Leadership at Holy Cross College hypothesized that the greater the difference between student expectations about college and the student experience at Holy Cross College, the greater the attrition.  Similarly, they expected that the greater the difference between student perceptions of Holy Cross College and student perceptions about the experience at other colleges, the greater the attrition. With us, they tested these assumptions with over 50% of their freshman and sophomore students, and learned that they held true but only for unique segments of students, which had a significant impact on their planning.

In general, students did not differentiate much between Holy Cross College and other institutions (i.e. most factors fell into the Gray Zone, indicating an opportunity to build competitive advantage). The most important choice factors to students were 1) availability of desired academic majors, 2) ability to achieve good grades, and 3) opportunity to be involved with clubs and organizations.

Another surprise was that more than 50% of their freshmen and sophomores are working while going to school and a third are volunteering.

Analytics uncovered four different segments of students, which really illuminated the path to increasing engagement.

• The first segment was at higher risk of attrition due to associating academic factors more strongly with other schools.
• The second and third segments represented Holy Cross College’s core students – they were fully engaged and had positive perceptions of HCC.
• The fourth segment was disengaged and unlikely to return in the fall due to a poor fit with Holy Cross College.

In general, the student-reported retention intention was much higher than expected, which was excellent news. Those planning to transfer reported that academic related factors were higher in importance, and they associated those factors more with transfer schools.