Admission teams around the country have spent months sifting through thousands of applications from eager high school seniors. Carefully reviewing transcripts, essays, and recommendation letters, and now have finally decided on their dream team of incoming freshmen.
But — the game isn’t over yet.
Yield season is similar to the final round of a reality TV show, as it marks the decisive moment when admitted students must select where they want to spend the next four years of their lives. In this scenario, you and your colleagues on campus are the producers, tasked with convincing the students to choose your institution. As in reality TV, you need to go all out and utilize every resource at your disposal to win over the contestants.
Lucky for you, an easy way to stand out and attract the best and brightest students to campus resides in your Slate instance — your student status portal.
Backed by high-impact results across many cycles at institutions of all shapes and sizes, here are Waybetter’s top tips to optimize your portal:
1. Be clear: Custom-tailor next steps for students based on their status and where they are in the enrollment funnel. Awaiting Materials? Direct them to their checklist. Admitted but not confirmed? Push them to deposit.
2. Personalize it: Use academic interest, staff-assigned counselor, citizenship, and other important data points to offer dynamic content and paint the picture. Every student should have a completely unique experience.
3. Build community: You’re likely encouraging students to connect via a Facebook group or Zeemee today. But, why not initiate this conversation in Slate? Waybetter portals incorporate a yearbook connecting students with others with similar interests. And on average, over 40% of enrolled students engage.
4. Bring the fun: Who doesn’t love a good giveaway? Waybetter portals include monthly trivia as well as a grand prize for the enrolled student with the most unique logins to their portal. Free swag works. Our partners routinely see at least a 35% lift in portal logins YOY.
From an admissions perspective, yield season is the best and worst time of year. All of your hard work (years in the making!) is finally realized but with high-pressure stakes on the line. What steps can you take NOW with your portal to make an impact and ultimately attract more students?
If you want to learn more, tune into our upcoming webinar, or reach out for a private demo to talk about the results we’ve generated for our partners.