Trend or Statement of Hope?

May 11 2010

If you read my post from last week, you know that Credo conducts admission data research on behalf of the North American Coalition for Christian Admission Professionals (NACCAP). My blog last week involved data on the fall 2009 Admission Benchmarking Study. Today’s post is about fall 2010 Admission Funnel Trends. In a continuation of recent NACCAP trends most of the members report their data are up in applications for both first-year and transfer students, up in admitted students and also in deposits.

In the aggregate these institutions report:

15.6% increase in first-year student applications
6% increase in deposits from first-year student applications
12.2% increase in transfer student applications
6% increase in deposits from transfer student applications
15.1% increase overall in applications
10.6% increase in overall admits
6% increase in overall deposits

Anecdotal responses from members suggests that a number of admitted students are delaying making their final college choice, a sign of both economic uncertainty and the buyer’s market for prospective students seeking college options.

The upcoming May and June funnel reports will help determine if these anecdotal responses are reflective of a trend or a statement of hope. For more information on the NACCAP Enrollment Project visit www.naccapresearch.org or contact me at tfuller@credohighered.com.