Why Good Enrollment Managers Are So Hard to Find

Enrollment management is no easy business. Consider this comment I heard recently from someone with decades in the profession: “At the last national conference I attended, I was sitting around with a group of senior people. As we were swapping stories and lies, we suddenly realized that every one of us had been fired by at least one institution. This job is not for the faint of heart.”

Most colleges live or die on tuition revenue. Their financial strategy is still circa 1960: Raise tuition a bit, and enroll a few more students. But that strategy has come under increased pressure. Even before the disruptions of Covid, the whole field was bracing for the “demographic cliff” set to strike in the middle of this decade. Given that students have more choices than ever, thanks to online and for-profit education, public sentiment has turned against a four-year degree as the only path to a good future. No wonder that, beginning around 2018, surveys of college presidents noted enrollment as the top “up at night” issue.

Onto this stage walks the enrollment manager — a misunderstood figure who falls somewhere between the jolly, bow-tie-wearing dean of admission and the number-crunching institutional researcher. Your job as enrollment manager is not just to enroll more students than last year, but also to make sure they are better in every measurable way and want to pay more for their educational experience. You do so by leading a largely underpaid labor force of inexperienced college graduates, who travel around to events that everyone knows are mostly ineffective.

Today’s enrollment manager — typically the job title is “vice president,” but that may be preceded by “associate” or “assistant” — needs to be able to:

• Inspire audiences like a professional speaker.
• Negotiate with CFOs on financial-aid policy.
• Mobilize a vast array of professors and coaches.
• Predict future trends.
• Recruit a new class (no matter what PR nightmares the institution might create).

Most of all, enrollment managers must live in denial of the fact that their future largely depends upon the whims of 18-year-olds, who seldom check their email and don’t set up their voicemail.

Is it any wonder that good enrollment managers are so hard to find?

Most come to the profession from a background entirely in admissions or in financial aid. Very few sources of formal training are available to enrollment managers, which means we learn by doing. Consequently, we become adept at either technical analysis or leading by instinct, but usually not both. The work is so specialized that almost no one on the campus understands what we really do — yet the sales aspect of the job seems familiar enough that others think they can do it. Innovation is required — yet taking risks can have serious consequences. All of which helps explain why good enrollment managers are scarce.

The Great Resignation has hit higher education hard, but the lack of enrollment leadership goes beyond that. When I started in this field, 25 years ago, the adage was “three years or 30” — meaning most people would leave the field after just a few years of road-warrior work. Across the five institutions at which I have worked, I could count on one hand, with fingers left over, how many of my colleagues continued on to senior enrollment positions. Some have stayed in higher education, but they have either moved to other administrative roles or crossed over to work for consulting and ed-tech companies.

I don’t blame them, and have considered those moves myself. At least in those fields, you finish projects and have down seasons. In enrollment, the cycles never stop, so there is no end point and no such thing as an off-season.

“The truth is that the tools enrollment officers are given to do their work are deeply flawed,” says Angel B. Pérez, chief executive of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “You can’t bring in a more diverse class without increased financial aid, and institutions never receive enough state and federal funds to offer enough. The more financial aid you offer, the less tuition you take in. Until we tackle the issue of higher-education finance, the pressures of financial sustainability will always win over the desire to uphold institutional mission and values.”

OK, so those are the downsides. But you can learn to find success in enrollment management and, as tough as it is, even learn to like it. And you won’t be alone: Across the country, you will find plenty of others facing the same pressures. I have been fortunate to have had some terrific mentors in the field, so for those considering this career path, I offer some of the wisdom they have taught me.

You need a safety net. As an enrollment manager, you know the importance of building relationships, but you have probably focused your efforts on customers (students and families) or those who influence them (school counselors). It is just as important to surround yourself with people who will help you succeed.

Because enrollment is such a competitive business, it can be very isolating. You don’t have the natural sense of open collaboration of many areas of higher education. That makes it even more critical to build professional relationships. As I found out in a recent job transition, a network makes all the difference. You need mentors with more experience than you, other enrollment managers with whom you can compare notes, and two or three key consultants or vendors whom you really trust.

