National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students Recruiting the Returning Customer

1. National Institute for the Study of Transfer StudentsRecruiting the Returning Customer Sabrina Andrews Director of Institutional Research Bill Kraus Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management

2. Returning Customer/Student Issues • Understanding our returning student enrollment • Recruitment of returning students • Understanding why students leave • Continuity of effort

3. The Role of Transfers • Looking at transfers from the other side of the “door” • Understanding our position in the Ohio market

4. The University of Akron UPDATE • Located in a mid-size urban city • Open Access Admissions • Honors College • Carnegie Classification - RU/H: Research Universities (high research activity) • Fall 2009 headcount enrollment – 27,911 (23% growth over the last 5 years) • Undergraduate 83% • Graduate 17% • Fall 2009 New Freshmen – 4,542 (34% growth over the last 5 years • Fall 2010 New Transfers

5. The University of AkronOverall Enrollment

8. Zippy2007 Capital One Mascot of the Year Winner

9. Cross-Departmental Solution • Institutional Research • Enrollment Management • Admissions • Student Services Center • Transfer Student Services Center

10. What motivated our efforts? Common sales marketing adage: "it costs five times more to gain a         new customer than keep an old one"

11. Key Aspect of solution • Systemize • Becomes a routine activity • Shared activity Ground Rule: This will not be an activity that would be assigned to just one department

12. Definitions • Potential Returning Customer = Stop-Out • A Stop-Out is a student who was enrolled in the previous semester but is not currently enrolled • Excludes summer • Did not graduate • Academically able to return to the university • No financial holds • Proactive terms • Stop-Out as opposed to Drop-Out • Implies our desire to recruit student back to the University • Returning Student • A Stop-Out student who returns to the University

13. Four Components of Effort 1. Identification of Our Stop-Out Students • Creation of a stop-out student database • Enrollment behavior of stop-out students 2. Stop-Out Student Survey 3. Recruitment of Stop-Out Students 4. Tracking Returning Students

14. Component #1:Identification of Our Stop-Out EnrollmentSummary Table of Stop-Out Cohorts

15. Component #1:Identification of Our Stop-Out EnrollmentOur Example—Fall 2007 students that Stopped-Out in Spring 2008 Total Sent to NSLC: 1,058 Attending Another University/College: 234 Only 22% were attending another institution Spring 2008

16. The Stop-Out Student DatabaseFall 2007 Stop-Out Cohort What happened to the 234 students who were attending another institution Spring 2008? Fall 2008 Returned to UA: 15 Transferred to a different college: 19 Was not enrolled anywhere: 32 Still enrolled at Spring 2008 institution: 160 (68%)

17. The Stop-Out Student DatabaseFall 2007 Stop-Out Cohort What happened to the 824 students who were not in attendance at any college in Spring 2008? Fall 2008 Returned to UA: 193 (23%) Enrolled at another institution: 85 Were not enrolled: 546 (66%)

18. The Stop-Out Student DatabaseFall 2007 Stop-Out Cohort What happened to the 546 students who were not in attendance at any college in Fall 2008? Spring 2009 Returned to UA: 33 Enrolled at another institution: 18 Were not enrolled: 495 (91%)

19. The Stop-Out Student DatabaseFall 2007 Stop-Out Cohort What happened to the 495 students who were not in attendance at any college in Spring 2009? Fall 2009 Returned to UA: 20 Enrolled at another institution: 18 Were not enrolled: 457 (92%)

20. The Stop-Out Student DatabaseFall 2007 Stop-Out Cohort What happened to the 457 students who were not in attendance at any college in Spring 2009? Spring 2010 Returned to UA: 14 Enrolled at another institution: 8 Were not enrolled: 435 (95%)

21. Top Five Institutions Our Stop-Outs AttendedSpring 2008 • Kent State 37 • Cuyahoga Community College 25 • Stark State College 24 • Lorain County Community College 16 • Lakeland Community College 14

22. Is the mix of transfer institutions different for a Spring Cohort? Spring 2008 students who stopped-out for Fall 2008 • Kent State 106 • Cuyahoga Community College 47 • Ohio University 43 • The Ohio State 42 • Stark State 39

23. Comparing Re-enrollment Transfers and Non-Transfer Stop-OutsFall 2007 Cohort“Swirling”As of Spring 2009 Stop-Outs who initially enrolled as a freshmen returning to college 58% (462/797) Stop-Outs who initially enrolled as a transfer returning to college: 57% (150/261) 50% returned to UA

