76% → 84%
First-years who return · Private colleges and universities
The students who left in October
Every admitted student who enrolls, and every student who stays, is tuition you already paid to win.
A composite, built from colleges like yours. Not a named client.
- The problem, $66,000, Net tuition per first-year who leaves
- The project, SBK rebuilds admissions, aid and student support so offers go out fast and early signs reach an advisor.
- The outcome, 84%, First-years who return
Mid-October. A first-year stops logging into her courses. The registrar sees two missed classes. The bursar sees a missed payment. Housing sees a room-change request. Each office has one sign in its own system. Nobody sees all three. In January, she doesn't come back.
Picture a private college of 2,400 students that lives on net tuition. Inquiries waited days for a reply. Aid offers went out in batches, three weeks after the acceptance. 22% of admitted students enrolled. Over the summer, 12% of deposits never turned into students. Each fall, one first-year in four didn't return, and each took three years of tuition with them.
What SBK rebuilt
SBK mapped the path from first inquiry to second year. The most money was in students the college had already won. Each first-year who left took about $66,000 of net tuition with them. The rebuild sends a tailored reply within the hour. The aid offer goes out with the acceptance, and a counselor calls every admit. A summer checklist chases each step, and staff call anyone who stalls. Early signs from every office land in one view, and an advisor reaches out that week.
What moved
27% of admits enrolled, up from 22%. 95% of deposits arrived as students. First-years who returned rose from 76% to 84%. Aid offers went out in three days, not 21. For a college this size, that kept about $3M of net tuition from each entering class.
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Admits who enroll | 22% | 27% |
| Deposits who arrive | 88% | 95% |
| First-years who return | 76% | 84% |
| Days to an aid offer | 21 | 3 |
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