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WHITE PAPER

Innovative Strategies to Cool Summer Melt

By Kathleen M. Cross, Ph.D.Enrollment Consultant and Senior Strategist

You and your admission team have worked countless hours to bring in deposits this winter and spring. Now comes the homestretch between May 1 and the start of the fall semester. This is the time when colleges and universities encounter summer melt of deposited students. Summer melt is defined as the phenomenon when students pay a deposit to attend your college or university, but then do not matriculate to your institution. In fact, they may not go to college at all. Are you concerned about summer melt? If so, this white paper provides you with an explanation of the various reasons students melt along with several proven-successful short- and long-term strategies that you can implement at your institution to reduce summer melt and ultimately meet or exceed your fall enrollment goals.

Why Do Students Melt?

In order to create e!ective strategies to deal with summer melt, we must first understand and carefully consider its causes. There are several complex and compelling reasons why eligible and deposited students may melt over the summer, which can be distilled into the following key issues:

1. Financial concerns2. Social anxiety3. Issues navigating the enrollment process 4. Multiple deposit submission5. Shifts in student behaviors6. Failure to build value

The first three issues deal with common individual student barriers to enrollment while the last three are concerned with shifting student behaviors and recruitment shortcomings that we must be aware of as enrollment professionals.

Financial ConcernsOne of the greatest issues contributing to summer melt is student concern over college costs and financial aid. Students, particularly low-income students, are often burdened with requesting additional aid or finding other sources of aid. The reality of looking at the first tuition bill over the summer and not knowing how to pay their balance can be enough cause for summer melt in and of itself. According to the CIRP Freshman Survey, an annual survey of the nation’s entering students at colleges and universities, “Financial considerations are exerting an ever-greater influence on incoming freshman in the U.S., with college costs and financial aid playing an increasingly decisive role in their school-selection process” (Eagan, Lozano, Hurtado, & Case, 2013).

Financial concerns play an even more important role in student yield over the summer for first-generation and low-income students. More than half (53.9 percent) of first-generation students indicated that the cost of attending their current college or university was a “very important” factor in their enrollment. In contrast, only 43.8 percent of students whose parents attended college designated cost as “very important” in their college choice—a 10.1-percentage di!erence between these two student groups (Eagan, et al., 2013).

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Social AnxietyAnother major factor in student melt is the social anxiety many students feel prior to matriculation. Students, particularly first-generation students, often report feelings of inadequacy and a fear of isolation the summer before starting college. These students frequently cite a fear of leaving home, making new friends, living in a residence hall, and succeeding academically and socially. Thus, they need reassurance and opportunties to engage with other incoming students, current students, and sta! over the summer to help them feel more at ease with the transition to college.

Issues Navigating the Enrollment ProcessFor many students, navigating the enrollment process is an overwhelming task, and this becomes even more of an issue during the summer when they no longer have a guidance counselor to assist them. Students often have trouble understanding how to make an advising appointment, register for classes and orientation, complete the student health form, and sign up for housing. The financial aid process can be especially daunting for incoming students. Students often require extra assistance to ensure they have filed their FAFSA, accepted their financial aid package, and applied for loans, if needed. Thus, they need guidance throughout the summer to navigate these challenges and lead them to a successful enrollment.

Multiple Deposit SubmissionIn the past, when students deposited, they generally had strong intentions to attend that particular college. Enrollment managers could, with a fair degree of certainty, depend on a predictable yield from year-to-year. However, these days it is not uncommon for students to deposit at several colleges. Today’s incoming students are often looking for the best financial deal—weighing their options and delaying making a final decision.

In fact, the CIRP Freshman Survey (2013) found “substantive shifts in students’ college application strategies” as they increasingly apply to four or more colleges and universities. Multiple applications and deposits are throwing o! projections of yield and leaving enrollment professionals in the unenviable position of struggling to predict their fall class accurately. With multiple deposits becoming all too commonplace, enrollment managers need to plan summer melt reduction strategies to avoid unpleasant surprises later.

