At the gateway of our institution’s future stands our dedication to Enrollment Growth in Admissions.
The growth and diversification of our student body will be a key strategy in creating a thriving and diverse student body. A diverse student body creates an environment where students can learn from one another, exchange ideas, and develop a broader perspective on the world. It also helps to foster a sense of community, as students from different backgrounds come together to pursue their academic goals.
By pursuing strategies that aim to increase enrollment, S&T can create a more welcoming and inclusive environment for all students and prepare them for success in an increasingly globalized world.
Strategy Groups to Boost Enrollment Growth – Admissions
Strategy Group 1: Enrollment growth – first-time college
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
- Tactic 1: Increase UG admissions reach to new markets within Missouri and nationally without adjusting entrance requirements.
- Tactic 2: Increase total FTC applications by analyzing and improving our marketing, acceptance, and yield management campaigns.
Strategy Group 2: Enrollment growth – transfers
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
- Tactic 1: Re-engage with prior admits who did not enroll.
- Tactic 2: Establish pipeline partnerships with Missouri community colleges.
- Tactic 3: Strengthen existing transfer partnerships.
- Tactic 4: Create an online orientation module to onboard new transfer students through Online Advantage.
Strategy Group 3: Enrollment growth – master’s (on-campus)
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
- Tactic 1: Determine the growth potential of existing master’s programs, potential new programs using market research, and focus recruitment in those areas.
- Tactic 2: Design program-level recruitment targets and design recruitment plans for each program.
- Tactic 3: Create an online orientation module to onboard new master’s students.
Strategy Group 4: Enrollment growth – master’s (online non-thesis)
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Online Learning and Educational Innovation
- Tactic 1: Build an online admission team to review applications and monitor progress toward targets.
- Tactic 2: Build outreach and communication campaigns to build awareness and market programs to potential students.
- Tactic 3: Create an online orientation module to onboard new master’s online students.
- Tactic 4: Determine annual and periodic targets and goals for inquiry-to-enrollment touch points.
- Tactic 5: Determine the growth potential of existing or new online programs and focus recruitment in high-potential areas.
- Tactic 6: Establish an online student satisfaction survey and administer yearly.
Strategy Group 5: Enrollment growth – research-based students (focused on doctoral)
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Graduate Education
- Tactic 1: Expand doctoral graduate student fellowship opportunities.
- Tactic 2: Review CRR and create inclusive language to incorporate service assistantships.
- Tactic 3: Review funding models for graduate assistantships to be competitive.
- Tactic 4: Create an online orientation module through Online Advantage to onboard new students.
- Tactic 5: Standardize the advisee/advisor selection process for potential areas of improvement.
- Tactic 6: Increase the number of prospective doctoral student visits to campus.
- Tactic 7: Showcase graduate student achievements and excellence.
Strategy Group 6: Improved admissions processes
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
- Tactic 1: Automate outreach communications (e.g., emails, texts, physical letters).
- Tactic 2: Review supplemental communications sent outside of automated campaigns to include for next year to communicate proactively.
- Tactic 3: Improve efficiency and timing of application decisions, targeting messages to students in accordance with their expressed academic and non-academic interests.
- Tactic 4: Improve automatic merit-based scholarship awards.
- Tactic 5: Review the test-optional process for core-course redistribution and reevaluation based on year of study.
- Tactic 6: Increase the validity of high school rankings by purchasing an external high school ranking list and implementing it in Slate.
- Tactic 7: Train campus entities and engage with outreach measures to incoming students, e.g., Army of Champions and other student ambassador organizations, Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on African American Recruitment and Retention (CACAARR), Alumni and academies, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).
- Tactic 8: Improve the application experience for students and meet national standards for application components.
Strategy Group 7: National and international diversification
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
- Tactic 1: Increase S&T presence to recruit students in key cities in Missouri and nationwide.
- Tactic 2: Hire staff to help guide market saturation and exploration efforts.
- Tactic 3: Army of Champions program to increase visibility in key feeder high school, local/regional events, and other engagement opportunities in Missouri and neighboring states.
- Tactic 4: Partnerships to increase the visibility of S&T and expand beyond current international markets.
- Tactic 5: Increase the number of female STEM undergraduate students and participation in Summer Camps.
- Tactic 6: Increase marketing efforts to recruit high school students to participate in the pre-college initiatives held by NSBE and SHPE.
Strategy Group 8: Improve scholarships and finance-related areas of admissions and yield
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
- Tactic 1: Refine Kummer Vanguard Scholars program to target prospective UG students who do not see S&T as their first choice.
- Tactic 2: Implement and expand/grow a need-based aid program for in-state students (Solving for Tomorrow Scholarship).
- Tactic 3: Improved Scholarship Process specific to awarding of non-automatic scholarships.
- Tactic 4: Improve graduate domestic scholarship awarding options.
- Tactic 5: Explore restricted scholarship opportunities with University Advancement specific to non-research master’s students.
- Tactic 6: Evaluate and potentially expand S&T Connection Award to Illinois and Iowa.
- Tactic 7: Evaluate and potentially expand the transfer merit-based award to cover all years of attendance.
- Tactic 8: Evaluate and potentially expand scholarship opportunities to southern states.
Strategy Group 9: Enhance marketing for admissions and recruiting
Strategy Group Accountable Person: Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
- Tactic 1: Establish a combined Enrollment Management (EM) and Marketing and Communication working group to assess current and future needs, including an improved web presence.
- Tactic 2: Develop a campaign inclusive of brand and enrollment support elements.
- Tactic 3: Establish Junior and Sophomore campaigns with Marketing and Communications.
- Tactic 4: Engage campus community, alumni, and students in EM tactics to attract students via admissions and yield activities.
- Tactic 5: Establish transfer student campaigns with Marketing and Communications.
- Tactic 6: Yearly review of online marketing program for S&T.
Goal Alignments
North Star Goal Alignment
Grow enrollment to 12,000 students.
Missouri Compacts Primary Alignment
Student Success; Inclusive Excellence.
Strategic Team
Strategic Focus Area Leadership
Colin Potts—SFA Accountable Person
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Lijun Jiang— Faculty Liaison
Kummer Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Liaison from Academic Freedom & Standards Committee
Strategy Group Accountable Persons
Garry “Smitty” Grubbs II
Vice Provost of Graduate Education
Susan Murray
Interim Vice Provost for Online Learning and Educational Innovation
David Spivey
Vice Provost for Enrollment Management