Enrollment Management Terminology

This started as a crowd-sourced training document by James Cousins. If you have additions or edits, feel free to submit them and keeping making this resource better!

#EMChat

Twitter handle and professional/social network of Enrollment Management related professionals

Accreditation

Essentially a quality assurance mechanism in higher education. Different schools will respond to different accrediting bodies. Your institution will most likely know your agency, but there is a list helpfully posted at https://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/agencies.aspx

Admit

A prospective student who is admitted to enroll at your institution. It is still the individual’s prerogative to enroll or not to enroll at this stage. Typically, enrollment management professionals hope to encourage students to enroll at their institution. Generally, at the stage where students are admitted, they begin to make their choice about which college at which to enroll. Various factors are in play- financial aid offerings, communications with college admissions staff (and other students), and other personal factors.

Agents

Agents are outside individuals or other groups of individuals who are contracted and paid by colleges to recruit international students. Agents cannot be used to recruit US citizens.

Applicant

This refers to any potential student who has applied for enrollment to your institution. It should be noted that not all applicants were necessarily once prospects or even inquiries. While most individuals will arrive at this stage after having been a Prospect, then an Inquiry, stealth applicants are also an entry point.

Association for Institutional Research (AIR)

A professional network for Institutional Researchers. Mission Statement: The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) supports higher education professionals in the collection, analysis, interpretation, and communication of data, and the strategic use of information for effective decision making and planning. AIR provides resources, innovative practices, and professional development opportunities for AIR members and the higher education community, including professionals from institutional research, effectiveness, assessment, planning, and related fields.

Attrition

More conversationally, "dropping out." This is typically when a student stops attending college, either for voluntary or obligatory reasons.

Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees has fiduciary responsibility for the governance of the College, serving to oversee and shape its broad policies. The president is the chief executive officer of the College and is also a trustee. The president and his or her senior staff are responsible for the implementation of College policy.

Board Meetings

Meetings held by the board, often involve an institutional effort to gather data and may often request that administrative staff present on certain metrics, for the sake of informing policy decisions.

Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (CEPP)

Formerly the SPGP, this is the code of ethics and guidelines that is agreed upon by NACAC members and governs our field. It both defines what is ethical and not ethical and the consequences of behaving unethically.

Communications Flow ("CommFlow")

Literally the flow of communications. In Higher Ed this refers to the official communications sent from the institution to the potential students, or their households (in case of communicating information to parents of high-school students, for instance). This is a critical component of the admissions process, and it's one that professionals and admissions staff will specialize in, as well as being a field covered by consulting professionals.

Cost of Attendance (COA)

As defined by NASFAA, “Cost of Attendance is the estimated cost of attending an institution for one academic year. COA includes the following: expected charges for one year of tuition and fees (tuition = charges assessed for classes; fees = charges assessed for other college services); room and board for resident students; estimated living expense (includes an allowance for rent, utilities, and food) for off-campus living; estimated transportation costs; estimated books and supplies; and miscellaneous costs.”

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Also a data housing and management system, these types of systems focus on tracking transactional experiences with "customers." Customers, however can be used to describe students insofar as you use these systems to track interactions with them. These will often come into play later in the admissions cycle and into the student's academic career at your institution. You might see open-houses, alumni meet-and-greets, or even orientation attendance tracked in systems like these. Later on, student transaction data, like tutoring, library, and dining hall usage might be stored in a CRM system. There are several possible CRM solutions for any given institution.

Deposit (Deposited Admit/Student)

When an admitted student places down a deposit towards enrollment. In the large majority of cases, this means the student will arrive in the coming academic term.

Draw Rate

Yield Rate / Admit Rate (This is a new measure of selectivity that came about because institutions were purposely recruiting applicants they did not admit to skew their admittance rate, making them look more selective and therefore more desirable).

Early Action Admit

Often, prospective students applying during this admissions cycle (it is a period of time within the institution's overall admission timeline) are hoping to attain an early acceptance. This has the prospective student-facing benefit of giving them an acceptance they can rely on. For the institution, this pool represents an opportunity to establish a baseline prospective class profile. Among schools that incorporate an Early Action admissions cycle, It's ideal for this group to form the foundation of your class. Naturally, different institutions adopt different admissions mentalities, so this should not be considered the hard-and-fast rule for all, however.

