What to Expect When Working in Enrollment Management

Key takeaways

• There's an inherent paradox: The primary mechanisms of enrollment are straightforward, but they are constantly disrupted by complex institutional structures, the substantial nature of decisions, and volatile markets.
• Expect to frame (and reframe) the metrics: Internal colleagues will often ask, "How are the numbers?" Success requires translating that surface-level query into deeper, mission-aligned indicators of student quality and excellent work.
• People over processes, always: Systems and workflows are baseline requirements, but your ultimate success relies on navigating campus dynamics and protecting long-term strategy from short-term panic.

When you get right down to it, the fundamental work of enrollment management isn't rocket science. You recruit prospective students to enroll in academic programs. Then, you manage the process of them doing so.

The answer is a little more complicated. Here is what it really looks like to work in enrollment management today — and how to find your footing along the way.

Eight things to know about enrollment management

1. The tasks are simple. The context is complex.

Enrollment management, on paper, sounds straightforward. You've got to a) communicate what makes your university or program different (you know what makes it special, but you understand there's an intangible aspect), b) identify the kind of student who would be interested (you see them every day; you get it, and you likely know where to find them), and then c) earn the attention of those students, whether that's putting out digital ads, holding events, sending direct mail promotions, planning college fairs, or other ideas.

These are straightforward tasks, so it seems. Then why does enrollment management feel so remarkably hard?

First, let's look at the product we are "selling" (to use a dirty word in many academic circles). It is not a simple or minor purchase.

Private undergraduate enrollment marketing managers are often selling a $200,000 experience to teenagers and their parents. Graduate programs carry their own distinct intricacies, even if the sticker price differs. Higher education is an expensive, future-defining purchase; it's no surprise that it requires a longer decision-making process.

Further complicating the context is the complexity of the market in which we are operating.

Opinions differ and shift constantly on the necessity and value of the degrees we're promoting. The competitive landscape is evolving with ever-increasing rapidity. On top of that, higher education is one of the most highly regulated verticals out there, and we have all seen how changes in regulations and funding models at the federal and state levels affect the market overnight.

Finally, let's talk about the higher education institutions themselves. The programs we promote, the students we recruit, and the experiences we attempt to capture all exist within a tremendously complicated and often confusing organization. Who knows what a Bursar is? What about a Provost? Ombudsman, anyone? And these are just the terms and offices, to say nothing of the different systems and organizational structures our prospective students must navigate:

• How easy is it for a prospective student to know exactly what a degree will cost them?
• How long will it take to achieve?
• How much time will be required weekly to accomplish the necessary work?
• Within the institution, how easy is it to adjust the product offering to the changing needs of the student?
• Who exactly is making sure that the classes are offered at a time and delivery modality that works for most student schedules?

The simple tasks of enrollment management suddenly become very difficult to achieve with regularity and consistency.

The danger of all this complexity is how easy it is to get lost in the sauce. Our attention fractures and our efforts are diverted in so many different directions that we lose sight of those simple, fundamental areas that are within our control.

Focus on what you can control

• Articulate the best case: Present the unique value proposition for each program and experience as clearly and consistently as you can to prospective students.
• Streamline the path: Eliminate operational friction within the admissions funnel as much as is within your power.
• Respond with empathy: Attend to the needs and questions of your prospective students quickly and compassionately.

2. Expect the question, "How are the numbers?"

If you are entering enrollment management for the first time, either from another area within higher education or from outside it altogether, one thing you can expect is to be asked some variation of this question with regularity.

This question will come from faculty, chairs, marketers, coaches, deans, and even colleagues from the far side of campus. They won't often specify which numbers they are asking about, or even what those numbers represent.

What they really want to know is how the numbers are. Are they happy numbers? Are they scary numbers?

Of course, what they are really asking is how they should be feeling about the enrollment trends and projections that you're seeing and working towards. They know that you and your team are responsible for the enrollment numbers that primarily dictate the operational revenue (at least, this is the case for most higher ed institutions). If the enrollment headcount is increasing, typically that means tuition revenue is increasing, as well, which means happiness across the university. If the headcount is decreasing, well… sadness.

