The University of Oregon moved to a September 1 freshman deposit deadline for our fall 2020 class. In-person events and campus tours were abruptly cancelled. The orientation, housing, and registration processes all changed. Applicant families were losing incomes and new uncertainties emerged in the college selection process. In short, most of our reliable data for projecting a freshman class changed.

This session will be presented in story form – The strategic conversation with recruitment leadership that prompted the changed deadline, sharing the analysis roadblocks as they emerged, choice points in data and reporting, and describing how the Enrollment Research office at the University of Oregon navigated the changing data landscape to support our leadership and recruitment teams with shaping the fall class.

This session will focus on how the Enrollment Research team pivoted to provide essential information to our leadership and recruitment teams.
• The strategic conversation that resulted in the moved deadline
• The loss of engagement data (e.g. events and tours)
• Changing from projections to extrapolations
• When to stop pretending we knew more than we did
• Tracking virtual event attendance and their impacts
• The value of Freshman Admit Survey data
• Comparing all our projections and best guesses to the reality that emerged

This session will include:
1. Descriptions of how the conversations unfolded – including examples of reports and trends
2. Recommendations and best practices for how to handle similar situations.

Submission ID:

13269

Presenter(s):

Jonathan Jacobs University of Oregon

Shawn Sorenson University of Oregon

Keith Frazee University of Oregon