Put the Freeze on Summer Melt

WHITE PAPER
Put the Freeze on Summer Melt
Tools that Clear the Path from
College Acceptance to Enrollment
The summer between high school and college is a
unique time. The previous months have been filled
with activity: submitting applications, waiting for
acceptance letters, choosing schools, submitting
deposits, and lining up financial aid. Suddenly, it
all comes together. Graduation happens and once
a college is chosen, students have little more to
do than wait.
After graduation, most high school guidance counselors are no longer
available to assist students. Similarly, many graduates aren’t aware
of the resources that may be available to them at their new campus
homes. This in-between summer is a distinctly “un-mentored” time.
No longer high-schoolers, but not yet undergraduates, students
meanwhile prepare to venture out on their own. They awaken to the
rewards of independence —as well as the realities of college-level
coursework and tuition payments. Some may begin to reconsider
their college choices.
By the time fall semester begins, many students have changed their
minds. Some have opted not to attend college at all.
This phenomenon is known as “summer melt”—and it’s more common
than you might think. The national average melt rate is between 10 and
20 percent of college-intending high school graduates. In some parts of
the country, it’s as high as 40 percent.
Here we’ll discuss summer melt in greater detail and outline steps colleges
and universities can take to reduce their melt, showcase their distinctive
qualities, and direct incoming students to the resources they need for a
successful transition to college life.
Understanding
summer melt
Summer melt does not affect all students equally. There are two types of melt,
and if you want to address the issue, it’s important to understand the difference.
The first type of melt refers to students who pay deposits to multiple colleges.
These students may still be undecided about which school to attend, or they
may be hoping for a late acceptance from a more selective institution. This
creates issues for colleges that want an accurate profile of their incoming
classes. Students who ‘melt’ from one institution to another decrease the
yield of the colleges they do not attend. These types of students, however,
are unlikely to forgo college altogether. The challenge for colleges trying to
retain these students is to demonstrate their value—their competitive edge—
in comparison to students’ other options.
The second type of melt is more prevalent—yet less talked-about in higher-ed
circles. It refers to students who, for a variety of reasons, decide not to attend
college anywhere after summer ends. Common reasons include a reevaluation
of the costs of college (particularly when non-tuition expenses, such as room
and board, meal plans, and health insurance, come to light), social anxiety
about fitting in on campus, and informational barriers, such as a lack of tools
needed to complete required forms.
This type of melt disproportionately affects students from low-income
backgrounds, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college.
Such students may lack adequate support networks encouraging them to
enroll—including the advice of friends and family who have been in their
shoes and can guide them through the process.
For many colleges, providing these students with the resources they need is
beyond the scope of their admissions pipelines. However, colleges that want
to better serve underrepresented students should recognize this second
type of summer melt.
Why does
summer melt
happen?
There’s no one, simple explanation for summer melt. Indeed, some degree
of melt is normal and expected. A student realizes that the program she’s
interested in isn’t available at her first-choice school. For another student,
changing financial circumstances shift college to the back burner. Yet another
decides to take a year off before continuing his studies.
Reasons vary depending on personal circumstances, but that doesn’t mean
schools have no sway. A school’s ability to effectively communicate with inbound
freshmen can be a powerful asset. “When it comes to summer communications
from colleges, there’s a degree of ‘ships passing in the night,’” says Benjamin L.
Castleman, Assistant Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University
of Virginia and a leading researcher on summer melt. “It’s not that schools
aren’t communicating—they’re just not using the right tools to reach students.”
Two primary objectives:
Build community
and offer support
Use text messages
to stay connected
You already know that students from different backgrounds make the high
school-to-college transition with different needs and expectations. Meeting
these diverse needs, however, is easier than you might think. All of your summer
communications should be built around just two primary objectives: building
community, and offering support.
So what are the right tools? The answer may be at your fingertips.
Castleman’s research, conducted in collaboration with Lindsay C. Page at the
University of Pittsburgh, suggests that text messages are a uniquely effective
way to connect. In a 2012 study, students who received regular, personalized
text message reminders about preparing for college were as much as 11 percent
more likely to attend than students who did not receive messages. Texts were
particularly helpful for students from lower-income backgrounds, who may
not have had other sources of encouragement or access to college-planning
resources or information.
There are several reasons text messages might be so well suited for this task:
THEY SIMPLIFY INFORMATION. Mailed packets of forms and checklists—and
even email communications—can be overwhelming, Castleman says. Texts,
on the other hand, are brief, focused, and timely. They tell students what to
do now.