Changes in Student BehaviorsClosely related to the issue of multiple deposits is the challenge of changes in student behaviors. Not only are students applying and even depositing to an increasing number of colleges, but also fewer of them are enrolling at their first-choice institution (Eagan, et al., 2013).

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The CIRP Freshman Survey (2013), administered by hundreds of colleges and universities to entering students, found that though 75.5 percent of students were admitted to their first-choice institution, only 56.9 percent enrolled at that college, which is a decrease of 2.4 percent since 2012. In fact, the proportion of students enrolling at their first-choice college or university is at it lowest point since 1974 (Eagan, et al., 2013).

Why is this trend increasing? There are several reasons to consider. First, the millennial student decision-making process di!ers from students of previous generations. Millennial students often have a fear of losing out and frequently use multiple deposits to delay making a final college decision. Some of these students attend multiple summer or fall orientations to gather additional information before making their final choice. In addition, students and parents have shifted their thinking about college choice in recent years from purchasing a brand to more of a commodity-purchase decision. Consequently, without being invested in the benefits of your institution and the value of your brand, they are often seeking the best deal or the most generous financial aid package. In this case, they often do not significantly di!erentiate on factors other than cost. In other cases, the features and benefits of the college may be an incomplete match for the individual student.

The spiraling cost of attending college has also contributed to the consumer orientation of students and parents. With the average student debt increasing and family income flattening nationally, students and parents have become much more price sensitive when it comes to choosing a college or university. As Eagan, et al. (2013) assert, “With fewer students enrolling in their first-choice institution, the data show that college cost and financial aid issues have become even more salient in students’ college-choice process.”

Failure to Build ValueA long-term recruitment shortcoming that contributes to student melt is the failure to build value among students. From the point of generating inquiries to preventing melt, college and university enrollment professionals must continually educate students on the distinctive features and benefits of their institution, engage them through multi-channel communications, and build a lasting relationship.

Although 75.5 percent of students were admitted to their first-choice institution, only 56.9 percent enrolled at that college (Eagan, et al., 2013).

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Considering First-Generation and Low-Income Students

Although for most enrollment managers, the traditional concept of summer melt concerns students who have deposited to their institution and later matriculate at a di!erent college in the fall, an added social concern of summer melt involves first-generation and low-income students who, despite being college eligible, may not end up going to college at all.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 10 to 20 percent of deposited, college-intending students melt away and do not attend college each year, most of which are low-income, minority students (Ceja, 2013). Student melt rates di!er nationally by institution type. Student melt is approximately 19 percent for four-year institutions and rises significantly to up to 40 percent for community colleges, according to Ceja (2013). Further, some states and regions are more susceptible to melt than others. For instance, in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico—states where we are seeing significant numbers of Latino first-generation students—summer melt averages 44 percent (Ceja, 2013).

So, why do college-eligible, first-generation and low-income students melt at such alarmingly high rates? Many of these students face significant barriers to enrollment including: a lack of financial resources, inadequate assistance in navigating the enrollment process, and a sense of not belonging.

These issues become particularly acute during the summer between high school graduation and start of college when their college navigation support systems are often at their weakest. During the summer, these students “encounter a range of informational, financial, and other barriers to enrollment, while at the same time they no longer have access to [high] school counseling, have yet to engage with their college community, and may come from families with little college-going experience” (Castleman & Page, 2012).

Therefore, it is critical to have an intentional process to address finances, enrollment processes, and community engagement head on. Bring this up before they ask, because as first-generation students, they may never ask.

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According to the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 10 to 20 percent of deposited, college-eligible students melt away and do not attend college each year, most of which are low-income, minority students (Ceja, 2013).

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What You Can Do To Reduce Summer Melt

Summer melt has become an increasingly significant issue for enrollment professionals. Proactive enrollment managers will design a summer melt intervention plan customized to the needs and interests of their incoming class.

