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THE CHALLENGE:

In the early 2010s, the University of Michigan, like many of its public flagship peers, was faced with an accelerating decline in support from the state. To compensate for this loss of revenue in a way that also honored its commitment to attracting and enrolling less affluent Michigan residents, the university sought to explore the extent to which it might find additional revenue and increase its market appeal so that it could exercise more discretion in shaping its incoming classes.

OUR SOLUTION:

In close partnership with UM leadership and the campus community, we conducted a study of in-state and out-of-state undergraduate prospective students to identify institutional initiatives the university could use to increase net revenue and strengthen its market position. For example, we explored adjustments in cost and aid and programmatic and structural changes that would affect various aspects of the student experience from academic and co-curricular opportunities to housing.

Research confirmed that UM still occupied an extremely strong position in the market, but also found some potential opportunities the university should explore to strengthen its ability to engage prospective students. These included placing greater emphasis on first-year students’ transition into college and increasing the promotion of opportunities students had access to, such as graduate and professional school resources and programming and hands-on learning experiences.

Most importantly, the study revealed that UM would benefit from improved communication around cost and aid to prospective students in Michigan and beyond to help clarify the university’s actual cost of attendance. Further, the study revealed that despite UM’s longstanding policy of meeting full need for Michigan residents, resident prospective students sought a more well-defined understanding of UM’s financial aid packages relative to its in-state competitors.

Based on these findings, an important part of the path forward for UM was very clear—develop more effective strategies and vehicles for communicating costs; reconsider pricing structure to reach financial goals if necessary; prioritize the broad promotion of UM’s policy of meeting full need for in-state students; create more effective mechanisms for communicating the extraordinary opportunities available to undergraduate students at this research powerhouse.