Historically, community college enrollment is impacted by the economy--the better the economy, the less students seek a community college education. The enrollment at Marion Technical College (MTC) in Florida generally has followed this trend. Prior to COVID-19, the economy in the United States was seeing unprecedented growth and, thus, MTC's…

The literature on college choice is extensive and navigating it for purposes of review is complicated by the dual meaning given to the word choice. To clarify, in this article, the phrase "college choice" refers to the concept defined by Don Hossler and Karen Gallagher in their seminal 1987 article entitled "Studying Student College…

Change, competition, and its consequences are particularly salient for California's community colleges. At its peak in 2002, California's community college system educated more than 2.5 million students annually. Nevertheless, California's community colleges receive the smallest proportion of the state education budget while enrolling nearly three…

Few positions on a college campus have evolved more than that of the chief marketing officer (CMO). Even a few years ago, this person, and position, did not exist. Of late, however, as colleges and universities have begun to appreciate the potential that integrated marketing communications has to offer them, more and more institutions have begun…

A literature review and mail survey suggests that while many colleges and universities are promoting and selling themselves, very few are professionally managing marketing activities. (MSE)

Colleges developing a unified marketing system embracing student recruitment, fund-raising, and public relations will encounter some classic bureaucratic problems. Some reorganization or realignment of responsibilities is imperative for a comprehensive marketing effort. Each system has strengths and weaknesses and emphasizes different goals. (MSE)

A guide to developing a college marketing plan defines key marketing terms, outlines the development of a plan (including institutional analysis, market research, strategy formation and execution, and program evaluation), and provides a list of important principles with which to operate a program. (MSE)

A subjective questionnaire administered to a random sample of freshmen (200 of 878) at the University of Tennessee at Martin to determine relative effectiveness of student recruitment methods revealed that an image for high quality education, variety in curriculum offerings, and selection of nonacademic activities are important controllable…

Integration has become a cliche in enrollment management and student services circles. The term is used to describe everything from integrated marketing to seamless services. Often, it defines organizational structures, processes, student information systems, and even communities. In Robert Sevier's article in this issue of "College and…

The greatest needs for promoting student enrollment are for awareness of the situation, an attitudinal set that includes research into the thinking of the universities' publics, and the promotion of adjustment techniques to accommodate and inform the prospective market. (Author/PG)

The construction of a market research questionnaire is recommended as one way a college can identify its applicant pool market. Included are an outline of information the applicant pool questionnaire might seek and basic criteria of question writing. (JT)

Describes the Open Campus program of the University of Rochester in which during a 10-day period in April applicants who have been offered admission but have not decided to enroll are invited to the campus for one to three days. They room with volunteer student hosts, sit in on classes, etc. (JT)

While enrollment management bears a great resemblance to marketing, the interest in it is symbolic of a new step in the evolution of American colleges, acknowledging that higher education needs a more professional approach to self-management. (MSE)

A project to improve Pan American's recruitment efforts in student markets already being served, rather than seeking new markets, is described. The project had two target groups: students accepted but not enrolled, and students who had left the university in good academic standing before graduating. Favorable results were achieved at low cost.…

A survey of admissions deans and directors investigated the use and perceived effectiveness of 15 well-known marketing techniques: advertising, advertising research, a marketing plan, market positioning, market segmentation, marketing audit, marketing research, pricing, program and service accessibility, program development, publicity, target…