Decliner Study (ADS)

The ADS was developed to examine the flip-side of enrollment: Why some students short-list your institution, may even visit your campus, and yet decline your offer and pursue higher education elsewhere. These applicants are a crucial target audience, and may represent a huge opportunity for recruiters; they know your institution, perceive strengths and weaknesses, and can tell you a great deal about key perceptions and misperceptions that are costing you conversion and enrollment.

Applicants who rejected your offer of acceptance
They researched your institution and were attracted by what they found. They applied to your school, perhaps even selecting you as their first choice. They represented a substantial investment of your recruitment efforts. But when the time came to make their final decision and choose where they wanted to go, they opted for another school. Why?

Why do some students apply to you, receive an offer – but then accept elsewhere? Find out directly from “the ones who got away,” with our customized Acceptance Declined Survey™.

Applicant Conversion Insights
North America’s leading colleges and universities have already benefited from the insight of our proprietary ADS — finding out straight from the students who seriously considered attending, who they preferred and where they came up short.

The ADS extends the market insight of our national applicant studies, examining the flip side of the recruitment coin: focusing not on why potential students apply to your institution, but why those same applicants may not ultimately enroll. Were you their second or third choice? Who did they prefer? Was there anything you could have done differently? Did it boil down to scholarship dollars? program offerings? extracurriculars? your campus tour?