THEY PROMPT ACTION. Similarly, unlike other forms of communication that
are easily dismissed, text messages are hard to ignore. Messages can include
URLs, so that students with smartphones can go directly to a college’s website
to fill out a form, apply for housing, or other actions.
As Castleman and Page pointed out in a recent paper, “messaging may
effectively turn one of adolescents’ greatest liabilities—their impulsiveness—
into an asset: By providing simplified and timely information, text messages
can prompt students to complete required steps in the moment, before their
attention is diverted elsewhere.”
THEY MINIMIZE BARRIERS TO PROFESSIONAL HELP. It’s not easy to pick up
the phone and ask a stranger for help—particularly for an incoming college
student who has no idea where to begin. Not knowing whom to contact
about important issues like tuition and financial aid, some students may
simply miss application deadlines and ultimately melt.
Text messages, in contrast, are more familiar and less anxiety-inducing for
many of today’s college students. Teens may feel more comfortable asking
questions and seeking help using this less-formal method.
Best of all for colleges, text messaging programs are simple and inexpensive
to implement compared to other forms of outreach. In addition to messages
about the steps required for enrollment, texts can be personalized based on
students’ stated interests. Text messages that inform students of sports teams,
clubs, Greek organizations, and other activities help create inclusiveness and
get students excited about starting college.
More tools
schools can use
Text messages aren’t the only method for colleges to effectively reach out.
There are many other ways for colleges to meet their objectives of building
community and offering support.
CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. It’s well known that social media is a primary
arena for teens and young adults to connect. You don’t have to look far to
find a wealth of advice from social media experts on how to use various
platforms and what to post. The sites are perfect for community-building—
for example, a Facebook group just for members of an incoming freshman
class allows students to “meet” one another before school begins, ask
questions, and develop a sense of unity with their class and their school.
Social media is also a great way to gauge the pulse of—and respond to—
misinformation and negative feedback. Information can spread like wildfire
on the web, and it’s often hard to verify what’s true and what’s rumor. Colleges
with an active social media presence have the chance to set the record straight.
By establishing themselves as the authoritative source of information, colleges
can proactively address student concerns and put the rumor mill to rest.
Schools should stay current on the networks today’s students are actually using
to connect, explains Castleman. Platforms like Twitter are much-discussed
in social media circles, but are less popular with teens. More popular today
are applications made for sharing with smaller groups, such as Instagram
and Snapchat.
If you decide to delve into social media, make the commitment and go
all in. Have a dedicated person or team that knows how to stay on top.
A half-hearted effort can potentially do more damage than good.
CONNECT PROSPECTS WITH CURRENT STUDENTS. A major reason many
students melt is that they don’t feel a sense of community with their chosen
schools. Incoming students may fear that when they arrive on campus, they
won’t meet others with similar interests and backgrounds. They might be
afraid of being isolated or lonely. Connecting and talking with current students,
however, can help newcomers imagine, plan, and get excited about their
future campus lives.
SUMMER CHECKLIST
√ Submit enrollment deposit
√ Submit FAFSA and other
financial aid documents
√ Apply for housing
√ Fill out roommate-selection
questionnaire
√ Create a college email account
√ Register for orientation
√ Submit health insurance forms
√ Submit official high school
transcripts
√ Select a first-year seminar
class
√ Complete online placement
exams
√ Register for classes
√ Send in a picture for student
ID card
√ Visit the Student Life page to
learn about clubs, leadership
opportunities, and volunteer
organizations on campus
√ Join the class Facebook page
Matching incoming students to mentors with whom they have something
in common, such as a shared hometown, intended major, or extracurricular
interest, may help students connect. Arrange for mentor-mentee pairs to
exchange contact information over the summer to give incoming students
a helpful person to tap with questions and access needed support.
Give your mentor-mentee program a jump-start by supplying your mentors with
plenty of resources: phone numbers, contact names, schedules, and due dates.
An outline of a communication plan can help them cover all the bases. The
easier you make it for your mentors, the more successful your program will be.
HOLD VIRTUAL CAMPUS VISITS. A campus visit can be a deciding factor in
choosing a college. For many prospective students, setting foot in a classroom
or dorm can help determine whether they can see themselves there for the
next four years. As important as these experiences are for some, time, money,
and distance make travel unrealistic for others. Yet many colleges see campus
visits as an indication of interest and even use them as admissions criteria—
putting students who are unable to visit at a distinct disadvantage.
