Gwinnett Tech’s motto is, “Teach every individual; serve every business.” As part of the Technical College System of Georgia, Gwinnett Technical College is a public two-year institution that serves the communities of Gwinnett and North Fulton by offering campus and distance learning for associate degrees, diplomas and certificates in credit programs as well as for adult and continuing education training.

An enrollment manager at Gwinnett Technical College (GTC) had a great idea: follow up the admitted student email with a personal phone call. There were prospective students that weren’t responding to emails and only acknowledging texts, with no follow through, but they were answering their phones. “There was something so interesting about it, just good old-fashioned phone calls, and talking with somebody to direct those students to the appropriate resources,” said Dr. Kohle Paul, Vice President, Student Affairs.

All of the information was in the emails and texts, but the team found it really resonated with students when they were called. What the GTC team didn’t realize was that the impact and response rate would be so high from those contacts.

“The weeks the team facilitated the welcome to GTC calls were great, but with summer volume picking up, the team was unable to continue,” said Paul.

“So, we started searching for other ways to continue the campaigns as we felt it added a personal touch to new students, welcoming them to the college and next steps, as well as returning students and welcoming them back.”

The timing was right when Paul was attending a monthly meeting for the System and Inceptia was speaking. “I knew some of my system cohorts had been working with Inceptia and the experience of their contact team with managing student concerns and processing made me think this would be a great opportunity to extend our team’s reach with Inceptia’s expertise to deliver the same level of student understanding we would with more time.”

Inceptia got to work on connecting with the students on the list GTC provided – a little over 800 admitted students. Each member of the Inceptia student advocate counseling team goes through extensive initial training, including assessments and quality assurance checks. In addition, the team participates in monthly internal and external training to keep their skills current along with soft skills practices to thoughtfully manage their student conversations for a successful outcome.

Through a strategically planned contact campaign, 181 students actually enrolled and, even better, some have signed up for the next term – early. Paul said, “This outreach campaign was extremely helpful to promote our fall enrollment and actually allowed us to reach our first time freshmen goal. So we were excited about the work!”

Paul added, “It’s a valuable return on our partnership investment. That’s 181 more people that are enriching their lives through education and that’s really our goal.” All students that Inceptia interacted with also got a follow-up email, so even if they haven’t enrolled yet, the door is open and they have the information they need to move forward when they are ready.

To learn more about Student Outreach Programs, contact your Business Development representative or visit inceptia.org.

Delgado Community College is a public community college with campuses throughout the New Orleans, Louisiana metropolitan area. Delgado serves more than 15,000 students with degrees and training focused on today’s in-demand jobs to drive the local and regional economy.

One of Delgado’s mottos is “Be in that number!” meaning be one of us, be successful, and be well-employed. A motto that more fully speaks to the benefits of enrollment – breaking the barriers of education to challenged populations, increasing the number of graduates, and getting graduates into better-paying jobs. With those ideas in mind Michelle Greco, Director of Enrollment Management, was looking at their potential to enrollment numbers and needed to find a way to decrease the gap. “With seven campuses serving the New Orleans area, we can extend workforce development and continuing education even further, but only if we can get those potential students from applied to enrolled.” says Greco.

Greco had two subsets in mind – students that were new to Delgado and some that had withdrawn in Spring 2022, but her team didn’t have time to do the kind of outreach needed. “We wanted to find out why these individuals were not moving forward to actually register for classes. They took the first step to apply, so what’s holding them back?”

Having past experience with the Inceptia team using Verification Gateway, Greco knew they would extend the care with the students that her office would, so she talked with her team about using Inceptia’s Student Outreach Programs targeted towards new and returning students. Within these programs, the Inceptia team engages with students to address barriers, reduce melt and student anxiety while promoting school connections and enrollment.

“A lot of things sort of happen at the spur of the moment, and in everybody’s world, especially right now. Inceptia was able to accommodate a quick-turn request to best meet the timing with these potential students,” says Greco. “I was able to upload my list and within a day, an Inceptia support representative called me a few times to make sure that I was successful with the uploads, that they could see the data, and I uploaded the right number of participants. I really appreciated that extra attention during that time period when there wasn’t time available for me to do this special project.”

The outreach audience consisted of 2,031 students – 219 that had withdrawn from Spring 2022 and 1,812 that were new to Delgado. “With help from Inceptia, I was able to provide the students I wanted to reach out to, so they could encourage them to enroll and address whatever was holding them back. I didn’t give them an “easy” list as these prospects hadn’t demonstrated much interest in the past.”

