Pace University shares financial aid and student checklists in CampusESP – and deposits are up 4.8x for families that view it!
Pace University serves a diverse population of 14,000+ students at three campuses in New York City and Westchester, NY. Pace values preparing students for real-world experience – but even with an emphasis on independence, the Pace team recognizes the invaluable role families play in student success.
With that parent influence in mind, Pace uses CampusESP – in complement with Slate and Ellucian Banner – to give families a “one-stop-shop” for communication from the time of application through graduation.
In 2020, Pace launched CampusESP for Student Enrollment to reach prospective families that often drive enrollment decisions, CampusESP for Family Communication to help current parents support their students, and CampusESP for FERPA Management to modernize their FERPA processes. In 2024, Pace added on CampusESP for Parent Giving to identify and cultivate parent donors. In doing so, they connected Enrollment Management, Student Accounts, Registrar, University Relations, and Development and Alumni Relations to provide families a coordinated, personalized, strategic experience.
Pace has been a partner in innovation for years, always providing feedback on how CampusESP can improve family engagement. In January 2024, Pace’s Vice President for Enrollment and Placement, Robina Schepp, requested that CampusESP add a way to share student checklists, financial aid packages, and cost of attendance data with families – and worked with CampusESP to bring this feature to life!
Within four months, this progressed from idea to fully launched feature at Pace – and only three months later, we have over 30 partner institutions ready to implement our new “Admissions Dashboard” feature. Most importantly, Pace has achieved meaningful results: Parents engagement reached an all-time high, deposit rates skyrocketed for parents using the Admissions Dashboard, and deposits are currently up overall.
To celebrate Pace’s results, innovation and partnership, we’re excited to announce Pace University as our “ESP MVP” winner for Q2 2024!
Developing an Admissions Dashboard to “nudge the nudger”
In collaboration with Pace, we developed an Admissions Dashboard that helps institutions:
Bring CRM data to life
Flexible and secure data integration makes it easy to surface student checklists, housing information, scholarship data, and any other data an institution wants to make available for families. The records are kept updated with a nightly sFTP integration with the CRM or SIS.
Nudge the nudgers
Give parents a window into student admissions progress, and they’ll help keep their student on track. Parents are notified anytime the data changes – so they know when it’s time to step in and get involved.
Impact enrollment - quickly
With a three-week implementation for existing CampusESP customers, it’s easy to make a quick impact on app completion, deposits, melt, yield, and more.
Oh, and the Admissions Dashboard is FREE and included for all CampusESP for Student Enrollment customers!
“At Pace, we understand the importance of empowering families with the information they need to make a decision about cost of education and the ROI associated with that cost. The CampusESP parent portal and Admissions Dashboard provide an easy-to-access path to information on costs, next steps, and great student outcomes.””
The results: Increase in parent engagement, admit-to-deposit rate, and deposits overall
Over 30,000 admitted families were emailed a link to their new Admissions Dashboard in April 2024. Within two months of launching the Admissions Dashboard, 1,545 families viewed the data, leading to over 8,100 total data views. The results are impressive.
1. Parent engagement reaches an all-time high
After the Admissions Dashboard launch, parent activity peaked in the Pace parent portal. Over 1,500 families registered their accounts – doubling the number of registered accounts for the Fall 2024 funnel. Based on CampusESP’s research, these families are 11x more likely to have their student enroll at Pace than average.
April was the highest month of parent portal visitors ever – and portal visits remain higher than pre-launch levels. The more parents visit the portal and receive important updates and deadlines, the more Pace can combat summer melt and student preparedness concerns.
2. Deposits skyrocket 4.8x higher for families that use the Admissions Dashboard
Of the families who visited the Admissions Dashboard in CampusESP, 728 were admitted families who hadn’t yet deposited at Pace.
57.5% of these admitted families sent in a deposit after clicking on the Admissions Dashboard. While it’s too early to show causation that the Admissions Dashboard led to deposits, there is a correlation. Each parent’s Admissions Dashboard contained a personalized link to pay their student’s deposit, making it easier than ever to deposit.
The overall conversion rate from admit to deposit for Pace parents using CampusESP is 12.5%. This represents a 4.8x increase in deposit rate when families use the Admissions Dashboard in CampusESP.
3. Deposits are up overall
Pace is currently trending above last year’s deposits for both first-year and transfer students. Schepp shared, “Currently Pace is outperforming last year’s deposit activity, but we remain concerned about the potential of melt. One way that we minimize melt is to ensure that families are fully prepared for September. The Admissions Dashboard is working to ensure that parents have a place to gather the information they need, when they need it.”
Pace Admissions Dashboard story isn’t over yet. With personalized cost of attendance data and student checklists available throughout the summer, parents can still submit last-minute deposits AND stay engaged to avoid summer melt.
Looking ahead to Fall 2025
As Pace begins recruiting their Fall 2025 class, the Enrollment Management team is excited to share this critical information with families even earlier in the enrollment cycle – and see even more impact. At CampusESP, we know our other customers are excited to implement their FREE Admissions Dashboard and see similar enrollment gains.
Congrats again to Pace University for winning our Q2 2024 “ESP MVP” Award! We look forward to the close of a successful Fall 2024 cycle for you – and many more years of meaningful partnership and innovation!
A BIG THANK YOU to the entire Pace University team, including Robina Schepp, Dinesh Ulpange, Noel Whearty, Gisel Licciardello, Akanksha Kashyap, Lisa Moscato, and everyone who supported Pace’s success!