Posted by: Janet Sieff
Thursday, June 7th, 2012??????????????????
As higher education marketers we hate the summer melt just as much as you do.
No matter what is spent on advertising, viewbooks, search lists, and the like, it will not impact the number of enrollees who change their mind and decide to go to another college in June, July and August. Take your pick of reasons: fickleness, aggressive competition, finances. If you don?t have a relationship with your students and if you have not vetted these issues earlier in the recruiting cycle, you will face ?melted? enrollment results.
We recently presented two webinar sessions titled ?How to Put the Freeze on Summer Melt.? Judging from the attendance and level of interaction, this is a hot topic.? During the presentations we polled the audience about their melt rates.? Here are the results from the audience members who responded to the poll:
Poll question:? For enrollment in the fall of 2011, did your summer melt:
| ? | ?Session 1 | ?Session 2 |
| ?Increase from previous year | 40% | 43% |
| ?Decrease from previous year | 24% | 39% |
| ?Remain the same | 37% | 18% |
Clearly from this snap shot, summer melt is an issue that could become more of a problem in years to come.
During the question and answer session an attendee inquired, ?What is the ?acceptable? summer melt rate??? This is a complicated question.? I would like to say ZERO, but of course this is not realistic.?? Melt may be measured differently and there are many factors to review, but however you measure it ? a decrease in summer melt rate is ideal.
The son of someone I recently met is enrolled to start this fall at a college with selective admissions.? Through stories relayed to me about this student, I predict there will be problems that will interfere with his follow-through this summer. (I hope I am wrong) As an outsider and a consultant it is easy for me to see the warning signs in this case, but how does an admissions team detect problems and take action? ?Melt is why it is so important for admissions counselors to have relationship selling skills; to know their students and be aware of the warning signs. Counselors won?t know of problems unless they purposefully look for them and ask the right questions.
Reducing summer melt is not one of those problems you can erase from behind your computer screen. It calls for a strong enrollment management strategy coupled with astute relationship selling skills.
If you would like to view our on-demand webinar presentation ?How to Put the Freeze on Summer Melt? contact me at 412-904-3133 or janet@psandl.com
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