5 Tips for Keeping Students Engaged Throughout the Admissions Process
In higher education, the enrollment funnel can feel like a battleground for institutions vying to convert interest into commitment.
Traditionally, the enrollment funnel has been viewed simply: attract, engage, and enroll. But the modern student’s journey is anything but straightforward — it’s a complex, winding path influenced by numerous digital touchpoints and personalized interactions.
The health of the enrollment funnel extends beyond mere numbers; it represents the institution’s ability to connect with prospective students through every phase of their decision-making process. With technology reshaping expectations and behaviors, colleges and universities must not only catch the eye of prospective students but also keep them engaged through multiple channels and strategies.
This article unpacks key elements of the enrollment and admissions funnel, offering actionable insights and innovative tips to capture and retain students’ attention from their first inquiry through their enrollment stages. As we explore these strategies, you’ll discover the vital role that continuous, tailored engagement plays in transforming interest into activity, setting the stage for a successful educational journey.
The Modern Student Journey
Today’s students embark on their educational journeys equipped with a wealth of information and digital tools at their fingertips, making their paths to enrollment more complex and multifaceted than ever before.
Complexities and Challenges
The student journey is far from linear. It involves numerous interactions across various platforms and touchpoints. Each student’s path is unique and influenced by personal, financial, and academic factors.
For instance, a modern student, such as a working professional returning to education or a parent seeking to balance family responsibilities with schooling, may have different priorities and use different resources compared to a younger, first-time college student.
Technology has diversified the ways students gather information, and also how they engage with institutions. Prospective students might start their journey by conducting a simple Google search, but they will also often visit social media platforms, participate in virtual campus tours, and attend online webinars before starting their application. During this time, they are continuously evaluating their options and being influenced by each interaction they have with a school’s digital presence.
Impact of Technology
The proliferation of digital platforms has dramatically altered the student journey, both for students and institutions, in ways such as the following:
Digital Touchpoints: Websites, social media platforms, online forums, and virtual tours provide initial impressions and ongoing engagement. Prospective students can interact with current students and faculty, view online classes, and even participate in community events, all from their devices.
Data-Driven Decisions: Students use data such as graduation rates, employment outcomes, and student and faculty testimonials to inform their choices. They expect personalized interactions and content that addresses their specific concerns and aspirations.
Engagement Analytics: Institutions now have the tools to track and analyze how prospective students interact with their digital content. This data is invaluable for refining marketing strategies and improving engagement tactics to ensure they meet the expectations and needs of prospective students.
Given these technological influences, it is essential for educational institutions to adapt their enrollment strategies to meet the changing behaviors and preferences of modern students. Integrating data analytics, enhancing digital communication channels, and providing personalized experiences are all critical to effectively engaging with prospective students throughout their decision-making journey.
Understanding the Enrollment Funnel
The enrollment and admissions funnel is a foundational concept in higher education marketing that illustrates the progressive stages a student navigates, from awareness through enrollment. The funnel is not just a theoretical model but a practical guide for shaping effective engagement strategies.
6 Stages of the Enrollment Funnel
The enrollment funnel can be divided into several key stages, each requiring specific strategies to move prospective students to the next step:
Awareness: This is the initial point where potential students first learn about an institution. Efforts here include broad-reaching advertising, social media presence, and participation in educational fairs. The goal is to cast a wide, though still strategic, net and garner interest from a diverse pool of students.
Interest: Once awareness is achieved, the focus shifts to nurturing interest and familiarity. This involves providing more detailed information about what the institution offers, such as programs, support services for online students, and financial aid options. Content marketing, informational webinars, and targeted emails play a significant role in this stage.
Consideration: At this juncture, prospective students are comparing their options. They might engage more deeply with admissions counselors, attend virtual or in-person campus tours, and participate in Q&A sessions. Personalized communication and reassurance about academic and social fit are crucial.
Intent: The intent stage is where decision-making becomes serious. Prospective students might discuss their choices with family, friends, colleagues, or advisors, conduct comparative research, and seriously evaluate financial aid details and options. Institutions should focus on direct engagements, such as personal calls, text messages, or engagement-driven content, to solidify their interest.
Application: The application stage is the formal step of submitting necessary documents and fulfilling admission requirements. Support through streamlined application processes, reminders, and help desks is vital to ease this phase for students.
Enrollment: The final stage, where accepted students confirm their attendance and complete registration. At this point, effective communication about orientation, class selection, and enrollment procedures can ease the transition and ensure that students feel welcomed, supported, and valued.
A deep understanding and effective management of the enrollment and admissions funnel is crucial for any educational institution aiming to increase its student body. Let’s see how it’s done.