Early Decision Admit

This is an admissions process that stipulates that, upon acceptance, the student will deposit and enroll. Schools that implement this typically set the deadlines for applications relatively early (mid-November and onward). The process also typically concludes around January as well, most admissions periods (early action, regular decision) coming afterward.

Enrollment Management ("EM")

All activities surrounding the goal of recruiting students from the early stage prospective student awareness to the final stages of enrolling at the institution.

Expected Family Contribution (EFC)

EFC is a number generated by the information entered in the FAFSA to determine financial aid eligibility. Contrary to common misconception, this is a number used in a calculation and is not a dollar amount.

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

The application students fill out in order to determine their financial aid eligibility.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

A federal law, it protects the privacy of student education records. It applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Dept. of Education. Among its stipulations,

■Parents & students 18 and older have the right to review the education records maintained by the school,

■Request records are corrected when they are believed inaccurate or misleading, and most importantly,

■Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):

→School officials with legitimate educational interest;

→Other schools to which a student is transferring;

→Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;

→Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;

→Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;

→Accrediting organizations;

→To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;

→Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and

→State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law. ((from ed.gov, https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html))

Higher Education Research Institute (HERI)

This is a membership organization almost entirely revolving around the "CIRP" survey, Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey. It mostly resides in Institutional Research, but it collects a wide range of information on Freshmen arriving at the institution and provides valuable information due to being nationwide. It includes demographic information as well as expectations of the upcoming years in the institution.

Inquiry

This is a Prospect (prospective student) who has in some form inquired about your institution's offerings. This could be a response to a mailing, to an email, they may have requested information from your website, or potentially other methods of reaching out. (May be defined differently by different institutions)

Institutional Research/Effectiveness (IR/IE)

Disclaimer: It may be incorrect to lump these two offices, in some cases, but they are frequently synonymous. In the majority of institutions, this office is charged with collecting and maintaining data for multiple purposes. They will frequently fulfill data requests from any department across campus, supporting decisions in admissions, student success, student life, registrations, and otherwise with either datasets or data analyses. Additionally, and by far most commonly, these offices are tasked with any required reporting for the institution's memberships and accreditation.

Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR)

These are the processed student information reported by families on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). An institution receives an ISIR and uses it to determine financial aid eligibility.

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)

IPEDS is a data reporting tool and agency that institutions report data to and in turn provides a robust data set for analysis and research. They provide information not just about admissions, but retention, staffing, budgets, and demographics.

LRAP

Loan Repayment Assistance Program - originating at law schools but offered now at the undergraduate level as an enrollment tool as well, LRAPs are designed to assist graduated students with repayment of student loans as they begin their career. If a student makes less than a certain amount, the program covers a portion of the monthly loan payments. Can be offered broadly or to specific students and families to help eliminate uncertainty and fear surrounding the management of student loans after graduation.

Learning Management System (LMS)

A data management system very specifically oriented towards courses, training, or other academic offerings. Predominantly, these track course delivery, registration, participation, and outcomes. Here again, several solutions exist for any given institution. The level of complexity in this regard varies highly. Some schools may be very simply tracking registration and attendance, while others may be attempting to refine and optimize curriculum design.

Legacy Student

Students who has family members who currently attend or did attend the institution.

Mandatory Reporting

Any reporting that is required for either membership or accreditation. IPEDS and NSLDS might be among the two most common, but memberships in other organizations typically come along with further requirements. Examples include membership in the National Student Clearinghouse. Joining organizations like these provide benefits like access to nationwide (occasionally international) industry data, but requires you to submit your data as a condition. This is often the purview of Institutional Research, but may occasionally sit underneath other offices (as in the case of NSLDS reporting falling under the Office of Financial Aid).

Matriculation/Matriculant ("Matric")

Refers to when a prospective student enrolls, and registers for courses. This is essentially the central goal of enrollment management.

Melt

The event in which a deposited student does not arrive in the academic term, or register for courses. Practically put, they "melted" out of the incoming class.

