| Community colleges are always looking to find ways to increase enrollment, either through recruitment of new students or retention of current students. This research is focused on the recruitment of new students---specifically high school students---using a Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) model: nurturing high school students through the application process and deploying teams to local high schools to facilitate the admission process on site. The purpose of the study is to determine how the use of a SEM model at a mainstream comprehensive high school impacts overall Delaware Technical and Community College (DTCC) enrollment from a feeder school, High School A (HS A), and more specifically, enrollment in DTCC's engineering program, an under-enrolled program. Positive feedback was received from the HS A participants that the outreach message was well received. Connected Degree (a program to parlay the 2-year into a 4-year degree) and financial aid continued to be the two most important subjects for HS A participants for all years. However, despite the positive feedback, enrollment numbers from HS A declined. Based on the data collected, the SEM model treatment had no impact on overall enrollment numbers from HS A. Unlike overall enrollment numbers, engineering enrollment numbers fluctuated among all schools during the SEM model time frame, and based on these results, there seemed to be no positive impact on engineering enrollment after using the SEM model plus engineering component treatment. There was no negative impact either, so the result is unclear as to how the SEM model impacted engineering enrollment. Because of the quasi-experimental nature of the study outside variables were introduced that may have influenced the outcomes of the treatment. Factors like the economy perhaps had an impact that was unplanned. |
