Update from Admissions
By Mary Laskowski ’02

Things are heating up with our recruitment cycle here at Antioch College. Counselors are beginning spring travel, invitations for prospective student gatherings are being mailed out, and applications for Fall 2003 are arriving. Beyond this current hum of activity, this year has been exciting and full of institutional changes that are indicative of a more productive and collaborative enrollment strategy.

The Admissions Office has experienced numerous transformations in the last year, perhaps the most significant being the shift of focus from recruitment to enrollment management. Our recruitment focus changed from a broader, mail-based system to a more personalized approach in which counselors identify “tier one” or “hot” prospects and maintain consistent, individualized contact with each prospective student. This process is facilitated by new, state-of-the-art recruitment software that allows the tracking of all points in the enrollment relationship, and higher levels of integrated customer service. Admissions publications have been modified to accommodate this move to a more holistic approach and are now more interactive, with bounceback mechanisms to measure interest. Ideally, the enrollment management relationship will last throughout a student’s Antioch experience, producing individuals who are satisfied with their education, graduate, and become generous alumni. Although the success of these changes will become more quantifiable in the next few years, we are already seeing the positive effects of this strategy with the arrival of 527 applications, an increase of eight percent over this time last year.

The visit program has also undergone some major alterations with new roles for the staff and current students, newly instated training for tour guides, and the implementation of a visitor evaluation of the program. Thus far, evaluations have determined that the campus environment is friendly and welcoming, but structural factors such as campus upkeep and dorm wiring, rank high on the list of concerns.

This fall was a fantastic success with alumni recruitment. During the Fall 2002 recruitment cycle, alumni identified prospective students and referred them to the Admissions Office, attended 15 college fairs, served as an information source for local high schools, hosted and attended local gatherings, and provided feedback to the Admissions office on the full range of recruitment activities. Antioch would like to extend a “thank you” to everyone who attended a fair (or two, or three) or who assisted one of our admissions counselors. Thanks also to those of you who hosted or attended one of our gatherings. Your help is invaluable at these events as it shows prospective students and their families how dedicated our alumni are to their alma mater.

The inclusion of alumni volunteers, expanded staff capabilities, and the conversion to new enrollment software will guide the College to a larger, more integrated system of enrollment management. This will allow the Admissions office to assemble a student body whose interests, expectations, and aspirations merge well with the nature and offerings of Antioch College.

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