Help your admitted students get over the finish line and enroll!

To those who work in enrollment management, the warmth of summer is often chilled by the reality of summer melt. Each year, a significant number of admitted students fail to enroll—10-40% per Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research! Their reasons for doing so are as varied as the students themselves.

Some are first-generation students who fall off due to the complexities of financial aid; some miss deadlines after high school graduation (no longer having the support of a guidance counselor) and fail to complete tasks like signing up for classes or orientation; others face social and emotional challenges and back away slowly.

Regardless of the reason, the best way to prevent summer melt is to offer individual support to each student—but that requires a lot of touch points for an already burdened admissions staff. Fortunately, there’s a fairly simple solution to helping these students get over the finish line: a dedicated communications plan to address the issues fueling summer melt.

“Stop the Melt” Communications Plan

It seems obvious, but a series of strategic email/text messages centered on the students’ primary concerns will help keep them on track. Key to the series are the voices and experiences of current students, who can speak peer to peer. The blend of emotional support from students, along with logistical support from the admissions office, will work to:

• Strengthen the relationship between the student and admissions counselor (especially at the point of high school graduation, where students lose their guidance counselor)
• Offer logistical support for financial aid, pre-enrollment tasks, deposit/confirm
• Offer emotional support and build excitement about what’s ahead: life on campus, fitting in, internships, travel, e.g.

Again, the reasons for summer melt are deep and varied. The ultimate solution would entail building a multi-faceted support system, but what matters most is staying in touch. After all, how can you help a student if you don’t reach out and offer support?

Contact us to build a “stop the melt” communications plan for your institution.