Technology has made it possible for colleges to address this imbalance
by bringing the campus experience to prospective students everywhere.
Through video conferences or pre-recorded video clips, students can “tour”
campus housing, athletic facilities, and classrooms. Admissions counselors,
financial aid staff, and current students can answer questions during live
chats. One-on-one calls conducted over programs like Skype easily replace
in-person admissions interviews. Prospective employers are doing it in the
business world. Why can’t you?
HELP STUDENTS MANAGE PAPERWORK AND ENROLLMENT DEADLINES.
Missed deadlines are red-flag warnings that a student is at risk for melt. A
“first-semester checklist” with important dates, links to required forms, and
other key information is a must. Digital checklists and file-upload pages save
paper and allow colleges to gather information more rapidly. However, make
sure that important deadlines and forms are also available in hard-copy format.
CREATE TIMELINES FOR ENGAGEMENT. Incoming students aren’t the only
ones that can benefit from reminders. The more effectively and strategically
colleges can communicate with students, the better their chances of
reducing summer melt.
Visual aids help manage the flow of new students between acceptance and
arrival on campus and help guide colleges’ decisions about communication. Use
a communication flowchart to help you schedule your reach-out efforts and
track students’ responses. When a student doesn’t respond to a particular
message, take specific actions to reach out. With each step, you will make
progress toward building relationships with students who might otherwise
have attended another school—or not attended college at all.
Conclusion
Summer melt is a complex issue with a diverse set of solutions. In fact, it’s
best understood as two problems, affecting two distinct groups of students:
•
Students who choose a college after making enrollment deposits at
multiple institutions
•
Students who, for a variety of reasons, are accepted to and enroll in
college but ultimately do not attend
Even with focused effort, colleges cannot always meet every potential student’s
needs. However, tools like text messages, social media campaigns, peer
mentoring, and online technology help colleges ease students’ transitions
and pave the way for college life.
Whatever tools you choose, build your strategy on two primary objectives:
foster community and offer support to incoming students—of all backgrounds.
There will always be students who melt. However, with a proactive, targeted
approach to your summer communications, you just may lower your melt
rate and increase your yield.
About One Call Now
One Call Now is America’s largest message notification provider, with 20 percent
of American households depending on the company for messages that protect,
inform, and engage. Colleges and universities nationwide use One Call Now
to send voice and text messages to thousands of students, staff, and parents
simultaneously. For more information, visit www.onecallnow.com.
Sources
• Castleman, B.L., Arnold, K., and Wartman, K.L. (2012). Stemming the Tide of
Summer Melt: An Experimental Study of the Effects of Post-High School Summer
Intervention on Low-Income Students’ College Enrollment. Journal of Research
on Educational Effectiveness, 5(1). Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/
abs/10.1080/19345747.2011.618214#.U1rQcVca3n0
• Castleman, B. L., and Page, L.C. (2013). Working Paper: Summer Nudging: Can
Personalized Text Messages and Peer Mentor Outreach Increase College Going
Among Low-Income High School Graduates? EdPolicyWorks Working Paper
Series, 9. Available at http://curry.virginia.edu/uploads/resourceLibrary/9_
Castleman_SummerTextMessages.pdf
• Castleman, B.L., Page, L.C., and Schooley, K. (2014). The Forgotten Summer: Does
the Offer of College Counseling After High School Mitigate Summer Melt Among
College-Intending, Low-Income High School Graduates? Journal of Policy Analysis
and Management, 33(2). Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/
pam.21743/abstract
• Castleman, B.L., Page, L.C., and Snowdon, A.L. SDP Summer Melt Handbook: A
Guide to Investigating and Responding to Summer Melt. Strategic Data Project,
Center for Education Policy Research, Harvard University. Available at http://
www.gse.harvard.edu/sdp/resources/summer-melt/index.php
• Hoover, E. (2009). “In an Uncertain Summer, Colleges Try to Control Enrollment
‘Melt.’” Chronicle of Higher Education, 42(9). Available at http://chronicle.com/
article/In-an-Uncertain-Summer/47100/
• Sherrer, K. (2013). Viewpoint: Time to end ‘summer melt.’ USA Today. Available at
http://college.usatoday.com/2013/08/16/viewpoint-time-to-end-summer-melt/

Download Report