In addition to the Harvard courses below, I have previously taught courses on research methods, program evaluation, and the history of higher education. Please feel free to contact me directly for copies of these syllabi.
A728A: Enrollment Management in Higher Ed I:Â From Theory to Data
While a variety of postsecondary education stakeholders have an interest in key challenges relating to changing demographics, ability to pay, and socioeconomic disparities, it is the enrollment management or admissions office that is often the central entity charged with systematically understanding and articulating the policies, practices, and tradeoffs necessary to achieve an institution’s objectives around access, enrollment, and retention. This module provides an overview of enrollment management by focusing on theory, practice, and the increasing role of data in making enrollment decisions. Topics include recruitment and marketing, admissions, financial aid, and retention programs. Students will participate in class discussions of readings and will collaborate on a multi-week group exercise that models the real-world considerations of working in an admissions office of an institution of higher education. Although the primary goal is to build students’ understanding of foundational enrollment management processes, the course will touch upon recent enrollment policy debates, such as the current state of affirmative action and pandemic-related test-optional admissions. Most readings and cases center on the undergraduate context, but examples will also be drawn from graduate and international admissions and enrollment.
The module has no formal prerequisite courses and has been designed to meet the needs of students without prior quantitative, data-analysis, or higher education coursework. The course offers an introduction to enrollment management for students in the Higher Education concentration and for anyone interested in policy and practice relating to college admissions, financial aid, and enrollment management. The module is a pre-requisite for A728B, the Spring II Strategic Enrollment Planning Workshop.
A728B: Enrollment Management in Highver Education II: Strategic Enrollment Planning Workshop
This project-based module is a hands-on introduction to the development of a strategic enrollment management plan for various higher education contexts. Building upon the concepts and cases explored in A728A, this workshop will provide opportunities for students to work with U.S. institutions as real-world clients to develop a five-year enrollment management plan. Students will learn to collect data, gather input from stakeholders, synthesize information, design a data-informed strategy for recruitment and admissions, and communicate the plan to stakeholders. The workshop will enable students to apply theories and evidence of effective practices to shape enrollment plans that can potentially guide actual institutional strategies and enrollment management practices.
Logistics: Prior enrollment in A728A is required. The course is project-based and involves applied descriptive data analysis and writing in small groups. It has been designed to meet the needs of students without prior quantitative or data-analysis experience, although experience working with or communicating data will be helpful.