A new report highlights the tight rope community colleges walk when it comes to onboarding students before they even begin classes, with more than half of them nearly quitting because of various obstacles, such as slow responses and uncertainty about career goals. It also observes that staff are often stretched thin in meeting students’ expectations.
Education consultant EAB surveyed 1,000 community college students to gauge what they see as obstacles during onboarding. Faster replies to inquiries and more effective onboarding were key factors for students. Fifty-six percent of polled students indicated they nearly quit before classes began, citing a mix of financial strain, confusion and a lack of personal connection.
About a quarter (24%) of participating students said they were frustrated by the enrollment process itself, and another 24% noted uncertainty about choosing a major as a barrier. Concerns about how to pay for college (19%) and personal responsibilities, such as work or family obligations (23%) and mental health (21%), were also reported as hurdles. Nearly 18% said they simply didn’t feel like they would belong in college at all.
“These numbers make it clear that every step of the onboarding journey must be as simple, supportive, and responsive as possible,” the report says. “If colleges want to keep students from slipping away, they must address these stress points with clear guidance, proactive outreach, and tools that make help feel immediate and personal.”
Quicker responses, tighter connections
A closer look at the answers highlights common disconnects between students and colleges, in particular, with student services staff. When students were asked how long it took to hear back when they first requested information, more than a third of students (35%) said they received a response within three days, but 27% waited over a week, and 7% said they never heard back at all.
Yet when asked how quickly they anticipated a college to reply if they had a question about the enrollment process, the expectations were far more immediate: 17% said they expected a response immediately, 27% wanted one within a few hours and 29% expected an answer within 24 hours. Altogether, nearly three-quarters of students (73%) expected a response within a day — far faster than what many colleges are delivering, the report says.
Another challenge for new students is selecting career goals and related courses. Many new community college students are unsure about what to study or how it connects to their career goals, and they want more help determining it during onboarding, the report says. Nearly one in four students (24%) who considered not enrolling said they didn’t know what they wanted as a major, and 23% named choosing a program or major as one of the most confusing parts of the enrollment process, the report says. About one in five students (21%) also felt they didn’t get enough support when selecting a major or talking through their career goals.
Staff capacity (and product pitch)
The report notes that staff capacity is often a challenge for colleges in serving students. It cites increases in applications and queries to community colleges, increases in expectations for personalization and speed, institutional uncertainty (concerns about the future of higher education, shrinking state funding resources and high turnover of executive leadership) and reported widespread staff fatigue.
“These problems persist because staff are stretched too thin, juggling manual tasks and fragmented workflows that leave little time for the personal engagement many students need,” it says.
The report pitches various EAB tools to help reduce some tasks for staff so they can focus more on connecting with students, and highlights its products in a few case studies. For example, Central Virginia Community College (CVC) uses EAB’s Navigate360 to transform how they track prospects and current students, conduct outreach, manage onboarding and support progress toward completion.
As a result, CVCC achieved a 56% yield from inquiry to application, a 30% yield from inquiry to enrollment and generated $8.8 million in tuition revenue from 1,680 enrolled students in the first two years, according to the report.