People in your network will give you perspective — when you are having a bad year of results and need help figuring out why, when you’re in the wrong place and need help finding a better fit, or when you just want to commiserate about how hard this work is. You will need to be there for them as well.

No one can do everything well. Certain institutions seem to believe they can hire an enrollment manager who excels at every skill necessary in the field. We should all work to disabuse them of such an unrealistic expectation that sets everyone up for failure. You have gaps in your learning and things that just don’t come naturally to you. Recognizing that is important. On some aspects of the job, you can fake it until you make it, but don’t wait until you crash the ship to admit you need help.

Identify the areas where you need to surround yourself with other great people. I have an amazing consultant who helps me with financial-aid leveraging, and does it better than I ever could. I outsource my search purchases with another good partner because it is painstaking work and easy to make a mistake. Recognizing your weaknesses allows you to focus on your strengths and have the most impact.

Choose your boss wisely. No one affects your potential success as much as the person to whom you report. Whether that is a president, a provost, or a vice president matters less than your relationship with that person.

Chances are, no one on the campus fully understands what you do. That’s OK, but if people don’t trust you to do it, you are sunk. Look for a boss who communicates openly with you and, if necessary, is willing to go to bat for you. Most administrative offices are internal-facing. They have the luxury of playing campus politics. Enrollment is external-facing. Get too distracted by some internal flap, and it will be very hard for you to succeed externally.

I have had several really good bosses. They are probably what kept me in the profession. What they have shared is a certain humility and positivity. They have been willing to listen and learn from me, even as I was listening and learning from them. They are interested in helping people succeed, and they care more about the quality of an idea than where it came from. If you don’t find those qualities in your potential boss — no matter how good the job looks — run in the other direction.

Seek out new ways of doing things. The market is constantly shifting, with changes in technology, best practices, and student preferences. If you have only ever used one system, it is easy to keep doing the same thing and not adapt. I have been fortunate to work at five very different institutions — public and private, religious and secular. Breadth of experience is a critical source of innovation. It helps you to consider a wider variety of strategies and to panic less when something goes wrong.

New enrollment managers, and those being groomed for that role, need to see how things are done elsewhere. Spend a week or two shadowing a colleague on another campus. Serve as part of a consulting team on a review project. Create an enrollment-management exchange with another institution.

Conferences alone are not going to cut it. You need to actually get under the hood and see how totally different strategies can be just as valid as your own. The more you know, the more your campus will benefit.

Find your why. I took a circuitous route to get to the enrollment field. But I’ve realized that, in all my choices, I have been seeking more or less the same thing: Sure, I want me and my institution to succeed, but I’ve also realized that it is deeply important to me to bring out the best in a team and be part of a team that brings out the best in me. I still keep track of tour guides whom I mentored almost 20 years ago, and I find joy in helping people step up into roles they don’t think they can do.

As my friend and colleague Monica Moody Moore, vice president for enrollment marketing at Trinity Washington University, puts it: “The admissions professional needs to ‘know thyself’ — what is their ‘why’ for the role and how their skills map to the work and intended results. Become a guru on something that moves the needle. Follow the data, but know what motivates the soul.”

Finding a campus culture with values that resonate with you can make all the difference between loving this work and dreading Monday mornings.

In the near future, the demand for skilled enrollment managers is likely to continue to far outpace the supply. In fact, the imbalance is likely to get worse, as institutions face increased financial pressure from a shrinking student market. On the one hand, the stakes will be very high for enrollment managers. On the other hand, good professionals will find lots of opportunities if you know your craft and are able to demonstrate results. Those skills will be in great demand.

In the meantime, it falls to all of us in the field to help new and future leaders be ready. We must be willing to mentor, train, and share. We must be ready to discuss the challenges, the reasons we do this work, and the ways we can do it better.