Ruth Vedvik uses expertise garnered from 26 years of first-hand experience at six institutions—public and private—to assist Hardwick-Day clients in elevating their student recruitment and retention initiatives to higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness.
Ruth assesses strategic enrollment planning at both the macro and micro levels, focusing on recruitment and admission operations in order to create tactical advantages for institutions in the marketplace. She advises on staff hiring, training, development, and performance for all staff members.
She has helped clients attain enrollment and net revenue goals through integrating financial aid optimization with strong recruitment planning and implementation. She has conducted numerous operational assessments for college admission offices of all sizes and missions.
For instance, Ruth is currently working with two women’s colleges in two regions and has helped both increase first-year student enrollment by 82 percent in one case and 36 percent in the other. Her clients span both coasts and all markets including international.
Ruth was director of admissions and records for the University of Illinois at Urbana for six years just prior to joining Hardwick-Day in 2002. There, Ruth managed the admissions process and academic records for all 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students and was instrumental in the implementation of the SCT Banner enterprise system.
At Agnes Scott College in the mid-1980s, Ruth developed the college’s first master plan for admissions, instituted a computerized prospect management system, and increased senior inquiries by 57 percent and applications by 53 percent.
At Ball State, she created an enhanced multicultural student recruitment plan in addition to programs for out-of-state students, fine-arts students, and women in the sciences. This helped move Ball State out of the 4th U.S. News & World Report quartile and into the 3rd. Ruth also worked in admissions positions at Gustavus Adolphus College, North Dakota State University, and Concordia College.
Ruth has conducted workshops for the College Board and been a scholarship-selection reader for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the Presidential Scholars Program, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, and Aid Association for Lutherans.
Ruth earned a B.A. in Psychology and Elementary Education from Augsburg College (where Herald Johnson, a Hardwick-Day associate, was her financial aid director). She holds an M.S. in Guidance and Counseling from North Dakota State University, where her degree topic assessed the impact of merit scholarships on student choice.
