With Emily Moir, Head of Admissions, Junior School, St. George's School (BC) & Reto Camenzind, Head of Admissions, Senior School, St. George's School (BC) How do you see beyond the polished,...

With June Sadowski-Devarez The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) recently announced that their Field Representatives are being deployed early in the first quarter of this year. Field...

Join NAIS' Debra Wilson for a discussion of the tricky legal issues that surround admission - and how best to avoid them.  

With Damian Kavanagh, Vice President of Accreditation & Membership at SAIS How exactly does the mission of the school inform the admissions profile? And what can we learn from examining the last...

With Karen Loder, Director of Admission & Financial Aid, Gill St. Bernard’s School, NJ Parents historically have sought traditional independent schools as an alternative for their “struggling...

The majority of admission professionals have a strong grasp and understanding of what they do. Most can also explain to a certain degree how they do it, but how many can answer why they do it?...

With commencement ceremonies a recent memory, independent school admission offices across the globe are recalibrating and reflecting on the past cycle while simultaneously synthesizing and...

From The Yield, Spring 2014 The Edward E. Ford Foundation, a philanthropic organization, was formed to "strengthen and support independent secondary school" (www.eeford.org). Over the nearly 60...

By Jonathan E. Martin, Principal, JonathanEMartin Ed. ServicesFrom The Yield, Spring 2014 Myth #1: PISA is an international ranking competition, like the Olympics of high school academics, solely...

While it is important as a director of admission to spend time analyzing admission statistics, addressing demographic trends and forecasts, and fostering marketing initiatives, it is also...

Ernest Koe and Stephen Ritchie of the Proof Group introduce the basics of net revenue management and tuition discounting, based in part on lessons learned while working with college admission and...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 How do you develop lists of schools for your families to consider? AA:We identify the key character strengths that best serve as indicators for success. In addition,...

Presenter: Steve Robinson, Ph.D., President, Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS) The economic principle of elasticity refers to the relationship between price and demand when...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 Site Selection The Enrollment Management Association selects sites for audits that provide a varied representation of administrations, including those of different...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 The The Enrollment Management Association board of directors kicked off the trustee nomination process this year by specifically targeting leadership in four strategic...

From The Yield, Spring 2015  The most successful schools understand the lifetime value of the customer—from the first inquiry of a prospective family to the planned gift of a proud...

From The Yield, Spring 2015  Thank you for renewing your membership and for allowing us to serve you as the premier association for independent school admission professionals. We are proud of the...

From The Yield, Spring 2015  Situation Judgment Tests (SJTs) are an increasingly common psychometric technique for measuring interpersonal and intrapersonal attributes. Respondents are presented...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 In summer 2014, SSATB’s Admission Leadership Council (ALC) launched a pilot mentoring program matching experienced enrollment management professionals with new...

An interview with Peter Gilbert, Salisbury School Director of Admissions and Financial Aid School: Salisbury School Location: Salisbury, CT Type of School: Boys’...

From The Yield, Spring 2015  Schools invest much in their recruitment and retention strategies, yet the single biggest issue for many families— tuition—often plays second fiddle when it comes to...

By Nicole Suozzi, Chief Strategy & Services Officer, SSATBFrom The Yield, Spring 2015 In January, I had the opportunity to attend, along with a number of my SSATB colleagues, a conference on the...

It’s that time of year again. Help your board of trustees understand the latest admission season, both at your school and in comparison to the larger independent school community. Whether it’s...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 Creating a culture for high-performing teams. As reported in SSATB’s 2013 State of the Independent School Admission Industry Report, a new set of competencies is...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 The Yield profiles SSATB member schools asking how their office tackles process and procedures, and integrates trends and data into their decision making process,...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 Our admission office was having tough discussions, challenging our current practices, when the The Enrollment Management Association research report The Ride to...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 A Must Read: First-Ever Report on International Secondary Students The Institute of International Education’s inaugural report “Charting New Pathways to Higher...

From The Yield, Spring 2015 In recognition of a shared commitment to high standards and ethical behavior, as of August 2015, all educational consultants who are members of The Enrollment...

By Quentin McDowell, Senior Associate Director of Admission & Financial Aid, Mercersburg Academy (PA); Assistant Director, The Erdmann InstituteFrom The Yield, Spring 2015 We all know that the...

Answer these questions as honestly as you can: 1. Is interviewing a highly effective part of your admission assessment process?2. Is there a good rate of return on all the time allocated to it...

From the NAIS Independent School Magazine blog, 4/15/15 Never before has assessment been such a central and scrutinized component of the K-12 educational experience. With the dawning of the...

As the demands for complex marketing and recruitment strategies grow each year, fueled by the simultaneous need to meet revenue targets and satisfy savvy consumers, performance pressure rises...

With Ben Bolte, Senior Search Consultant, Carney, Sandoe & Associates & Jonathan Ball, Managing Associate/Director of Marketing, Carney, Sandoe & Associates Preparing for a job search or...

