University enrollment has been declining for several semesters, with a 4.3 percent drop this fall.
On Saturday, the admissions office hosted Mustang Rally to gave prospective students and parents an opportunity to preview the university.
According to Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, the university has started a direct marketing campaign.
“We have contacted ten thousand high school students who scored on a predicted model and took 77 variables of current MSU students,” Lamb said.
Based on a profile the university has created a formula of prospects likely to enroll.
“We purchased lists of high school seniors who met that criteria and started contacting them directly,” Lamb said.
Based on prospect profiling the admissions department has seen an increase in involvement.
Last year, 197 students pre-registered for Mustangs Rally. This year. 277 high school and transfer students pre-registered, a 40.6 percent increase. The final count at Mustangs Rally was 239 prospective students.
“We usually get about 60 percent of students who sign up for Mustang Rally who actually attend. We registered just north of 300 students, above a 75 percent return,” Lamb said.
The main goal of Mustang Rally is the exposure of prospective students to the campus and its environment, Lamb said.
Mustangs Rally is not just designed to inform students, but parents as well.
“I want my daughter to attend MSU because it’s close to home and I went here and it was fun,” said Angie Duncan, MSU alumni and parent attending Mustangs Rally.
Mustang Rally is an opportunity to showcase the university, Lamb said.
“Our daughter is looking around at different nursing programs and we heard Midwestern has a really strong nursing program. We came here really not knowing hardly anything, so everything we heard was really beneficial. Parent orientation was very thorough,” Andrea Douglass, of Keller, Texas explained.
The admissions office implemented multiple new techniques this semester to bring students to MSU by taking a more aggressive recruitment campaign.
“Last spring semester we started to cater toward our transfer students, in the past it’s always been during the student orientation session we would include transfer student,” said Valerie Martinez, assistant director of admission.
MSU enrolls between 550-800 freshmen. This year the university enrolled 600 beginning students.
“We typically enroll just as much in transfer students. A lot of people don’t realize how many transfer students actually come here,” Lamb said.
In an effort to entice transfer students, MSU has started to target community colleges including Vernon College, Collin College, Tarrant County College and Dallas County.
“Admission counselors are responsible for geographic territories and are responsible for a specific location,” Lamb said.
In an effort to humanize the recruiting process each admission councilor personally calls student prospects.
“People get really excited because we have done some personal contact with the student to invite them,” Martinez said. “We did a lot more campaigning this year. We actually sent out more postcards and invitations,” Martinez said.
The admissions office started the process in September.
“More than 10,000 invitations were sent out informing people of Mustangs Rally,“ Martinez said.
The university obtained 50,000 more names based on the projected formula and will be sending out invitations for the Spring Mustangs Rally starting in two weeks to entice new students, according to Lamb.
Administrators are talking internally about doing two spring sessions, since spring has been historically larger, Lamb said.
“Spring Rally is geared more toward students who have already been accepted, while Fall Rally is important because it is more of a college preview day for students who might be applying to five or six different schools at the time. Campus rally can completely change their mind,” Martinez said.
Kristen Duncan, Henrietta High School senior and prospective student, said she attended Mustang Rally due to her acceptance to MSU.
“I was accepted into MSU, my first choice is Tech, but MSU is my second option,” Duncan said.
Duncan said she learned a lot about the university during the rally, including the different cultures and students attending the campus.