Theoretical Background

Enrollment projections reflect some historical patterns, modeling, forecasting, program development and currently provide the best estimates. It is understood that enrollment, retention and graduation rates fluctuate and projections may require adjustments as additional information is obtained.

According to Don Mash, executive senior vice president of the UW System and former chancellor of UW-Eau Claire, the high enrollment can also be attributed to the wider range of students who are going to college. While a number of institutions-private and public-are making considerable progress in establishing and executing best practices to meet annual marketing and recruitment goals, few have taken the step of connecting annual goals to the long-term strategic enrollment goals, few have taken the step of connecting annual goals to the long-term strategic enrollment and fiscal needs of the institutional enrollment and fiscal health, capacity, brand development, market position, programs development, and retention are best ascertained and results achieved when planned over an extended period time (www.act.org/epc/pdf/epc_program.pdf).

According to Alvin Toffler, knowledge is the central resource in the economy of the information society: “In a third wave economy, the central resource- a single word broadly encompassing data, information, images, symbols, culture, ideology, and values – is actionable”. (http://en.wikipedia.org:{online}July 22, 2011).

According to Daniel Barnes, at one time, the enrollment funnel was the ideological foundation for most admissions activities, but it no longer correctly models students behavior during the college selection process. For all its usefulness, it is based in serious misconceptions, which directly cause many of the enrollment problems that we accept and call normal. Come learn why the funeral fails then, discover a new model that changes how we think about recruitment (www.act.org/epc/pdf/epc_program.pdf).