NACAC Data Needs of Admission Professionals White Papers
For NACAC, ASA wrote and conducted focus groups for “Enhancing Data Analysis Aptitude of Emerging Admission Professionals.” Focus group with different levels of college admission staff identified current data skills of emerging professionals, the availability of data training for these staff, and the data needs of admission departments.
This follows up on Data Needs of Admission Professionals , based on findings from a working group of admission professionals. This white paper explored:
• How to build a data culture
• Ways you should be thinking about data collection and analysis
• Why actionable data boosts your team’s effectiveness
• How to communicate with leadership to achieve realistic and sustainable goals
Additional topics include data training, governance, ethics, planning, sources, prospect development, predictive modeling, and enrollment forecasting. Admission data is needed to meet institutions’ strategic objectives, particularly growth and diversity benchmarks. As one participant stated, “If we’re going to get better, what does that look like in numerical terms. Data becomes the foundation.” Admission professionals recognize a need to use and act on data, following proper training, development of data governance plans, and adhering to ethical and privacy guidelines, to ensure that increased enrollments expand institutions’ equity and help fulfill strategic goals.
