There
could be tens of thousands of potential community-college students out there
who haven’t enrolled yet, apparently because they never got around to
completing the paperwork. A simple phone call could reel them in.
According to Education Dive, a recent presentation at the American Association of
Community Colleges Annual Meeting described how several colleges decided to
conduct a call campaign to reach two groups of prospective students: those who
had applied but didn’t finish forms for financial aid and those who had
submitted financial-aid papers but hadn’t enrolled in classes.
The
results of the calls were pretty amazing. Hillsborough Community College in Florida,
for example, increased enrollment by 745 students compared to the previous
year, amounting to more than $3 million in revenue. San Juan College in New
Mexico got 17% of the individuals called in the first semester to enroll; the
percentage went up to 46% in the second semester. Like Hillsborough, San Juan
enjoyed a nice bump in revenue, helping to keep the institution afloat as state
support declines.
Schools
that called students who had taken courses but not re-enrolled also saw similar
results.
The
effectiveness of the phone calls suggests that many students may need that
extra point of contact to stay on track. Some may struggle with complicated
forms and don’t know where to get assistance, some may have missed a deadline
and weren’t sure how to proceed, while others may simply require a little more
encouragement.
