by Bob Massa and Bill Conley The June 2023 Supreme Court ruling striking down the consideration of race as a factor in college admissions has reignited calls for the elimination of legacy preferences and early decision (ED) programs. Yet by no means is the rallying cry to dispose of ED “new” news. […]
Category: College Enrollment News
College Enrollment News
– Keeping private college presidents informed on the latest news impacting their institution’s enrollment and retention.
by Bob Massa and Bill Conley (Published in Inside Higher Ed, April 10, 2023) In January and February of this year, Inside Higher Ed published two opinion pieces by John Roberts, an engineering recruiter at the University of Kentucky. In the first piece, Roberts argues that admissions counselors should not be held responsible for hitting […]
By Bob Massa and Bill Conley Are faculty and staff members at our nation’s colleges and universities leaving their positions in higher numbers because they are no longer fulfilled in their careers and see better opportunities elsewhere, or are they throwing in the towel due to frustration, stress, and disillusionment? We pose this question, acknowledging […]
“We want to create as much opportunity for as many academically talented young people as possible, regardless of financial background or legacy status.” So said Amherst College president Biddy Martin when she announced last fall that the college was abandoning the practice of favoring children or grandchildren of alumni in admissions. A similar announcement was […]
Bill Conley & Bob Massa As published in Inside Higher Ed, February 28, 2022 Much has been written about the “Great Resignation”. The sheer scale is obvious: about 25 million workers left their jobs in the second half of 2021 alone. More ambiguous is the downstream impact on the labor markets. Where will people choose to […]
By Bob Massa and Bill Conley (published 1/24/22 in “Inside Higher Ed”) In a paper released last September by the Brookings Institution, author Alex Engler suggests that the use of algorithms to determine the amount of scholarship (i.e., discount) support students should receive does, in fact, hurt students. He claims that the “prevailing evidence” suggests […]
by Bob Massa, Bill Conley and David Holmes from The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2021 In his recent Chronicle Review essay, “The Abiding Scandal of College Admissions,” Matt Feeney decries college admission officers as administrators, not educators, who take it upon themselves to probe an applicant’s character and authenticity. Among the small group […]
by Bob Massa and Bill Conley You have heard it all before. The media has been replete with observations on how the current admissions season and undergraduate enrollments are being impacted by the pandemic. Wild trends in application volume – up, up for the elites; down, down for almost everyone else- foretell a volatile spring […]
By Bill Conley and Bob Massa In our December 2020 article (Standardized Testing and College Admissions: Plan for a New Relationship) we observed: “For decades, the purchasing of student test-taker names has been fueling college recruitment’s time-honored funnel.” We went on to discuss the many ways a long-term shift away from requiring standardized testing […]
By Bob Massa and Bill Conley This past fall, we wrote about how Early Decision (ED) programs would play an increasingly important role in helping colleges meet their fall enrollment goals. With the financial fallout of the pandemic making enrollment levels more difficult to achieve, we suggested that getting a larger group of enthusiastic students […]