Inceptia worked through the outreach candidates using a multifaceted time and delivery connection strategy. These connections resulted in 582 total enrollments for the regular term and term B combined. Of these enrollments, 524 were new students and 58 returned after having withdrawn.

To learn more about Student Outreach Programs, contact your Business Development representative or visit inceptia.org.

There’s a good reason 85,000 students call Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) their home. Students can choose from CSCU’s 12 community colleges, four universities, or its online college to earn an academic credential. Plus, CSCU has the lowest tuition cost in the state, making it an affordable option for students and families. More than 300,000 degrees and certificates have been awarded since CSCU’s inception in 1983 from all discipline studies, ranging from liberal arts, manufacturing, and nursing degrees.

Higher education continues to face enrollment obstacles. To further the issue, COVID-19 has created an increase in financial burdens resulting in a downward spiral in student enrollment, especially among incoming freshmen who are uncertain on how to adjust their plans or unwilling to pay a higher tuition for online classes.

Despite the challenges, CSCU’s 12 community colleges remain diligent in keeping enrollment steady. Using Verification Gateway (VG) to complete verifications sooner so students can plan accordingly plays a role in their success. With a 29% average decrease in verifications completed 14 days prior to semester and a 38% average decrease in verifications completed 7 days prior to semester. This earlier completion of verifications resulted in a 15% average increase in packaging rate by the first day of classes. More students receiving their aid sooner equals a higher potential for enrollment.

“One of the biggest challenges CSCU students faced during COVID-19 was the transition to remote learning and the technological requirements that went with it,” said Steve McDowell, Associate Vice President for Financial Aid Services and Title IV Compliance. “With this challenge, we were fortunate to have VG already in place because students could safely complete verifications from home. It was one less thing they had to worry about.”

CSCU’s large student population equals a large number of selected verifications burdening the financial aid office with manual verification checks that often resulted in less time being available to work directly with students. Between all 17 institutions, about 40,000 students were being selected for verification annually, including more than 28,000 from the community colleges alone. McDowell and his team knew they needed to find a solution to alleviate the pressure on the team with verification so they could turn their focus to needed student counseling throughout the system. They also knew more verifications completed sooner offered the potential to increase enrollment.

When the financial aid team implemented VG for the 2018-19 aid year, they quickly experienced some relief for the team. Verification Gateway from Inceptia is an automated online platform that streamlines federal verification processing for students and schools by offering interview-style questions, simple and secure document collection, complete reporting and personal interaction when needed.

The most immediate result was the significant decrease in student foot traffic and call volume. Inceptia’s team handled all verification matters, opening up the time for the financial aid staff to engage with students in different capacities.

“The administrative demand within higher education financial aid is complex and overwhelming at times,” McDowell said. “It was a welcomed relief for Inceptia to take over verifications so our teams could provide both a greater focus on community outreach and training activities for staff.”

Processing time was no longer consumed by cumbersome back-and-forth questions, paper overload, or delayed responses. Since VG’s inception, CSCU has seen significant results: a two-day turnaround time; 28% average increase in completed verifications; and 50% average decrease in the time it had been taking from first ISIR received to verified.

To learn more about Verification Gateway, contact your Business Development representative or visit inceptia.org.

Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, commonly referred to as FIDM, is located on four campuses throughout California. With over 30 accredited Master’s, Bachelor’s and Associate Programs in design and creative business, they knew they had a creatively savvy group but wanted to find a way to help them be money savvy, too. During their search for a financial education platform, they needed an outside-of the-box approach.

“The students really learn from Financial Avenue,” says Martha Ramos, FIDM’s Stafford Repayment Coordinator. “The content isn’t easy, but it’s easy to learn. It’s written in a way that they can understand it.” Ramos also says she appreciates that courses are designed with testing immediately following each module so what they’ve learned is fresh in students’ minds.

A week before financial clearance, students are required to turn in their Financial Avenue grades. Without it, they cannot register for upcoming classes.

Continued use of Financial Avenue is part of FIDM’s strategy to maintain their low CDR, if not continue to decrease it, especially if the program is expanded to all students.

Financial Avenue helps students think twice about what they’re doing when it comes to money, Ramos says. And having financial skills will help them consider how their actions today are going to affect them tomorrow.

Ramos says, “I had a student who was asking me something about credit cards, something she learned in the course skills. The course taught her the importance of reading her statements, something she’s going to work on to understand better.”

By the end of the program, students who previously doubted the necessity of the courses are converted to financial education believers.

To learn more about Financial Avenue, contact your Business Development representative.