Improving Your School Admission Strategy – 7 Useful and Simple Ways
Based on a 2017-2018 analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics, tuition fees take up a significant percentage of every educational institution’s revenue. In public schools, 20% of their revenue came from tuition fees, whereas 31% in private nonprofit schools, and 94% in private for-profit schools. As you can see, tuition fees are what drives educational institutions to continue their operations, especially private schools. Even public and nonprofit schools need revenue to cover for certain expenses.
Improving Your School Admission Strategy – 7 Useful and Simple Ways
In your private school, of course, we know you’re doing your best to keep its revenue steady through tuition fees. But, there’s another approach you can do for that matter, and that’s to improve your school admission strategy. You see, the more students you attract, the more revenue you can get from tuition fees. If you’re going to do it, we’ll show you seven brilliant ways to improve your school admission strategy.
Heavily Market Your School Online
Having a steady online presence is one of the marketing strategies that most businesses adopt today. Because of that, they were able to put themselves on the map, which helped them gain consumers. You can do the same thing for your school and expect similar results. So, make it among your admissions marketing plan to promote your school online.
For one, social media is a good place to start. Many parents of students search for schools for their kids to attend using social media. If you can market your school well enough by posting promotional or enrollment campaigns, there’s a good chance that parents will discover it. Other than social media, you should also build an official website for your school if you haven’t yet. A website can bring your school to new heights in the online community. It signifies that your school is an official and credible establishment. When parents and students visit your official website, they might strongly consider enrolling.
Polish the Academic Timetable Before a School Year Starts
In starting a school year, you have to finalize the academic timetable beforehand. How does it help? Well, most parents would want to know what sort of activities or events their kids will experience throughout the school year. If you can show them a fleshed out year-round schedule, they’ll appreciate it. Plus, if they find it favorable, then their kids could become your students soon.
You can send an email of the academic timetable to parents who inquired about your school. Or better yet, post it on the school’s social media page and official website for everyone to see. Your academic timetable must emphasize the schedule of exams, parent-teacher meetings, intramurals, and other on-campus events.
Establish an Online Admission Alternative
Many institutions already adopted online enrollment. It’s a more convenient and faster alternative compared to on-campus enrollment or admission. And yes, it could entice more applicants or enrollees to your school. For sure, parents would prefer your school to have an online admission option. It saves them from the hassle of driving to your school premises to enroll their kids.
With those in mind, make it a part of your business plan to establish an online admission process. Admittedly, you’ll need funding for that. The online process will undergo a beta assessment before it can launch. And, the quotation of a beta tester’s work contract is quite pricey. So, you really have to arrange a budget for it. But, once it’s up and running, the money you spent building it will be worth it. Moreover, integrate the online admission to your school’s official website so that parents and students can locate it easily.
Simplify the Submission of Applications
Application is the first step in the student admission process. So, you have to simplify it as much as you can. Some applicants might get discouraged if the application is inconvenient and complicated. In that case, you could lose enrollees before they even become your students.
Don’t let enrollees submit their applications via email or through apps such as Google Forms. Let them apply through an official website, particularly on the web page, where the online admission process begins. That’ll not only make the application faster and easier but also make it legitimate. On top of that, filling up application forms should only take a minute or two for the convenience of the enrollees.
Be Responsive to the Applications
Whenever your school’s admission team receives applications, make sure that they’ll respond promptly. That gives parents and students the impression that they’re being attended to in real-time. You shouldn’t leave applications unresponded for a day or two. If that happens, the enrollees might think that your school has reached full capacity. Thus, they’ll likely apply to other schools instead.
So, agree with your admission team that they should entertain all applications within a day. If possible, encourage them to respond to every application within 30 minutes after receiving them.
Guide Enrollees About the Admission Process
Once your admission team notified the enrollees that their application is accepted, they can proceed to the admission process. Although you’ll be simplifying the process for convenience, you still have to guide enrollees. How? By placing instructions on each step. You don’t have to be elaborative and too detail-oriented. The instructions should answer the enrollees’ question of “what’s next?” after finishing one step of the admission process. Alternatively, you can also provide a checklist guide to give enrollees a bird’s eye view of the step-by-step procedure of the enrollment.
Assign Classes Immediately and Provide a Study Load Copy
When enrollees complete the admission process, your admission team should assign them their classes in no time. It implies that your school is delighted to welcome the enrollees once the year starts. Plus, it’s an icing on the cake of a swift and reliable online admission process. Along with assigning enrollees to their classes, your team should send a soft copy of their study load. This document must showcase each subject’s units so that students and parents can estimate the tuition fee.
So, if you have plans to use these tactics, convince your co-administrators of their benefits through a proposal. With the help of this blog, explain to them understand how each tactic can improve your school admission strategy in various ways. With an enhanced school admission strategy, your school will have the highest student population in your city or state, which means it will have the highest possible revenue rate.