National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC)

A professional network for College Admissions Counselors. Stated Mission: Dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing postsecondary education. They are committed to maintaining high standards that foster ethical and social responsibility among those involved in the transition process, as outlined in the NACAC Statement of Principles of Good Practice (SPGP).

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)

A professional organization for financial aid administrators in the United States which sets the guidelines and ethical practices for the administration of financial aid.

National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS)

The National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) is the U.S. Department of Education's (ED's) central database for student aid. NSLDS receives data from schools, guaranty agencies, the Direct Loan program, and other Department of ED programs. NSLDS Student Access provides a centralized, integrated view of Title IV loans and grants so that recipients of Title IV Aid can access and inquire about their Title IV loans and/or grant data. (from their website)

Need-Aware

An admissions policy that allows the institution to consider financial need in admissions decisions.

Need-Blind

An admissions policy that does not allow the institution to consider financial need in admissions decisions.

Open Enrollment

Anyone meeting plainly stated requirements may enroll, you simply need to sign up for class. There's no formal application, then admission process.

Persistence/Retention

Also known as retention, it is when a student continues to be enrolled at your institution. This can be measured by term, first to second-year, or in persistence to graduation (or completion for 3+2, 4+2, 0+6, etc programs).

Predictive Modeling

This describes a wide range of practices involving looking at historical data to mine statistically significant patterns, and leverage those towards predicting the behaviors of incoming students. There are several products and consultants around this process, and colleges will range from either not investing serious time into analytics, performing predictive modeling themselves, or enlisting the help of consulting professionals to receive scores on incoming prospects/admits.

Prospect

Prospective students. There is little qualification at this stage- names may be purchased from a vendor who sells lists of high school students, College Board test-takers, and others. In many cases, this is the very first stage of what might be called the student lifecycle. (May be defined differently by different institutions)

Recruiter

An institutional employee whose job is to generate interest among high-school students consider applying to colleges. It tends to involve significant travel, both to individual high schools and college fairs, gatherings where students can find materials on dozens of colleges in the same place.

Regular Decision Admit

All institutions that have "standard" or non-rolling admissions cycles have a regular decision pool of applicants. This pool of applications has the latest application deadline, so many prospective students inside of this group may have already sent applications and received admissions decisions, and on the other hand, they may have simply not applied during an earlier cycle. Both "Early Action" and "Early Decision" are common examples of applications cycles taking place ahead of "Regular Decision".

Rolling Admissions

A formal admissions process which requires both an application and an admission decision, but does not occur at set intervals. Applications are processed as they are received. While processing applications tends to take a fairly standard amount of time, the applications themselves may arrive any time from January up until the start of term (essentially).

Social Listening

Monitoring social media streams (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whichever your institution might be active in) to understand how your institution is perceived. This is a topic some admissions and EM professionals specialize in, and certainly one in which some vendors specialize.

Stealth Applicant

While most individuals will apply for enrollment to your institution after having been a Prospect, then an Inquiry, there are some (typically a minority) who will apply without any preceding contact (Hence "Stealth")

Student Information System (SIS)

A data management system geared specifically towards student data. Primarily of importance to Enrollment Management and Admissions, it may contain application data and occasionally, event participation. Later in the students' careers, it also contains registration data, student transaction data, and other fields. Keep in mind, each institution chooses which fields they populate regularly. Not all schools maintain their application data, for instance, in their SIS, preferring instead to track it through other applications.

Student Success

This is a widely used term with fairly common meaning. It regularly refers to "Year to year retention," "Degree Attainment," or "On-time completion"

Test-Optional

Test optional application policies are ones that do not require standardized tests to be submitted (typically, ACT or SAT, though graduate schools may also have test-optional policies). Occasionally, additional application materials are requested in place of said test scores. This might be something to the effect of an essay, or another way to measure academic preparedness. Some very unique cases exist where students are allowed to submit even more alternative forms of application, including, in at least one case, self-created videos representing the student.

Waitlist

Institutions that have an admissions process will often have a waitlist. This is a list in which to place students who are not the institution's first choice, but may be called up if/when application numbers are not high enough, and the institution wants to ensure a full class of students.

Yield Rate

The percent of admitted students who enroll at an institution.