Student Retention
Enhancing Belonging at N.C. A&T for Increased Student Success
Discover how the country’s largest HBCU used Raftr’s YieldRaiser solution to create a true sense of belonging and community among admitted students – significantly increasing yield along the way.
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Institution:
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
N.C. A&T turned to Raftr to help admitted students feel like they were already an active part of the Aggie community – a crucial step as colleges and universities face increasing pressure to convert accepted students to enrollees.
Solution:
Key Features Used:
- 1:1 & Group Messaging
- Resource Hub
- Reports & Metrics
Webinar
Proactive Pathways at North Carolina A&T:
HBCU Strategies for Newly Admitted Student Success and Engagement
N.C. A&T enjoys an enviable place among the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities. As the country’s largest HBCU, A&T’s applicant base is expected to grow by 17% by 2028 – even as applicant pools are poised to shrink across much of academia.
Nevertheless, A&T faces the same fundamental challenge as every other school seeking to maintain and grow its student population: creating a culture where students are made to feel that they belong.
N.C. A&T determined that a key moment to spotlight A&T’s welcoming environment is before accepted students have decided where to enroll. A&T also wanted to communicate with admitted applicants in ways that would be easy to administer while they showcased the Aggie experience.
At the time, N.C. A&T’s Admissions staff was communicating with their diverse populations through a serviceable but disconnected array of email and phone databases – a less than ideal system for meeting the needs of admitted students in a timely fashion.
Even though N.C. A&T was getting first-rate results in enrollment, the institution realized that a future-focused change to communications would facilitate a culture of belonging well before students stepped foot on campus.
Quick Navigation:
The Task
N.C. A&T was looking for an all-in-one solution that would help them easily communicate with accepted applicants about processes, deadlines, events and invite the students to start building communities and making personal connections that would encourage them to choose NC A&T.
Naturally, the solution had to function smoothly and integrate with the institution’s existing systems. And of course, it was expected to produce real-time actionable data. But perhaps most important: it had to let students express themselves while communicating and building communities organically – without feeling like the hand of the administration was working the strings.
N.C. A&T also wanted things like: numbers that would shed light on applicants’ decision-making process. The ability to track, monitor, curate and energize on-campus discussions. A platform that would allow administrators to keep the entire community informed about the evolution of the school’s goals and plans.
N.C. A&T needed engagement metrics that would let administrators know whether the app was delivering as intended. And they wanted the ability to implement everything without a mountainous learning curve.
Raftr equipped A&T with its YieldRaiser solution, and N.C. A&T put it to work in advance of the 2023-2024 academic year.
Raftr gives us the opportunity to allow our current students to have active conversations with prospective students about what it means to be a student at A&T.
They get to talk about all of their various opportunities that they’ve been able to take advantage of, and it’s those types of things that creates the kind of stickiness we need…and we can actually see the results because we can actually look in the tool and monitor it.
Joe Montgomery,
Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
North Carolina A&T
Implementation
After just one admissions cycle with Raftr at the heart of its admitted student communications, the results were clear: N.C. A&T reported that its messaging was more targeted, more on-point, and more productive than any they’ve produced in the past.
YieldRaiser enabled organic conversations between admissions and students – and among students themselves. These yielded specific, actionable data regarding administrative milestones and admitted-student engagement. N.C. A&T was able to communicate specific information – and adjust conversations on the fly as discussions around those communications evolved.
Along the way, N.C. A&T developed a far more robust understanding of who among its admittees actually intended to enroll…and administrators incorporated what they learned into new metrics and methodologies for increasing yield.
Results
Increased sense of belonging and connection amongst admitted students.
Reduction in student anxiety about attending college, before students stepped foot on campus.
Improved ability for administration to use data to predict resources, such as tracking open rates for campus resources and other virtual spaces for connections.
Improved communication between administration and admitted students, and between admitted students during decision period.
Final Thoughts
With Raftr driving N.C. A&T’s Admissions communications, admitted students have developed a vast array of spaces where they can communicate, share and learn from each other organically, in their own voice, producing a true sense of belonging. At the same time, Admissions staff members are able to track admitted-student engagement, and drive content that will motivate them to enroll.
When admitted students can build relationships and communities prior to enrollment, student life is all the richer, more connected, and more rewarding when students arrive on campus to continue their educational journey.
