They should invite students into the conversation with two-way communication opportunities that encourage questions and interaction.
How FlippedApp Can Help You Build Early Connection Strategies
Tools like FlippedApp can help admissions teams build stronger campus connections long before enrollment begins. With data-rich student profiles that go beyond the basics, enrollment teams can reach out with personalized messaging that helps students find their niche. The platform allows for clear outreach guidelines that will automate messages tailored to student interest, allowing teams to scale personalized interactions with ease.
Want to learn more about how FlippedApp can make your pre-enrollment outreach strategies a success? Start by scheduling a consultation today!