The Test, by NPR’s Anya Kamenetz, is a must-read for anyone who is reading this post. Almost by definition, if you are here on this page, you are someone interested in both the current state and...

While reviewing many excellent blogs, articles, and presentations on the topic of admission data and reports, I was reminded (not fondly) of my first few years on the job (in the late 90’s) and...

with Catherine Hay, Associate Director of Admission, Trinity Preparatory School (FL) Strategic Questions Based on contribution by Christina Drouin, Center for Strategic Planning, to NAIS...

As a child, I played a game called “Follow the Leader.” I was chosen to be at the front of the line and everyone else lined up behind me. If my friends didn’t follow what I did, they had to sit...

We believe in assessment. We believe it improves the processes we use for assembling the right student body in admission, for supporting student learning, and for continuously improving our...

by Stephen P. Robinson, Ph.D. • President, Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS) From The Yield, Winter 2014 Price elasticity is an economic term used to represent the responsiveness...

Besides the benefits of real-time data, office efficiency, and database integration, we saw an increase of 25% in our applications in our first year using the SAO.

From The Yield, Winter 2014 Logistics—Prompt Test Return Is Essential First, logistics play a role. The Enrollment Management Association relies on test administrators for their prompt return of...

By Jonathan E. Martin, Principal, JonathanEMartin Ed. Services • @JonathanEMartinFrom The Yield, Winter 2014 32 Schools Join The Enrollment Management Association in Pilot Study on Non-Cognitive...

From The Yield, Winter 2014 The Yield asked Ray Cross, Director of Admission, Marianapolis Preparatory School (CT), Scott Conklin,Director of Admissions, Episcopal High School (VA), and Peggy...

by Rohit BhargavaFrom The Yield, Winter 2014 I was on a short flight from NY back to DC and opened a copy of The New York Times to find a full page ad with the simple declaration “Marketing is...

From The Yield, Winter 2014 Name of School: Saint David’s School, New York, NYEnrollment: 421, PK–8Type of school: All boys, Day Allison Vella, Director of Admissions—Allison joined Saint David’s...

Name of School: Epiphany School, Seattle, WashingtonEnrollment: 240Type of school: Coed, DaySchool Mission:Through innovative teaching in a caring and traditional environment, Epiphany School...

In its basic form, mentorship is the development of a personal relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to...

From The Yield, Winter 2014 Independent school trustees have a significant impact on a school’s enrollment health. To learn more, The Yield sat down with Dr. William New, sitting trustee for The...

The importance of character and personality traits, to use the common parlance, received prominent attention in a recent issue of the New York Times. The piece, entitled “Should Schools Teach...

In recent years, as the traditional inquiry has dwindled and been replaced by the anonymous internet rover, admission offices across the country have been exploring more and more ways to reach...

Yet another (they keep coming!) report has emerged arguing for the importance of elevating the “non-cognitive” in our schools. This one comes from the New America Foundation, entitled “Skills for...

With Mark J. Mitchell, Vice President, School and Student Services (SSS By NAIS), National Association of Independent Schools  Not only have the recession and the post-recession economy created...

With Jackson Marvel, Director of Financial Aid/Senior Associate Director of Admission, The Hotchkiss School & Jared Liu, Assistant Director of Admission & Financial Aid, Choate Rosemary...

As an admission professional, I collect lots and lots of data. Through our application process, we receive grades, test scores, and countless pieces of information for each student who applies to...

Dear Colleague: Tom Friedman, author of The Flat World, suggests that in today’s global, digital society, “Whatever can be done, will be done.” He admonishes all businesses and organizations to...

Learn all about the pluses of boarding school in this informative video from The Association of Boarding Schools. Related Videos: Advice on Navigating the Boarding School Application Process ...

 The research keeps coming: Non-cogs matter. This month it comes from Brookings and its Center on Children and Families. Entitled “The Character Factor” it establishes a pair of most important...

Related Webinar: Reading Your Elementary Level Score Report

Along with data/finance, assessment, and marketing, SSATB has prioritized leadership development as a core component of its professional development services. I’ve focused on the leadership...

A "prequel" to The Inaugural Directorship, this webinar highlights some of the key differences between a director and an associate director, between middle management and senior administration....

This webinar provides context around the recruitment and retention of high need families. In light of concerns over revenue and financial aid budgets, admissions offices are facing growing...

From The Yield, Fall 2014 Thanks to partnerships with Peter Frew, Director of Admissions at Taft School (CT), and Tom Sheppard, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at The Lawrenceville School...

 As we continue to see here on the Think Tank blog, there are an abundance of things we should consider assessing and measuring in our schools. One we haven’t previously addressed is one that...

By Lydia J. Hawkins, Director of Enrollment, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (Canada) From The Yield, Fall 2014 So you’ve decided to reconsider your database. Maybe you’re frustrated you can’t...

