EAB Experts Brett Schraeder and Sarah Le Duc provide insight into how financial aid optimization (FAO) works and how universities leverage FAO strategy to balance institutional goals. The two separate fact from fiction and explain how schools use FAO to optimize revenue from wealthier families so they can afford to be more generous in awarding financial aid to students from historically underserved populations. Finally, Brett and Sarah share advice for the 99% of institutions that depend on FAO to diversify their incoming class, improve student retention, and generate enough revenue to fulfill their mission.

EAB’s Madeleine Rhyneer and Lex Ruby-Howe share strategies to help admissions teams boost yield by identifying students within their admit pool who are highly likely or highly unlikely to enroll, versus those who are genuinely undecided. By leveraging simple surveys and more advanced analytics, schools can focus their resources and tailor their outreach efforts to greater effect. Madeleine and Lex also touch on the importance of being nimble in adjusting financial aid strategy as another critical lever for converting the undecided. Finally, the two discuss the value of virtual tours and other digital platforms your institution should be using to help applicants make authentic connections with other admits, current students, and faculty before they ever set foot on campus.

EAB’s Meacie Fairfax and Ed Venit explore pandemic ripple effects that will continue to impact student persistence at colleges and universities for the foreseeable future. They cite studies showing that student feelings of isolation, disengagement, depression, and other mental health challenges—a growing concern for years—have all worsened during the pandemic. They also point to learning challenges that have plagued K-12 students during the pandemic, as well as the recent plunge in community college enrollments as additional headwinds that four-year institutions will be dealing with for years to come. On the positive side, Meacie and Ed highlight the opportunity facing higher ed leaders who have little choice but to modernize their approach to student retention and success.

IUPUI Chief Enrollment Officer Dr. Boyd Bradshaw joins EAB’s Owen Crean to talk about the importance of strategic enrollment management and the challenges of getting everyone on the same page within a distributed leadership structure. Dr. Bradshaw outlines the structure of a modern enrollment management program and talks about how to break down silos that can hamper recruiting efforts. Finally, he and Owen share tips for engaging campus stakeholders to fix data inconsistencies, set realistic goals, and apply a consistent framework that guides all recruiting efforts.

Rowan University has emerged as one of the fastest-growing research universities in the country with two medical schools and nearly double the total enrollment they had in 2012 when Dr. Ali Houshmand became its president. Dr. Houshmand talks with EAB’s Hersh Steinberg about the power of partnering with businesses and other institutions in ways that keep them invested in the success of your school. The two also discuss Rowan University's support of 3+1 programs and how the launch of their own hot sauce enterprise offers hands-on business experience and helps reduce college costs for Rowan students.

EAB’s Brittany Motley and Meacie Fairfax share what they’ve learned from working with the ten schools (so far) that have signed on to EAB's Moon Shot for Equity and dedicated themselves to eliminating equity gaps by the end of this decade. We also hear from front-line staff at those institutions about how they’re integrating Moon Shot initiatives into their workflow, about challenges and unexpected blessings they have encountered along the way, and about how they are engaging other campus leaders to join the effort.

President Dr. Benoit-Antoine Bacon of Carleton University and Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion Dr. Carol Henderson of Emory University discuss how universities across Canada and the United States are reckoning with their historical ties to slavery, indigenous dispossession, and racial oppression. This discussion was excerpted from a November 2021 EAB webinar moderated by EAB’s Kurubel Belay. The webinar was the first in a series of engagements EAB is leading as part of a new research effort exploring authentic and productive ways for institutions to address and heal from their legacies of racism.

Dr. Roderick Heath explains how his own experience and his study of noncognitive behaviors inform his work as Director of the African American Male Initiative at North Carolina Central University. In a conversation with EAB’s Michael Schwengel, Dr. Heath discusses how he combines data, technology, and a range of motivational tactics to engage these students and foster a sense of belonging he says is crucial to their academic and personal development.

EAB’s Sally Amoruso talks with Colorado State University President Joyce McConnell about ways to drive greater diversity in higher education leadership. McConnell traces her own journey to becoming the first woman President at CSU and shares her thoughts on effective ways of recruiting and cultivating diverse talent. Amoruso and McConnell also touch on the importance of building a culture of trust that empowers staff at all levels and from all backgrounds to speak openly, to listen, and to collaborate in ways that encourage the best ideas to rise based on merit.

The typical university campus has tens or even hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space begging for a makeover. With so many campus employees working remotely, schools have a golden opportunity to transform that space with less disruption. EAB’s Elizabeth Denny and Michael Fischer offer advice to help university leaders think through their options whether they’re looking to pilot a few modest changes or completely reimagine the way that people study, live, work, and interact on their campuses.