Debating the value of an admissions office in matriculating more full-pay families may seem pointless. However, there are some schools that don’t have admissions offices and others that don’t use their admissions offices to their greatest potential. Many admissions offices originated due to problems with enrollment – maybe too many to handle or too few coming through the door. Nonetheless, let’s examine the importance of the admissions office in matriculating more full-pay families.
Responsibilities of the Admissions Office Team in Matriculating Full-pay Families
The most important task of the admissions office team is to produce an experience that creates full-pay believers in the school’s program. With believers in hand, they can more easily be converted into full-pay enrolled families.
The admission experience benefits from positive word-of-mouth from highly satisfied customers (i.e. current parents and students.) In turn, the admissions office team can demonstrate and have witnesses to the school’s premier program in a way that entices full-pay families to leave their free public school options and other private school competitors.
Building a Strong Admissions Office
To ensure a strong admissions office, a Head of School must examine the following aspects of the program or operation:
- Does the school have the right leadership and support in the admissions office?
- What admissions office skills are needed in the current market environment to create the right admissions experience for families?
- Are there appropriate amounts of resources being allocated toward the work that needs to be done to matriculate enough full-pay families?
- How does faculty play a role in supporting the marketing and communications work of the admissions office?
- Do enrolled families agree with the admissions office’s portrayal of the quality of the education program?
- Does the school have a significant amount of current full-pay families who are euphoric about their child’s educational experience while they are paying for that high ticket item?
An admissions office team needs to possess the right skill set to encourage the matriculation of full-pay families. It’s a difficult office to bring together, particularly when a one-person office is trying to do it all. From this office, you have to have skills in marketing, communications, sales, and assessment. Furthermore, the person(s) has to be well organized and highly personable. Even if you take the assessment aspect out of the equation and let the teachers do it, one still needs the other major skill sets required for matriculating full-pay families.
A skilled admissions office is exactly what most schools need to matriculate more full-pay families. To achieve this, attention needs to be paid to the design and make-up of the office. It is not an easy task. But through understanding what an admissions office does, it’s doable.
During the Five Pillars workshop, you will strengthen your marketing skills and learn how to best position your school when developing communication and sales strategies. You also learn how to create an admissions experience, and not just an admissions process. Schools can find this program quite helpful in building their admissions office team’s skillset.