How Changes in Admissions Ethical Rules Can Influence College Recruitment

Earlier this fall, in response to a Department of Justice investigation, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) voted to remove rules from its ethical code that, among other things, prohibited colleges from recruiting students who had already committed to another college and from recruiting as potential transfer students those who attend other institutions, unless the student first reaches out to that institution.

Today's Inside Higher Education has a blog post asking, "how can college and university marketing and communications offices help play a strategic role as we enter this new landscape?" In examining the implications of this rule change and what it means for college recruitment and planning, the blog post says: "colleges can offer special incentives for early decision, including promises of special housing, course selection or an enhanced financial aid package. Other colleges can continue to recruit your early-decision-deposited students well into the spring and summertime. Your current students can receive an email from a competitor that offers a transfer scholarship. All of the traditional rules that we have lived by in enrollment marketing are gone."

Read the full blog post here.