THE BOX MODEL

Moving Beyond Prospect

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

So, once he applies, a student is no longer a prospect.  He moves to the next stage of the funnel and becomes an incomplete applicant.  Just as we removed the distraction of inquiries present in the enrollment funnel, we now clarify our new model by showing that the only applicants we need to target are those who have not yet completed.

Although the transition from prospect to incomplete applicant is straight-forward, institutions that have different internal and external definitions of “applicant” should be cautious with their criteria.  For example, most colleges consider test scores a part of their application, and may therefore think to move a student from prospect to incomplete applicant when a score report is received.  But, if their prospects are told they are only considered applicants when they pay the application fee, then moving them into the applicant stage when they have not yet paid the fee could lead to confusion or even anger.  Remember that the stages exist from the student perspective, not the other way around, so you must always be confident that your students exist in the stages that match their understanding and expectations.

Completed applicants who meet your admission criteria move into the admitted stage.  And admitted students who deposit move completely out of our model.  Again, to eliminate distractions, we removed the “enrolled” stage from the enrollment funnel.  In admissions, the enrollment deposit is the last thing we need to focus on.  Coincidentally, this leaves us with a nice representation of the college search process from the student’s perspective, which was our goal all along.  Notice that the three triangles along the bottom each represent college search milestones from the student’s perspective.  They are the core concerns and questions the student faces at each stage of the college search process: whether or not to apply, to complete, or, in the end, to deposit.

Next: Exit Opportunities