Case Study: For-Profit Education Provider Identifies Students At-Risk of Dropping Out

Client: A national leading for-profit provider of higher education.

Problem: Reduce the number of students dropping out by identifying the various groups of students most likely to do so, and the factors influencing each group.

Solution: Identified key segments in the student population and modeled their information to identify students who were most likely to become graduates vs. those likely to drop-out.

The factors that predicted which students were at risk of dropping out were identified and analyzed. Targeted programs were developed to enhance the likelihood of student success by focusing on those factors that could be addressed through intervention. The models permitted targeting of these intervention programs to at risk students.

Results: This information led to major wins for the client in four areas:

• Acquisition efforts have been adjusted to target students who are likely to succeed.

• Admission practices have also been changed to remove obstacles that created higher risk and to maximize student success.

• Retention has been enhanced by providing support to at risk applicants, which has also resulted in improved ROI on acquisition dollars expended.

• Intervention programs have been put in place to assist current students who are identified as at risk, prior to their dropping out.