24. Returning to UA after Attending Another College Fall 2007 Stop-Out Students Attending Another College in Spring 2008: 234 As of Spring 2010—How many returned to UA: 23 (10%)

25. Mean Cumulative GPA of Stop-Outs Fall 2007 Cohort Those that attended another college Spring 2008: Mean GPA: 2.57 Those that did not attend another college Spring 2008: Mean GPA: 2.56

26. Top Three Lessons Learned • You don’t lose the overwhelming majority of your stop-outs to other institutions • If they do not return by the subsequent semester—it becomes increasingly difficult • Once you do lose them to another college (including community colleges) it is unlikely you will ever get them back

27. Component #2:Stop-Out Student Survey • Web survey • Primary purposes • Better understanding of why students leave • Recruitment • Used up to three email addresses • UA email address • FAFSA email address • Email address provided on admissions application

28. Profile of Students Receiving the Stop-Out Student Survey—Spring 2010 Survey was sent to 1,112 students— those academically able to return to the University, who were enrolled Fall 2009 but not Spring 2010 Students who were enrolled at another college Spring 2010 were included (211) • Academic Level • Freshman (<32 hours): 651 (58.5% / respondents 55.1%) • Sophomore (32-63 hours): 239 (21.5% / respondents 26.5%) • Junior (64-95 hours): 121 (10.9% / respondents 19.1%) • Senior (>95 hours): 101 (9.1% / respondents 9.3%) • Received Financial Aid: 762 (68%)

29. Component #2:Stop-Out Student Survey • Pilot Survey • Respondents could select multiple items within a given category • Survey categories - • Academic reasons for “withdrawing” • Financial…. • Campus Environment…. • Personal……

30. Previous Format As an example—Academic Reasons: I withdrew from The University of Akron due to the following ACADEMIC reasons: (Check all that apply) • I was not doing as well as I expected • I accomplished my educational goal • I plan to transfer to another college • I plan to change my major academic program • Faculty /courses were not engaging • I had difficulty getting into the classes I needed • Other, please explain (open-ended text box provided)

31. Surprised at being a “stop out”

32. Introductory Language • Previous Introduction • We noticed that you currently are no longer enrolled at The University of Akron.We know that there are many reasons why students leave and we hope that you will take some time to help us understand your situation by completing the following brief survey. • New Introduction • We noticed that you were not enrolled this semester.We’d like to better understand the reasons why you did not enroll this term. We hope that you will take some time to help us understand your situation by completing the following brief survey.

33. Revised Format • Regarding these four factors, please rate each factor on a scale of 1 to 5 -- with 1 not contributing at all to your decision not to enroll this term and 5 contributing significantly to your decision not to enroll this term:

34. Revised Format • Regarding these four factors, please rate each factor on a scale of 1 to 5 -- with 1 not contributing at all to your decision not to enroll this term and 5 contributing significantly to your decision not to enroll this term:

35. Revised Format

36. Revised Format

37. Revised Format

38. Revised Format

39. Open-ended Personal Reasons 38

40. Other survey questions • Demographics • Gender • Race • Age range • Receiving Financial Aid • Last term enrollment • FT or PT • Major • # of courses they withdrew from • Current status • What were they currently doing? • Were they going to pursuing college in the future 39

42. Open-ended comments

44. Stop-Out Survey What did we learn? ●Our students have opinions ●Many still consider themselves UA students ●Most are planning to return to college

45. Revised Format Benefits to the revised format • Can compute a mean score for each factor and sub-factor; easier to quantify • Students may not write in a factor that appears in a subsequent section • Additional demographic data will allow us to better assist with the reenrollment process and further analysis Further analysis • By gender/ethnicity/rank

46. Component #3The Recruitment of Stop-Out Students • Proactive Efforts • MAPWorks • Student Success Scholarship Program • Reactive Efforts • Direct Mail

47. Component #3The Recruitment of Stop-Out Students MAPWorks • New retention software • Two aspects to initiative • Survey • Contact management system • “Simplified” CRM tool

50. Student Success Scholarship Program • Focus on first-time/full-time • 3.0 GPA or higher Fall 2010 semester • Two segments • Students who identified their plan to transfer • On-campus students with unmet need • Initial fund established: $400,000