This study examined the effect of specialized orientation courses on community college student academic achievement and retention. The study utilized a quantitative design and compared the outcomes of specialized orientation courses to a more generalized orientation course. Due to the lack of previous research, there was little to suggest either a…

The COVID-19 pandemic created lingering challenges related to enrollment and made transparent the need for institutions to examine processes and remove enrollment barriers. Higher education may be perfectly poised to implement deep and lasting change that could result in increased access and improved retention. As student populations become…

Recent discussions on enrollment in higher education have centered around the "Enrollment Cliff." The notion holds that due to changing demographics, colleges and universities across the U.S. will see a dramatic decline in enrollment starting in 2025. The enrollment cliff poses legitimate challenges to schools around the country. Schools…

Four years after the onset of COVID-19, enrollment and persistence at community colleges is rebounding, although still not to prepandemic levels. Community college leaders report that a key strategy in encouraging enrollment and persistence is a drive toward more flexibility in course formats, including modes of delivery modality, materials, and…

This guest perspective argues that converting in-person summer pre-college program participants into matriculated, degree-seeking undergraduate students at that same institution is a multi-step process that involves: 1) strategic pre-college program recruitment, 2) a curated and well-rounded summer pre-college experience that is both academically…

The student retention behavior of stopping-out is widely misunderstood and yet very important in explaining community college student enrollment patterns. Stopping-out remains understudied in higher education literature as it is challenging to collect data from students who discontinued their enrollment, and since these students are not retained,…

Previous research has investigated the use of athletics roster management at small predominantly White institutions (PWIs), but no research has evaluated the impact on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). This quantitative ex post facto research explored athletics roster management's impact on enrollment and retention using…

The study's problem was that despite implementable educational policies and procedures (P&Ps) in tertiary-level institutions, recruitment, enrollment, and student retention (RESR) continue to decline in the Caribbean Common Market Countries (CARICOM). The relevant, challenging concern is that CARICOM tertiary-level students at a higher risk of…

Although it has become increasing popular for first-time-in-college (FTIC) spring enrollment, there has been no empirical study on spring starters. Existing literature on delayed enrollment has not distinguished students by the semester in which they have matriculated. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) does not collect…

The chief enrollment management officer (CEMO) is often responsible for optimizing institutional enrollment in ways that exceed the direct authority and responsibility of that office. To be successful, the CEMO needs to develop a high level of influence across the campus. Three particularly effective ways that the CEMO can exert influence to…

The student retention of freshman students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities as of recent has been comparably low which leads to low graduation rates. To understand this phenomenon, there is a need to investigate the factors that impact the enrollment and retention of freshman students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.…

Recent years have seen a major decline in community college enrollments across the country. Although the market to attract secondary school students contains many pathways, the overall marketplace is very competitive as most schools are competing for the same body of students. The adult market is the largest and most neglected group of potential…

Institutions are aggressively recruiting adult learners and developing adult degree completion programs. This is a hyper-competitive market. Many institutions lack experience working with this population. This paper outlines proven strength-based enrollment management strategies to instill confidence and provide student support for adult learners.…

Social and emotional (SE) skills are known to be linked with many important life outcomes, including academic performance, performance on standardized college entrance exams, and college enrollment. In this technical brief, the authors evaluated whether the five SE skills measured with the Mosaic™ by ACT® predict postsecondary enrollment and…

Enrollment levels and retention rates are two institutional factors that have seen a decline in the last five years and more. Previous research has documented the decline attributed to many different reasons. Resource allocations are a significant reason why enrollment levels and retention rates are declining at many higher education institutions.…