Knowledge > Admission > Top Ways to Professionalize Your Admission Office

From "Toward a Proactive, Comprehensive Admission Program:
What Every Head of School Should Know About Supervising the Admission Director,"
by Rheua Stakely.

1. Seek on-going training for the Admission Director in thinking about admission and attrition prevention appropriate to a Jewish independent school. Encourage the Admission Director to join organizations that provide workshops for admission professionals.
2. Write down Acceptance Criteria and use them when designing application forms and when making decisions about whom to admit.
3. Develop and use calendars for implementing all the details of admission procedures.
4. Develop a checklist to help applicants complete all the details of the application process.
5. Develop a plan for each of the Critical Points in Admission and keep statistics to measure success. The Critical Points are:
   • Generate inquiries
   • Turn inquiries into visits
   • Turn visits into completed applications
   • Improve the "yield" (accepted students who sign contracts and enroll)
   • Nurture families from enrollment to matriculation (no withdrawals between enrollment and the first day of school)
   • Decrease attrition (i.e., keep families enrolled through graduation)
6. Develop a manageable group of carefully selected and trained student and parent (non-Board members) volunteers to help with admission events and tasks.
7. Develop a yearly plan for print and electronic materials, when they will be revised/updated, and when they will be produced.
8. Develop application forms, based on Acceptance Criteria that are user-friendly and comprehensive. Use the Acceptance Criteria with the Faculty Admission Decision Committee when deciding if each student is a good match.
9. Use financing options and financial aid to market your school. These tools help make your school more accessible and affordable. And make certain that all these programs are professionally managed and confidential.
10. Collect and analyze statistics for all the Critical Points and other areas needing study and report successes often to all parts of the school community. Maintain careful records on each applicant. Follow up so that no one falls through the cracks.
11. Develop a written plan to reduce attrition including attrition prevention activities and issue response protocol.
12. Develop a written One-Year Plan for admission including what will be done by when and by whom.
13. Compile, update, and use a "How-To-Guide-To-Doing-Admission-At-My-School" Notebook. This notebook should contain all the key pieces that help the Admission Director do the job from A to Z.