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If you have been in higher education for long, you know the term “admissions cycle.” The truth is that for many years that was accurate — it was, in fact, cyclical — there was a rhythm and a level of predictability. Students completed applications in the fall, colleges made decisions in the spring, and round and round we went in a fairly stable and unchanging routine.
Over the last decade in particular, however, that “cycle” has been significantly disrupted, and the issues impacting enrollment management divisions on college campuses have not only proliferated but also grown in complexity: shrinking markets, rising costs, varying application plans and deadlines, geopolitical positioning abroad…not to mention a global pandemic, a looming demographic cliff (or two), a precedent altering Supreme Court case, and the FAFSA fiasco.
So, if you find yourself seated next to an admissions colleague at a spring luncheon or in a conversation with a financial aid staff member while enjoying the standard fare of fruit, cheese, and lemonade at a campus retirement party, here are some topics to know about, questions to ask, and resources to learn more.
1. FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) Delay
Summary: In 2020, Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act. The goal was to streamline and improve the form and overall process, adjust for inflation, allow for direct import of tax information, and ultimately provide more federal aid to lower-income families. The reason you will hear for why this rollout went so horribly wrong depends on who you talk to: technology challenges, lack of resources/investment, Taylor Swift, etc.
What everyone can agree on is that the delayed opening of the FAFSA, and therefore the late receipt of Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs), has made this financial aid year completely fubar.
In prior years, many colleges have had all the data they need to understand a family’s financial background, and can distribute aid packages inclusive of institutional aid, as well as state and federal grants where appropriate. This year, colleges are either postponing their release of financial aid packages, or (if they have the institutional budget and will) providing provisional or predicted letters to families.
Nobody likes uncertainty, ambiguity, shifting information, or waiting on details — and at this point, we have all of that in spades.
Questions to Ask:
- How has our institution dealt with the delayed release of FAFSA data?
- What implications do you think this abnormal aid year will have on our incoming and current students?
- Can I buy you a drink or give you a hug?
Learn More: “Off the Cuff”: The NASFAA podcast does an excellent job framing the intricacies and impacts of these delays for both students and schools.
2. AI in Enrollment
Summary: In recent months, much has been written on, speculated about, or suspiciously surveyed surrounding the use of AI in college admission and enrollment. The truth is that utilizing machine learning to augment efficiency and free up human time for higher-level work is an exciting prospect. Currently, many colleges and universities have full- or part-time staff members recalculate GPAs, scour transcripts for particular high school courses, or populate databases in manual and time-consuming fashion. Since the majority of colleges admit the majority of students (65% overall for four-year universities), the incorporation of AI is a boon.
Unfortunately, many of the articles imply that admissions staff at schools utilizing holistic review are simply punching in some code and going to lunch. While Slate and other software companies that are admission adjacent have promised essay and recommendation letter summaries, or bolt on software to help readers glean key information from applications, that has not been provided or implemented in any meaningful way across higher education.
Questions to Ask:
- Has our admission office employed AI/machine learning in any significant way?
- What are our plans or options to use these tools in the future?
- How could implementation of AI improve our process and benefit students and/or our college?
- Do you see helpful or meaningful ways AI will help us in the financial aid process going forward?
Learn More: In this U.S. News article, several campus enrollment officials weigh in on possible uses for machine learning, current implementation, and reason for both optimism and caution moving forward.
3. SCOTUS- Race-Conscious Admission Case
Summary: In June 2023, the Supreme Court overturned 40 years of precedent by ruling that colleges and universities could no longer use a student’s race “as one of many factors” in their holistic review process. The truth is that the majority of institutions in the country were already operating this way, since they effectively use a formulaic admission process relying solely on numeric inputs such as grades and/or test scores. But for selective institutions where far more students apply than they have spots available, an applicant’s race was incorporated into the committee’s review and decisions.
With most applications for next year already submitted,The Common Application (which compiles data of more than 1,000 member colleges) reported in January that more black and Hispanic students have applied this year than in prior years.
One question many faculty, staff, and students have is, “How do they know?” To clarify — students are still indicating their race/ethnicity on their application, and the federal government will require that to be reported in the fall census. However, when schools import data to review for admission decisions, they are redacting those fields. Therefore, many colleges know what their macro applicant pool or admitted class looks like from a race/ethnicity standpoint, however they are not “conferring an individual benefit” to students in the review, in compliance with the SCOTUS ruling.
Our prediction is that for the incoming class of 2024, more selective institutions will be less diverse, despite admirable recruitment and yield efforts.
Questions to Ask:
- How has our recruitment, review, or yield work been impacted by the SCOTUS ruling?
- What yield efforts is our campus undertaking to ensure a diverse campus community?
- Do you have macro data that gives us an indication of how we are trending this year on our underrepresented populations by race versus prior years?
- As an invested faculty/staff member, how can I (or my department) assist in helping our campus meet institutional goals, particularly in light of this ruling?
Learn More: This site from The Chronicle of Higher Education aggregates key articles, provides a timeline, and shares perspectives from campus leaders, legal experts, and other industry experts.
The once predictable cycle of admission and enrollment has been permanently disrupted. Now, all that is promised is the acceleration of complex challenges. As a campus colleague, our hope is you will stay curious about and invested in the critical work being done by your enrollment team; consider how you can collaborate and support ongoing and future efforts, and proactively initiate conversations on campus to help other colleagues continue to raise their enrollment IQ. (And when all else fails, you can just go with that hug and a drink!)
