Address Non-Consumption by Hiring High School Counselors

It’s no secret that summer admissions recruiting comes with its share of challenges, including anxious students and parents with numerous questions, disengaged students, and the risk of burnout for admissions counselors. Four-year colleges and universities worried about summer recruitment, melt, and staffing challenges have a solution that they’ve been overlooking—one straight from the two-year recruitment playbook. Their approach? Hiring high school counselors as temporary summer recruitment and enrollment advisors to help address challenges faced by both two-year and four-year institutions alike.

These temporary advisors help alleviate pressure on admissions staff, foster stronger K-12 relationships, and deepen understanding of the students opting out of higher education. Read on to explore the details of this success and learn how you can use the same strategy on your campus.

Summer recruitment and enrollment advisors increased enrollment by hundreds

While the pandemic led to steep enrollment declines at most community colleges, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College (Rowan-Cabarrus), a two-year public college in North Carolina, experienced enrollment growth in new students and high school dual enrollment. From 2020 to 2023, first-time student applicants increased by nearly 500 students at the community college with a conversion rate to enrollment of nearly 64%. By contrast, over the same period, first-time enrollment declined at more than 70% of North Carolina’s public two-year institutions.

Rowan-Cabarrus achieved this remarkable increase with the assistance of summer recruitment and enrollment advisors. At the height of the pandemic, the college hired up to seven part-time high school counselors during the summer break to serve as admissions counselors. Initially only intended as a pandemic-era measure and funded using CARES Act grants, this practice proved so effective in boosting their enrollment that Rowan-Cabarrus continues to hire up to three high school counselors every summer.

Additional student services staff translates into enrollment gains

During the pandemic, students were understandably less engaged in their college-going journey. On top of the general environment of uncertainty, many lost support from high school and college counselors as schools shifted to online learning and in-person high school visits stopped. Remote instruction and isolation led many students to question their ability to succeed in college. Many students were left to navigate the complexities of the college enrollment process largely on their own. Ultimately, many didn’t.

Rowan-Cabarrus recognized the problems students were facing and introduced summer recruitment and enrollment advisors to help navigate difficulties. The summer recruitment and enrollment advisors were responsible for a caseload of prospects. The advisors located student services and academic resources, presented workshops, offered program support, and monitored and evaluated student engagement in the admissions process. The additional support these hires provided led to notable enrollment gains.

A cross-sector staffing solution to recruit disengaged prospects

Summer recruitment advisors could also help a wide range of institutions, both four-year and two-year, counter a more lasting enrollment challenge: non-consumption. Non-consumption describes the increasing trend among high school graduates who choose to not go to college. This trend spans across all income groups, but surprisingly, the most significant growth in non-consumption comes from the highest-income households. These students don’t encounter access barriers; rather, they lack interest in pursuing higher education.

High school counselors are in a position where they can address non-consumption face-to-face and learn the reasons why students are not interested in college. These close interactions offer a chance to encourage non-consumers to enroll and foster strong relationships, which are valuable when high school counselors act as summer recruitment advisors.

More high school graduates are choosing not to go to college

Percent change in K-12 to college pipeline (2012 to 2022)

4. Strengthened partnerships for a more seamless enrollment experience

Following their summer tenure at Rowan-Cabarrus, high school counselors often become informal ambassadors of the college in their high schools. This not only benefits Rowan-Cabarrus but also enhances counselors’ effectiveness. High school counselors hired by Rowan-Cabarrus shared that their experience as summer recruitment and enrollment advisors helped them more effectively support dual-enrolled students and those facing barriers in the admissions process.

Converting non-consumers into college-interested students is a hard task, especially over the challenging summer months. Hiring high school counselors can help expand your enrollment team’s ability to understand and reach these less engaged students, but there’s more that enrollment leaders can do to ensure their institutions are set to engage these students throughout the rest of the year.

To address non-consumption, enrollment leaders must begin to understand who these students are and why they’re less interested in college. Explore our research on non-consumption to better understand this population and ways to engage skeptical prospects, or join an upcoming roundtable to learn ways to address non-consumption in higher ed.