I'm highlighting this because many of your colleagues simply don't know what to really ask to access your expertise, or to interrogate what is most important about the quality of your work. They should ask things like:

• "What excites you about the students you are recruiting this year?"
• "Are you seeing excellent mission fits for our university?"
• "Have you encountered any students who will leave their indelible mark on this university?"

My encouragement to you is to do your best to translate their questions into the ones they should be asking and answer those instead.

Try not to be frustrated that their question seems to miss the core value of your work. Give your colleagues the benefit of the doubt, trusting that their hearts are in the right place. So when "Earl from downstairs" asks you every time you pass him in the hall, "How are the numbers?", graciously tell him the truth: "Every student we successfully recruit is a miracle, and we are trying to recruit as many miracles as we can."

3. Lots of ideas will come your way

If you ever find yourself at a loss for what to do to recruit students, don't worry. Someone will tell you what they think you should be doing soon enough.

• "Have you considered recruiting wealthy students?"
• "Are you going to buy an email list of prospective students?"
• "Have you considered advertising?"

Enrollment management is one of those fields that "feels" as if expertise is as close as common sense. Marketing is similarly afflicted. Because the field doesn't appear to require any special knowledge or experience to many outside observers, you will find that a surprising number of people will be comfortable giving you a suggestion of how to do it better.

If you are a person of limitless grace, this will be no problem for you. However, if you chafe at obvious or poorly considered suggestions, I suggest you steel yourself to be able to withstand these good-intentioned offerings with kindness and appreciation.

There is nothing to do but thank the person for their thoughtful contribution and promise to examine how to activate it. Good ideas and bad ideas are going to come — just try not to take them personally or feel like you must shoot them down on the spot. It's a bad look, even if you are entirely right. (I wish I weren't speaking from experience here.)

4. You'll need to balance systems, processes, and people

Anyone who works in enrollment management must focus their attention on systems, processes, and people simultaneously as part of their greater enrollment marketing plan.

Systems

The key platforms that prospective students interact with along their decision journey — especially the CRM that tracks applications — typically fall under the purview of enrollment management. These systems need to operate seamlessly to reduce friction along a student's purchasing journey. Using the systems at your disposal is the baseline expectation, but an enrollment leader must ensure those systems are continuously maintained, improved, and even replaced when necessary. If the systems are broken, it is impossible to do the core tasks well.

Processes

Systems alone are not sufficient to make things run smoothly. You must create and maintain effective, efficient processes. A capable system can easily be rendered ineffective by poorly considered workflows. You will need to focus heavily on how you recruit students and how you guide their enrollment process through application submission, review, financial aid, and registration. If you are not a highly detailed process person, you will need to deputize a process champion on your team, because workflows naturally devolve over time without regular care and attention.

People

Finally, an enrollment manager should feel comfortable managing people, too.

The people within your division are the most important parts of your sphere of influence. Expect to devote a significant amount of your time and energy to talent management and development. You have to lean into hiring, developing, coaching, and managing your enrollment team. To paraphrase Jim Collins in his bestselling book Good to Great: "You have to get the right people in the right seats on the bus." There is no shortcut around this part of your role. It takes time, and it is absolutely essential.

5. It's helpful to understand organizational health and dysfunction

Here's one of the uncomfortable truths of enrollment management: the Chief Enrollment Officer at a university may be held responsible for institutional enrollment, but no student is primarily choosing to come to that university because of anything the Chief Enrollment Officer directly oversees.

Students are drawn to an institution because of the academic programs, the co-curricular activities, the student experience, the athletic culture, etc. — all aspects of the university not typically under enrollment management. Your division facilitates the enrollment, but the primary draw is an institutional feature that is almost always the responsibility of another division and leader.

Because of this, successful enrollment management requires leveraging and partnering with the drivers of student enrollment in other divisions across the campus. As a result, you can expect to discover the true lay of the land at your university — the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly.

You will find the areas of organizational health where partnership is welcome and easy: coaches who are wonderful co-recruiters and faculty whose engagement in their field is so magnetic that they attract students in droves. These people are worth their weight in gold. Befriend and lean into them. Help their programs grow. Your investment of time will be rewarded and will multiply.

However, if there is relational strain between institutional leaders that negatively affects how departments work together, you can expect to uncover it quickly as well. You will know exactly when and where territorialism triumphs over selfless cooperation. All too often, you won't be able to solve these organizational dysfunctions on your own; you will just have to be committed to not contributing to them yourself and steering clear of them as best you can.

