The Future of Admissions Presents Challenges and Opportunities

The college admissions process, like all aspects of higher education, was disrupted when the pandemic hit in March 2020. Prospective students could no longer do the traditional campus visits, and standardized testing became optional for students applying at many institutions. As pandemic restrictions are lifted, colleges and universities are experiencing a downturn in enrollment and working to shape the admissions process in the new normal. 

While colleges and universities have been focused on the here and now, responding to the pandemic and on returning their campuses to some sort of normalcy, the foundation of enrollment strategies for the long-term, really continue to shift, according to Jeff Selingo, a higher education futurist and author of Who Gets In & Why: A Year Inside College Admissions, and who is a special advisor for innovation and professor of practice at Arizona State University. Selingo spoke about the future of admissions in a session, The Future of Admissions, at the REMOTE: The Connected Faculty Summit moderated by ASU’s Ron Carranza and hosted by Arizona State University, June 9-10.

“In my opinion, the pandemic exposed the shortcomings of colleges depending so much on the physical experience to sell their brand, he pointed out, adding that the uniqueness of residential campuses in a specific geographic location were diminished by remote education over the last 15 months. “It's really difficult to differentiate your institution’s brand from another when everyone is at home learning online.”

Now that we are moving into a new decade, the student experience will be much more important both inside and outside of the classroom, Selingo said. “At the end of the day, admissions is a sales job, at least for most institutions. And what admissions is selling right now is changing because of the pandemic, but how colleges are selling two- or four-year degrees is changing, as well as changing how institutions are thinking about evaluating and accepting students.” 

Selingo explained that application volume rose this year by about 10 percent, according to the Common App to American colleges and universities, and it was difficult to get into U.S. colleges this year, in which there were record low acceptance rates. “But if you dig deeper into that 10 percent increase, you will notice two things that tell about the near future of admissions. The first is that the number of unique applicants didn’t increase as much, so this was really about students who couldn’t visit colleges and who didn’t have a normal senior year hedging their bet. Next year, I expect application volume to return to normal levels,” he pointed out. “For the most part, prospective students applied to private universities or large public institutions, leaving the smaller and less selective universities to beg for students.”

Notes Selingo, this phenomenon was due to the test optional policies. “Nowhere is the virus’s impact on admissions more apparent than in how it’s shaping the future of testing,” he said. “Dozens of colleges have announced an extension of test-optional policies for the second admissions cycle, including Ivy League schools.”

Factors that are Changing Admissions

According to Selingo, there are three ways admissions will change in the long-term based on trends happening right now.

1. Demographic changes in the primary base of students. The number of high school graduates in the U.S. will peak at 3.9 million in 2025 and the number of graduates will start to steadily decline as children born during the Great Recession come through the pipeline. The downturn will end in 2031 but the numbers indicate a long-term demographic shift, not just in the U.S. but around the world. Colleges have to plan for this shift now to be prepared for the future.

2. A shift toward practically-oriented college majors. Students are increasingly entering college thinking about their job prospects and they’re picking majors they consider practical and moving away from the humanities. Current students are moving away from The Humanities majors like philosophy and English history and instead choosing to study for preparation for health professions, technology and engineering, for instance. Today, a majority of students say their number one factor in choosing a college is whether it offers a particular major or academic program.

3. Focus on the value proposition of colleges and universities. During the pandemic, students found the college experience largely inadequate and not satisfying – and even with tuition discounts, parents were questioning what, exactly, they were paying for if their child was learning remotely. Coming out of the pandemic, parents and students are going to be looking more closely at the value proposition of higher education institutions.

Three Models

Changing demographics, shifting majors and an increasing focus on the value proposition will give colleges and universities an opportunity to think differently and grow. Selingo outlined three models for institutions going forward.

1. Immersive hybrid model. This model expands the idea that students can take online classes while they live on campus, or take a mix of courses online and face-to-face. “The immersive hybrid strategy is much more extensive in its reach, including elements of classroom learning and endeavors outside the classroom to the virtual environment,” Selingo pointed out. This model might include a low-residency option, which many colleges have adopted during the pandemic.

2. Creating alliances between institutions. Another opportunity is for institutions to join together to offer some academic programs and student services. “The flexible pathway option can also provide a loop between traditional institutions and even other non-education providers, such as employers, so students can work and move between traditional higher education and additional work experience,” Selingo offered.

3. Continual learning. The concept of continual learning enables students to move in and out of a school’s curriculum throughout their lives to update knowledge as needed. “This model, in many ways, could replicate the subscription services,” Selingo said. Students could get access to continued education much like they get access to streaming services.  

“Institutions will have to think differently in order to survive and thrive in the decade ahead,” he continued. “My belief is that institutions will have to approach recruiting and marketing with a different lens to ultimately generate the depth and breadth of engagement they seek from a new generation of students.”

For other REMOTE related articles go to:

6 Evidence-Based Techniques for Hybrid Teaching

Lessons Learned From the Pandemic Will Forever Shape Higher Education