Prospect & Conversion Analysis

Inquiry Scoring

Inquiry scoring will help you focus resources in real time on the students most likely to matriculate. For instance, what if your yield rate for science majors is relatively low, but their total numbers make up nearly 25 percent of the freshman class and there are over 10,000 inquires from them.

Inquiry scoring will help you winnow out the high percent of students who are unlikely to yield based on other variables. That gives admissions staff a lot more breathing room to focus tightly on the inquiries who really want to attend your institution.

The scoring process uses three years of institutional data as well as geodemographic data from Claritas and PRIZM. Each analysis is customized, but likely variables would include:

• Inquiry sources;
• Residency;
• Proximity to campus;
• Major markets;
• Household income;
• Parent education level;
• Population density of home address;
• Campus visit;
• Gender;
• Time since initial inquiry;
• Race; and
• Co-curricular interests.

Prospect Ranking

Let's say those intended science majors are likely to inquire via the internet or by submitting their application. While these stealthy students were checking out schools, admissions staff were spending their time at recruitment fairs and searching—building massive inquiry pools that yielded abysmally.

In addition to focusing on the groups most likely to matriculate for your school (science majors in this example) through inquiry scoring, why not take it one step further? By ranking the students that are likely to enroll on a case-by-case basis, you can focus in on fewer students with a personalized approach.

At this point, you'll know which students are most drawn to your institution and which of them will help you meet your goals for diversity, net tuition revenue, gender balance and other goals. Additionally, you will also gain general guidance for your college or university from the retrospective analysis of the variables, as well as a non-matriculant analysis, which breaks down characteristics of these students and addresses why they did not choose to attend your institution.