From The Yield, Fall 2014 Christina Drouin, President of the Center for Strategic Planning, works internationally to advise independent school trustees, heads, and leadership teams on building...

From The Yield, Fall 2014  Following our third annual call for nominations, The Enrollment Management Association’s Board of  Trustees selected four new members. “It is truly a testament to The...

Traditional assessment has many valuable purposes — and many significant limitations.

From The Yield, Fall 2014 Giving the SSAT successfully means more than just opening the door and watching the clock. What are the top test administrators doing to get it right? They benefit the...

Related Video: The Benefits of Boarding School

From The Yield, Fall 2014 Scott Stratten is the president of UnMarketing and was a keynote speaker at the 2014 The Enrollment Management Association Annual Meeting. Between being ranked one of...

From The Yield, Fall 2014 Private independent schools are allowed to operate because agreed upon standards govern the educational process. Accreditors work to build those standards so that all...

From The Yield, Fall 2014 Jerry Lucido is professor of research at the Rossier School of Education, and executive director of the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice, and...

From The Yield, Fall 2014  Admission as leadership has been a reoccurring theme for SSATB and the industry as a whole. As SSATB’s State of the Independent School Admission Industry Report...

From The Yield, Fall 2014 Our Panel: Janis Clark, Director of Admissions, Collingwood School (BC)Matthew S. Hoeniger, Assistant Headmaster/Director of Admission, Rumsey Hall School (CT)Jay...

From The Yield, Fall 2014  The Enrollment Management Association’s commitment to access is not only written in our statement of core values, but is demonstrated each and every day through our Fee...

 Creativity. Self Confidence. Perseverance. Empathy. Don’t call these attributes noncognitive, because, if you really think about it, “Noncognitive means dead,” says Roger Weissberg, a national...

Crafting an admission plan for the year is driven by two equally important factors - your gut and the facts. Start off by listing your gut feelings on how the past year went: What areas do you...

 We all go the extra mile to ensure that our financial aid students receive help with tuition (and room and board). But we also know that the cost of attending our schools exceeds these costs. At...

 During an April trip to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, California, SSATB’s Think Tank committee peered into the future of learning and assessment, which we know will be closely and powerfully...

Education journalist Paul Tough strikes again. Author of the much-talked about book, How Children Succeed, Tough has returned with an important feature in the recent New York Times magazine,...

Leadership is an essential ingredient for the success of any organization. Few would argue with that. What is also abundantly clear, but less frequently articulated, is that leadership is a...

From The Yield, Fall 2014  SSATB has long welcomed international schools as members, and this issue of The Yield shines a spotlight on two of them. An international school is most generally...

From The Yield, Spring 2014 Name of School: Lincoln School Enrollment: 350Type of school: Day — Nursery to Grade 12 Hilary Fagan ’87, Director of Admission — Prior to Lincoln, Hilary worked in a...

From The Yield, Spring 2014 One of the questions frequently heard by The Enrollment Management Association’s outreach team is: “Can you help me figure out the average SSAT scores for our school?“...

From The Yield, Spring 2014 The Enrollment Management Association’s Market Data Mine by EMA's Aimee Gruber I often visit member schools and meet with admission professionals. Depending on the...

Published in The Yield, Spring 2014 You see them when they come to tour. You send emails back and forth. You compose personalized letters, invite them to attend a class, or even to stay overnight...

From The Yield, Spring 2014 Tell us about yourself and your work experience prior to joining NAIS.I began my career as a teacher, and like many people who work in education, I’ll probably always...

by Lynn Friedman, Ph.D.From The Yield, Spring 2014 As the executive coach to the head of school of The Best Academy (TBA)*, I was privy to the head’s most confidential concerns. He was struggling...

From The Yield, Spring 2014 Name of School: St. George's School Enrollment: 1158Type of school: Day/Boarding – Grades 1 to 12 Gordon Allan, Director of Admissions — Has been involved in...

By Sharon Gaudreau, Director of Marketing and Communications, Pomfret SchoolFrom The Yield, Spring 2014 Think about your school’s external identity and the work you do to present and preserve it....

From The Yield, Spring 2014 With applications read and acceptances offered, admission offices turn their attention to the most critical phase in the process, enrollment yield. For many schools,...

From The Yield, Spring 2014 2013: The Year of the Family Webinar! How do I register for the SSAT? What if I need special accommodations? What do the numbers on my score report mean? This year,...

 For many schools, the vast majority of operating dollars come from tuition revenues, and this reality puts the focus squarely on the admission office at all times of the year. While there are...

From Memberanda, Spring 2013 The outreach team has logged many hours on the road, visiting with the admission and placement offices of our member schools. Our goal is to ensure that staff members...

With Aimee Gruber, The Enrollment Management Association and Alisa Evans, SSS by NAIS Create board reports that will make you look fabulous! The Enrollment Management Association’s Senior...