Enrollment Management

Using Data to Determine and Market Your School's Value

With the current, erratic economy and enrollment being a constant challenge, building a sustainable business model for independent schools should be a focus for trustees, heads of schools and business managers. School sustainability finds itself at the intersection of program audits, data collection, income generation and stabilized tuition. The below presentation will explore how a comprehensive program audit can produce a more effective and efficient program and new income generation, which could lead to future tuition stabilization.

With both tuition and competition constantly increasing, it is imperative that schools accurately communicate their program's value. Value is the differentiator and by properly identifying it...schools can dramatically improve recruitment and retention. Our Research Department developed a satisfaction and importance survey to determine a school's value. Further, by analyzing the data, we can strategize ways in which to communicate with your different constituent groups AND to fit your school's brand. 

Below is a presentation we delivered at the AISAP Annual Conference in Nashville this Summer. Take a look and be in contact with us, if you want to have a free consultation and learn how your school can better identify and communicate its value. 

New and Noteworthy

 

ATTRACTING EXCELLENCE

AAEAAQAAAAAAAAJYAAAAJDViZGQ4MTkxLWU5ZWQtNDg1MC1iNjc2LTNlMTcyZjE2ZjMzZA.jpg

Gowan Group is so excited to announce the hiring of our newest Managing Director, Marisa Soulios Felt. Marisa is a long-time friend of Gowan Group and she has enjoyed a wonderful career as a school leader and program transformer.  Marisa brings 20 years’ professional experience in education and is a lifer in independent schools. She served as Assistant Head of School at The Hamlin School in San Francisco and previously the Middle School Head at Hamlin School, Viewpoint School in Calabasas, CA and Middle School Director at Albany Academies (NY), where she helped shepherd the merger of the Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls.  

She has teaching experience at Buckley School, a boys’ school in New York City, and at Albany Academies, teaching second through eighth grade boys and girls.  Marisa is a graduate of Miss Porter’s School and of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and holds Master’s degrees from Hunter College (NY) in Elementary Education and Teacher’s College Columbia University in Private School Leadership.  

With Marisa being located in Los Angeles, Gowan Group expands its reach to the West Coast. She will be actively involved in Head Searches, Enrollment Management projects, Strategic Thinking and Program Development.

 

PARTNERING WITH THE BEST

bob@2x.png

When excellence is the goal, partnerships are important to create, especially when the partner is the best in the business. In order to offer a more comprehensive list of marketing services, Gowan Group has recently partnered with Bob Rytter and Jensen Design Studio. A full-service design firm, Jensen Design Studio works with independent schools on brand identity, video, print and web design. While they are based in Baltimore, their client list reaches far and wide across the country.

Partnering with Bob and his team, Gowan Group can now continue our renowned work in research, enrollment management, messaging and branding and ensure brand accuracy with beautiful graphic design, print and video design. Jensen Design Firm and Gowan Group have long been friends, but a partnership now is certainly good news for our existing and new clients. Please visit Jensen Design Studio web site and see their incredible work with independent schools and Institutions of Higher Education.

 

ACHIEVING GREATNESS

Recently, our work has become rather intense with many new comprehensive projects in marketing, branding, data collection and analysis, program evaluation, strategic planning, print work, graphic design and administrative searches. We are so grateful that Gowan Group has reached the success it has so far, and we thank so many of you and our clients. New hires, partnerships, clients hiring us for follow-up work and referral calls are all signs that we are doing good things for schools. I think Don Gowan would be proud.

Admissions:  Plan Now to Increase your Yield on Acceptances (Repost, but always relevant)

March decisions are right around the corner, and Admission Directors can take a few steps right now to ensure the highest possible enrollment yield from acceptances.

School Admissions: Plan Now to Increase your Yield on Acceptances

1.     Involve your independent school’s program directors. Everyone has a stake in the yield success for acceptances.  Whether it’s the Academic Dean or the Music Director, the Debate Coach or the Soccer Coach—all program directors can help the yield cause at large and impact their programs.  Plan an early February meeting of all program directors—before end of term madness takes hold and March break arrives-- to discuss strategies for getting them in touch with accepted students (and/or parents) who have expressed a strong interest in specific programs.

2.     Plan or refine your accepted student special events now.  Whether it is a full-day visitation program for accepted students or an evening reception for the kids and their parents, you don’t want to wait until late February to create or refine these plans.  Successful independent schools enlist an all-star cast of teachers and administrators, and current students and parents to assist in these critically important events. They need to plan.  So do applicants and their parents. are aware of dates and specifics so that they can plan should they be accepted. Send out an e-blast and get the info on your website well before admission notifications are sent. 

3.     Use your admission software to indicate likelihood of yield for an acceptance.  Sure, in many cases you just won’t have a strong sense of whether a candidate will enroll after an acceptance, but your best guess is better than no guess as you enter admission committee meetings. And you will find that tracking the real data after acceptances and comparing it to your intuition will help inform your yield efforts in the future.

4.     Consider adding to your acceptance letters alerts for upcoming events or other school news, and include a link for these to your website.  You may have your winter musical right at acceptance time, an end of season playoff game, an art exhibition, or a special speaker at your school.  Perhaps you are at the point where you can announce an exciting program that will launch in the coming year.  These are all terrific opportunities to get accepted candidates and families back to campus or at least to keep them thinking about you without any “sales” pressure. 

about gowan group

Independent School Consultants with top experience in Private School leadership, providing the best solutions for every level of your School culture. Helping Independent Schools with Enrollment Management, Strategic Planning, Head of School Searches, Admission Audits, School Marketing, and School Messaging.