When creating your summer melt reduction plan, it is important to implement strategies that address the common causes of summer melt. To help keep your hard-won, deposited students from melting away, it is also critical to build excitement for the fall, continue to engage them throughout the summer, and prompt them to take important steps towards enrollment.

Add a Melt Reduction CampaignIt is critical to keep deposited students excited about and engaged in your institution until they matriculate. Therefore, it is important to have regular communication with them over the summer. Getting the right message out at the right time and using multiple channels to increase the chances that students and parents will see the message is both an art and a science. However, though colleges strive to have frequent and consistent communication with their deposited students, many admission o"ces struggle with managing outreach campaigns to their deposited students due to a lack of resources and technological challenges. If so, it can be advantageous to partner with an experienced enrollment communications firm, such as KelmscottEDU, to create a custom melt reduction strategy.

A summer melt reduction campaign should consist of a strategically-planned sequence of engagement and next-step communications specifically designed to continue to build excitement in your institution, provide reminders of key steps towards enrollment, and get students excited about getting involved in campus life early. Students need reminders and clear explanations on how accept a financial aid package, make an advising appointment, register for classes, and pay the first tuition bill. It is also critical that the melt reduction campaign closely track their completion of these required tasks.

While focusing on mandatory steps to enrollment is important, it is also critical to continue to engage these students. Therefore, it is recommended that you get much more personal at this recruitment stage. Using student data for personalization, messages about specific student clubs, activities, and community outreach they can get involved in the fall can be developed. For instance, using Precise Audience Targeting™ (PAT), it is possible to tailor your messages and visuals to meet each of your deposited student’s individual interests. In addition, PAT can track each student’s individual responses and provide personalized follow-up.

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A multi-channel approach is an important component of an innovative and e!ective melt reduction campaign strategy. Such campaigns can be developed using multi-media, which includes electronic, print, mobile, and Web components to reach and engage students on their terms. Mobile components can be created with a responsive design solution such as Mobile Smart, which optimizes emails, surveys, and microsites so they look their best on a mobile device and garner the highest number of responses possible.

Working with a mid-sized, four-year, public university located in North Carolina last summer, KelmscottEDU developed a custom, multi-channel melt reduction campaign with an anti-melt survey. The following fall, their enrollment managers reported a significant reduction in melt over the previous year.

And keep in mind that a melt reduction campaign can be combined with anti-melt surveys, text messaging, social media communities, parent communications, and calling campaigns for a robust summer melt reduction plan.

Use Pre-populated, Anti-Melt SurveysYou may also want to consider adding a pre-populated, anti-melt survey to your melt reduction campaign. Anti-melt surveys are designed to qualify your students, help gauge the strength of your deposited student pool, and determine if your incoming class is vulnerable to melt. These surveys can measure how sure each individual student is in attending in the fall, what concerns he or she may have—financial, social or otherwise—, and alert the admission counselor or another administrator of any early warning signs.

In addition, these surveys can assess student interest in clubs and organizations, activities, and community outreach before the start of the school year. This helps get students involved in social aspects of the college early and can contribute to a stronger sense of belonging. This type of survey also serves as an early-warning retention strategy since it can help institutions identify students who may be at higher risk of attrition.

Communicate with TextsTexting is a fast and convenient way to improve student access to important enrollment information and connect them to your college support system. Text messages can provide college-specific information such as due dates and Web links for required tasks such as registering for orientation or completing the housing application.

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A key advantage of texting is that it is an easy, familiar form of communication for this age group. The majority of college-bound students are used to communicating with friends and family with this platform, so they are comfortable receiving text messages from colleges and responding with questions or requests for more information. In fact, according to the New England Board of Higher Education, texting students personalized reminders to complete next steps can have a dramatic impact on task completion, particularly because 63 percent of teens text daily (Castelman & Page, 2013).