The bottom line is that enrollment health exists in partnering with the healthy and vibrant departments and people, not in chasing the hottest programs or employment trends. There is a time and place for carefully launching a new program that marries the strengths of your institution with the enduring needs of an emerging market, but the greatest competitive advantage of your university is almost certainly the incredible programs and people you already have. Avoid the dysfunction, and partner with the healthy.

6. Some people won't get it

Some people simply won't get what you do. It's not because the work of recruiting and facilitating enrollment is too hard to understand; it's just because they don't take the time to really think it through.

Some people will assume that the number of students you enrolled last year is the baseline expectation for this year if you just sat on your hands and did nothing. To them, clearly, if you do your job to any degree, you should be able to enroll more. If they took a moment to think about it, they would realize that once a term closes, the enrollment count for the next cycle starts over at zero. This misconception means that external expectations of constant year-over-year growth can feel obvious to others, but impossible to you. Every enrolled student is a fresh victory.

Most of the major factors of enrollment growth and decline are well out of the hands of any enrollment management leader. Consider the landscape we are fighting against:

• Straightforward demographic trends ("the enrollment cliff").
• Shifting governmental regulations regarding student visas and financial aid.
• Fluctuating public opinions about the true ROI of higher education.
• Broad economic factors affecting marginal household income.
• Aggressive actions from competitors desperate to capture your market share.

None of these things is within your control, and unfortunately, they will not all be well understood by many of your colleagues whose focus is on their own day-to-day work.

Because of this, you will almost certainly experience an incongruity between the expectations of others and the reality of your successful work. In challenging times, holding the enrollment number completely flat from year to year could be a herculean feat. Limiting a decline to only 5% might warrant a massive celebration. All you can do is operate in reality and do your best to explain that reality to others when you have the opportunity and in a way that invites collaboration and further understanding.

7. You have to weigh short-term pressure vs. long-term success

In enrollment management, there is often going to be pressure to achieve the incoming goal for the upcoming term. When a goal appears well out of reach, you can expect someone — often a supervisor or the president — to ask, "Are we doing everything we can to meet our goal this fall?"

Unfortunately, that question can suggest a course of action that is not ideal for the university. The best question is actually: "Are we doing everything we should be doing to meet our goal this fall?"

There is always something more you could do, but increased activity does not always yield increased productivity. Because the length of a student decision cycle is almost always longer than one term, an enrollment leader needs to be apportioning the efforts of the team toward future terms as well, recruiting for multiple terms and years at the same time.

There will come a time when investing in a frantic, last-minute recruiting project for the short term comes at the substantial direct expense of recruiting for the next year. A wise leader must assess when capitulating to short-term pressure will actually cost more future enrollments than it will gain in near-term enrollments.

Disciplined enrollment management means not exchanging real future gains for low-impact, short-term optics. Try not to let the appearance of short-term frantic activity create a vicious cycle of desperation term after term. Long-term stability is built on fundamentally sound initiatives carried out with opportunity cost in mind.

8. People will be your biggest stressor and your greatest joy

Out of all the things you can expect when working in enrollment management, this is the most important. The strategic decisions you need to make are vital, but they won't be what keeps you up at night.

The things that keep you awake are related to people. It might be anticipating a challenging conversation with a campus stakeholder, navigating a program director who actually wants fewer students in their high-demand program, or managing the internal stresses of your own staff. One thing I can say with certainty is that the stress from people will outweigh the stress from abstract strategic decision-making.

However, all is not lost. My most substantial finding after twenty years in enrollment management is that this work is fundamentally relational work.

My greatest joy in enrollment management came from building a team whose gifts worked together seamlessly, and then connecting that team with healthy, high-powered stakeholders across the university to multiply their impact. The enrollment world is ultimately about helping people thrive, because our institutions are made up of people. When the people thrive, the institution thrives.

There is a reason that people who have spent time in enrollment management share a knowing insider bond, like grunts in boot camp or line cooks in a busy kitchen. There is a joyful secret knowledge that comes from creating a healthy team that is greater than the sum of its parts — one that ferrets out the nooks and crannies of wonder in a university and brings them out for the world to see. It's the people that keep us in the game, and it's the people that bring us our greatest joy.