Rowan receives NASPA award for easing admissions process

The period between application and matriculation, from when students apply to a university to when they start classes, can be especially fraught, leading as many as 30 percent nationally to drop out before their college career really ever starts.

After making a deposit, students are expected to complete a long list of tasks which can complicate the transition to college, adding undue stress and increasing the likelihood of abandoning the process altogether.  

Addressing that scenario, which admissions officials refer to as “melt,” Rowan University’s Division of Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) worked with staff from more than a dozen departments to improve the student onboarding experience.

Rowan’s reimagined student intake experience has such great promise that it is earning recognition from NASPA, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Announced today, the bronze 2022-23 NASPA Excellence Award recognizes a “ground-breaking student support model during the enrollment process.”

To make the experience better for students and to reduce the risk of melt, Rowan created an onboarding committee and began tracking data from a wide range of departments. The effort included collaboration from Admissions; Financial Aid; the Bursar’s Office; Enrollment Operations; Software Development & Systems Services, the Office of Institutional Research & Analytics, Analytics Systems & Applications; the Office of Technology Support; the Office of Advising and Student Information Services (OASIS); the Registrar; Residential Learning & University Housing; the RowanCard Office; Student Health Services; Testing Services; Orientation & Student Leadership; faculty and the University Advising Center.

By using data from the cross-campus network of departments, SEM seeks to identify students who may be at risk of dropping out and to intervene before they do.

“We built a multi-dimensional, student-centric, cross-departmental infrastructure to meet the needs of incoming applicants,” said Dr. Rihab Saadeddine, assistant vice president for Academic Innovation in Rowan’s Division of Global Learning and Partnerships.

A highly complex undertaking, Saadeddine said collaboration between offices helped to modernize the onboarding process by “leveraging existing technology, developing data-driven interventions, and producing advanced reports on initiative efficacy and student outcomes.”

Amanda Coltri, associate director of Enrollment Systems & Onboarding Operations within SEM, said the goal was to lessen the feeling of getting caught in red tape and to help students navigate what can feel like a network of silos, all while leaving home for the first time and starting something completely new – the college experience.

“We revised the process with a greater emphasis on the student experience, leveraging all resources to make it more streamlined and less stressful,” Coltri said.

Dr. Jeffrey Hand, senior vice president for SEM, said the NASPA award recognizes three years of work by the Onboarding Committee, which includes 52 individuals from 16 departments. That work culminated in the report, “Data-Driven Onboarding Solutions: A student-centric, collaborative approach.”

“Our goal is to identify at-risk students early to eliminate stresses related to the process of starting a college career,” Hand said. “No one ever said college is supposed to be easy but we want students to focus on their classes and not stress over all of the administrative hurdles they need to cross before classes begin.”