Texting also provides admission counselors with a convenient way to field individual questions from students and provide targeted, personalized responses. This individualized approach is particularly helpful for first-generation students whose parents often do not have experience navigating the college system.

For optimal results, it is important that texts are thoughtfully written and strategically timed throughout the summer months. Further, they have an increased positive e!ect when implemented as a component of an overall melt reduction campaign. Best of all, texting is an inexpensive communication strategy to combat summer melt. Castleman and Page (2013) found that texting incoming students during the summer months can increase matriculation by up to 11 percent and costs approximately $7 per student.

Create an Incoming Student Social Media CommunityConnecting inbound students on social media helps create an inviting community and a sense of belonging before the start of the school year. Creating an incoming class page on Facebook or other social media platform provides your deposited students with a familiar place to discuss living on campus, A.P. credits, and what to bring to school. This platform also provides a place to ask next-step questions and have an administrator respond not only to the individual student, but also to the entire group of students.

This communication strategy also helps to alleviate the social anxiety that many incoming freshmen face. Students who are often nervous about everything from making friends to choosing their career path, moving away from home, and succeeding academically can discuss these concerns with like-minded students and admission counselors.

Further, data show that the use of social media as a platform for connecting and socializing is increasing among students. Since 2007, “The percentage of students who spent less than one hour per week on online social networks declined from 31.9% to 21.7%, whereas the percentage of students dedicating six hours or more per week increased from 18.9% to 27.2%” (Eagan et al., 2014).

Texting is a fast and convenient way to improve student access to important enrollment information and connect them to your college support system.

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Consider Variable PostcardsA series of variable postcards can serve to engage students and remind them of important required tasks. An added benefit of a postcard series is that parents and other family members will see them, thus increasing the chance students will complete the outlined steps towards enrollment.

Using variable postcards, you can tailor your messages and visuals to meet each of your prospective student’s needs and priorities. You can use multiple data points to target individual student’s interests and qualities, such as major, gender, co-curricular activities, ethnicity, priorities, and more—thus, increasing engagement and the likelihood of enrollment.

Variable postcards can also be used as invitations to summer events or orientation reminders. Recently, KelmscottEDU created a custom, variable postcard series for a large, public institution, which contained a summer open house invitation with a custom design, personalized strategic messaging, and a persuasive call to attend. The result: the university admission sta!—expecting 200 attendees—were astonished when over 600 students registered for and attended the open house.

Implement a Summer Calling CampaignA calling campaign is a highly e!ective way to engage deposited students one-on-one and assess whether or not they are vulnerable to melt. Calling campaigns can be added to your melt reduction campaign as additional anti-melt strategy. With a summer calling campaign, you can remind incoming students to get advised, register them for orientation, and access whether they have any issues or concerns that might keep them from enrolling in the fall.

Send Parent NewslettersToday’s parents are more involved in their students’ college choice and the enrollment process than ever before. So, it is important to continue to reach out and build rapport with them during the summer months. Parent newsletters or emails from the vice president of enrollment management or the director of admission outlining next steps and discussing academic and social opportunities can go a long way in engaging your deposited students’ parents, helping increase students’ chances of enrolling.

Create a Summer Buddy Program During the summer, pair prospective students with current students to further strengthen the relationship with your institution. Buddies can use social media, texting, and phone calls to connect before the start of the school year and o!er their personal support and knowledge about the institution.

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Today’s parents are more involved in their students’ college choice and the enrollment process than ever before. So, it is important to continue to reach out and build rapport with them during the summer months.

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Address First-Generation Student MeltAll of the strategies discussed in this white paper are very e!ective for first-generation students; nevertheless, since this population poses an added risk of melt, some additional anti-melt tactics should be considered. If you have identified students as first generation from their ISAR, you may wish to create a code in your student information system to tag these students. It is then possible to alert admission counselors and other interested professionals that these students may need additional support and more frequent communications, particularly during the summer months when they no longer have assistance and reinforcement from their high school guidance counselors.

