GoalQuest Inc. today announced the release of several research-based survey and analysis products designed to give colleges more insight into application and enrollment yield likelihood, institutional fit among prospect pools, undergraduate attrition and student mental health. Incorporated into the Web- and paper-based tools are a range of real-time reporting features that help colleges make critical business decisions and better allocate limited enrollment management and retention resources.

“It is becoming increasingly important for colleges to dynamically track students’ attitudes, opinions and likely courses of action during the application, yield and retention periods,” said Dr. Adam B. Troy, GoalQuest’s director of research. “In the first-year undergraduate window, for example, colleges no longer have the luxury of waiting and hoping that dissatisfied students learn to enjoy themselves and adjust. Our research is revealing significant variability in student distress within the first three months of college, and students are already making their decisions to stay or leave. Our goal is to be able to detect these students during this critical time so that our clients can intervene while students are still open to their guidance."

The company’s new products include:

Retention Index Inventory – Deployed three months into the first undergraduate year, this survey provides demographic/background information not obtained from applications; tracks student satisfaction in areas such as overall fit, academics and social interaction; and provides a retention score (Retention IQ™).

Application Propensity Inventory – Given to prospective college inquirers or applicants, this tool provides demographic/background information on students interested in a particular institution. It creates an Applicant Interest Profile for the school and each participant based on reported interests such as location, diversity, finances, academics, extracurricular/social life and religious affiliation.

Enrollment Yield Propensity Inventory – A screening tool deployed to admitted students, this survey reports demographic/background information and provides an enrollment probability quotient (Enrollment Yield IQ™) for each participant.

Institutional Research System Analysis – This service assists schools in analyzing the makeup of pre-enrollment populations (high school cold leads, inquirers and admits) to determine the predictors (demographic, psychographic, etc.) of application and enrollment conversion and other academic outcomes, such as GPA and retention.

Comprehensive Student Psychological Wellness Program – These campus-wide online mental health measures and tools address common psychological difficulties faced by college students, including depression, anxiety and eating pathology. Students then have the opportunity to register for online self-improvement modules that cover their specific problem area.

Each of these products supports the client institution with a live reporting center complete with automated alert functionality to notify administrators of key aggregate and individual trends, such as the trajectory of a group of desirable prospects, the satisfaction of a first semester freshman or the withdrawal plans of a group of commuting students.