Eliminating Barriers and Optimizing Enrollment

Data streamlines enrollment process

In an increasingly competitive online degree market, Saint Louis University’s (SLU) School for Professional Studies experienced several years of declining enrollment. While the number of online students has dramatically increased over the past decade, so has the number of online programs offered by institutions, with mega-universities capturing significant market share. In order to address enrollment decline and build a foundation for growth, SLU focused on enhancing and differentiating its programmatic suite while collaborating with Collegis Education to build a frictionless student enrollment experience.

Situation: Continuous improvement model

Over three years of collaborative partnership, Collegis Education and Saint Louis University School for Professional Studies have worked side by side in elevating the student inquiry-to-application journey. This allowed SLU to remove barriers in the admissions process and ensure students have a seamless experience from marketing through enrollment.

By first learning about SLU’s historical practices and operations, Collegis built a comprehensive data foundation to help SLU identify and solve enrollment barriers. Through this data-driven approach, Collegis and SLU were able to establish a continuous improvement philosophy with the goal of streamlining the enrollment process and reducing friction on the prospective student.

Solution: A faster, more equitable experience

With an eye on uplifting the student experience, Collegis audited the enrollment process and took action to ensure students weren’t getting lost in red tape or complicated systems and processes. After diving in, Collegis found that five small steps could make a large difference for SLU:

• Speed up the process: Collegis suggested collecting transcripts on the students’ behalf to save them time and keep them better engaged in the admission journey.
• Focus on equity: With an eye on inclusion and equity, Collegis believed it was an appropriate time to eliminate deposit and application fees.
• Improved data transfer: Collegis supported the migration of all SPS programs to Salesforce to create consistency and smooth data transfer between undergraduate and graduate programs that were previously in separate CRM systems.
• Streamline the application process: By reducing the time from acceptance to registration to speed up enrollment, Collegis found that administrative hours were reduced and students were moved through the process quicker.
• Position smarter handoffs: Collegis implemented an automated scheduling system for interview hand off from Collegis to SLU, making it easier for students to schedule interviews when it was convenient for them, without having to have an initial conversation.