Summer bridge and adventure programs can also be very e!ective in reducing summer melt, particularly for at-risk, first-generation and low-income students. However, keep in mind that they can be fairly costly and require long-term planning and institutional buy-in. Thus, this strategy must be budgeted and planned for well in advance of summer.

Address Multiple Deposits with Long-term Solutions The issue of melt due to multiple deposits is a complex one, which requires long-term solutions. There are several strategies that colleges and universities can consider in order to reduce student melt stemming from multiple deposits, including:

• Developing strong, early relationships with students,• Clearly defining distinctive institutional features and benefits,• Creating a robust campus visit program, and• Building urgency and value into recruitment messaging.

To address multiple deposits head on, some institutions institute non-refundable deposits. While this tactic may help reduce the number of students who deposit without a clear intention of enrolling, the potential drawback to this approach is that it could turn o! students who may have matriculated in the end with a strong financial aid package and robust relationship building.

Know Your Melt RatesFinally, as a long-term solution to summer melt, it is critical to closely monitor your deposit and melt rates. Is the size of your deposited student pool appropriate to get you to your enrollment goal in the fall? If not, you may need to increase the size of the top of your recruitment funnel and institute new, engaging recruitment tactics in the future. Melt reduction strategies can be very e!ective; however, you must also have an appropriately sized deposited student pool to reach your fall enrollment goals.

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ConclusionThe factors contributing to student melt are complex and multi-pronged, and it is an increasingly significant issue; therefore, colleges and universities need to create a robust student melt intervention plan to mitigate the risk of losing deposited students over the summer. The proven strategies discussed in this white paper can significantly reduce student melt and should be considered as an integral part of your summer melt intervention plan. These strategies will not only help you to decrease summer melt, but they can also serve to increase freshmen retention by yielding students who are more fully engaged and knowledgeable about your institution.

You may wish to work with a vendor with significant success in reducing student melt. At KelmscottEDU, our experienced enrollment strategists have the know-how to build excitement and keep your deposited students engaged with your institution. We can provide enrollment consulting to mitigate melt and create a custom summer melt reduction campaign for your institution. We’ll partner with you to design a multi-channel approach to cool down your summer melt and lead you to enrollment success this fall. If you would you like to learn about more strategies to decrease summer melt, contact us today.

References and Additional Reading

Adams, C.J. (2014). Are you on track for college”: Texting, a new strategy. Education Week. Vol. 33, Issue 31, pgs. 20-21.

Castelman, B.L. & Page, L.C. (2013). Can text messages mitigate summer melt? The New England Journal of Higher Education. May 2013.

Castelman, B.L. & Page, L.C. (2012). The forgotten summer: Does the o!er of college counseling the summer after high school mitigate attrition among college-intending low-income high school graduates? The Association for Education Finance and Policy. Published research report.

Ceja, A. (2013). Summer melt. Home Room, The O!cial Blog of the U.S. Department of Education. Eagan, K., Lozano, J. B., Hurtado, S., & Case, M. H. (2013). The American freshman: National norms

fall 2013. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA. Eagan, K., Stolzenberg, E. B., Ramirez, J. J., Aragon, M. C., Suchard, M. R., & Hurtado, S. (2014). The

American freshman: National norms fall 2014. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA.

About the Author

Kathleen M. Cross, Ph.D.Kathleen serves as Enrollment Consultant and Senior Strategist at KelmscottEDU and as an adjunct professor at Bay Path University in the Higher Education Administration Graduate Program. With a data-driven approach, she leads our strategy e!orts, handling everything from search strategy development, market/institutional data analysis, and strategic messaging/marketing. Kathleen is a former Vice President of Enrollment, Chief Technology O"cer, and Dean of Studies Abroad. She provides 15+ years of diverse higher education experience including: enrollment management, information technology, student success, international program development, study abroad, institutional research, residence life, and research administration. Kathleen holds a doctoral degree in Higher Education Administration and is a frequent national speaker and published author.

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