How to Keep Students’ Attention Through the Enrollment Funnel
Maintaining the attention of prospective students throughout their educational journey is crucial for successful enrollment. Here are key strategies to keep students engaged from initial inquiry through enrollment:
1. Consistent Engagement Across Channels
Leverage multiple channels to engage with students to ensure your institution remains top of mind. Implement a mix of digital and traditional marketing strategies to reach students where they are most active, such as the following:
Digital Channels: Targeted social media ads, engaging video content, and informative blog posts
Traditional Channels: Direct mail, phone calls, and face-to-face interactions during campus visits
2. Personalization and Differentiation
Tailor your communications to meet the specific needs and interests of each prospective student, and utilize data from their interactions with your digital content to personalize messages. Strategies to achieve these goals include the following:
Segmented Email Campaigns: Customized emails based on the prospective student’s program of interest, engagement history, and stage in the funnel
Custom Content: Relevant information that addresses specific concerns or questions that may arise at different stages of their journey
3. Incentives and Urgency
Create a sense of urgency and motivation by offering incentives that encourage prospective students to take the next step:
Priority Deadlines: Upcoming application deadlines that can be highlighted to spur action
Exclusive Offers: Application fee waivers or access to special events for early applicants
4. Building Relationships
Foster a sense of community and belonging from the first interaction through forums such as the following:
Virtual Engagements: Live Q&A sessions with current students and faculty
Personal Outreach: Admissions counselors who reach out personally to high-interest candidates
5. Continuous Improvement
Regularly assess and refine your engagement strategies based on feedback and analytics tools and processes:
Feedback Loops: Surveys and feedback channels that gather insights from prospective students
Analytics Review: Regular analysis of engagement metrics to adjust strategies and improve outcomes
It’s Time to Build Out Your Enrollment Funnel
The landscape of higher education is competitive, but the enrollment funnel could be your institution’s edge. By engaging prospective students at every stage of their journey with tailored strategies and personalized communications, institutions can significantly enhance their enrollment rates. If you’re ready to elevate your enrollment marketing strategies, Archer Education is here to take you to the next level. Reach out to us, and let us help you create a robust enrollment funnel that not only attracts but also converts prospective students into committed learners.
John Van Fleet is the Chief Marketing Officer at Archer Education. With more than 20 years of experience in higher ed marketing, John has a continuous track record of successfully supporting institutional growth.
Attract and Retain the Right Students for Your Institution
Choosing a higher education program is often a defining moment in a person’s life. Whether it’s a teenager deciding on a traditional, on-ground undergraduate program, or someone in their late 30s selecting an online master’s program — it’s a big decision, and one that can be heavily influenced by the experiences they have with the institutions they’re considering.
Your students don’t just deserve a great experience, they expect it. Which is why identifying opportunities to enhance the student journey at your institution is essential.
In the competitive world of higher ed enrollment, the ability to attract and retain students goes beyond offering picturesque campus views or flexible online scheduling. It hinges on understanding and navigating the complexities of the process a student goes through, from their initial awareness of your program all the way through to their graduation, and identifying where students can get stuck, or worse, drop off.
When it comes to enhancing the student journey, I’m often asked, “Where is the best place to start?” To that end, this article dives into some of the most common areas for improvement. Focus on these areas and you’ll be on your way toward delivering a stand-out student experience.
This article explores:
Common bottlenecks institutions face at different stages of the student experience
Methods to identify the most important issues
Strategies for prioritizing improvements to maximize impact
Common Bottlenecks in the Student Journey
Institutions aiming to enhance the overall student experience need to understand where students tend to get stuck. By pinpointing these bottlenecks, your university can devise strategies that streamline the journey and boost student engagement and retention. Some common points of friction in the enrollment process include:
Top of the Funnel: Driving Awareness
Every student journey begins with awareness, but getting potential students to visit your institution’s website to gain awareness of its programs can be a stumbling block. Many universities face challenges due to poor audience targeting, ineffective creative strategies, or a lack of investment in organic channels like websites and content strategies.
If your awareness efforts are falling short, your potential students won’t land on your university’s digital doorstep. This means opportunities to engage and inform them go untapped, which sets the stage for a cascade of engagement issues downstream.
It’s called an enrollment funnel for a reason — if you don’t attract enough qualified traffic at the top, the bottom of your funnel will fall short of your goals.
Mid-Funnel: Generating Interest
Let’s say your awareness efforts are working, and your brand, story, and program marketing tactics are finding prospective students. Once these prospects are aware of your institution and have visited your site, the next challenge is to convert them into active inquirers. In other words, getting them interested enough to raise their hand by filling out a form, contacting an enrollment advisor, or even starting their application.
This stage often suffers from two main issues:
Attracting too broad of a range of individuals, including many who are unqualified or not aligned well with the institution’s programs or areas of specialization
A mismatch between what prospective students expect to find and what the website provides
If your paid ads told one story and your website tells a totally different one, it can be a turnoff for prospective students. If the content does not resonate with potential students’ academic aspirations, they are less likely to take the next step. If you’re not highlighting what makes an education at your institution truly unique or how it connects to your target audience, it’s likely that your content won’t resonate, even if you did identify the right audience.
Bottom of the Funnel: Growing Application Submissions
What’s every enrollment leader’s least favorite word? Melt. Even after marketing to the right audience and generating inquiries, there’s often a drop-off before the application stage — commonly known as the application melt.
This is a delicate phase, where bad strategy moves and overly clunky processes can cause big problems. This could include generic follow-up communications that fail to engage the interests of prospective students, a lack of personalized experiences that can make students feel valued, or insufficient time spent nurturing and managing these warm leads. Each of these factors can lead to a significant reduction in the number of completed applications.
Methods to Identify Student Experience Bottlenecks
Now that we’ve covered the most common bottlenecks, let’s talk about how to identify where these bottlenecks are showing up in your student experience. Once you identify them, you can target improvements effectively and efficiently. Methods to identify bottlenecks include:
Benchmarking
A powerful starting point for identifying pain points is benchmarking your institution’s performance against your peers or similar programs. Benchmarking involves a comprehensive comparison of your processes, outcomes, and student satisfaction levels to those of other institutions.
By evaluating where you stand in relation to your peers, you can identify specific areas where you lag behind. Benchmarking provides a clear, external perspective on your institution’s relative strengths and weaknesses, guiding you toward the most impactful areas for enhancement.
Leveraging Internal Data
Once you understand the external picture, you can dive in internally. Your internal data is an invaluable resource for tracking the effectiveness of changes in the student experience. By analyzing metrics such as enrollment rates, drop-off points, and student feedback before and after implementing changes, you can gauge their impact.
This approach helps you identify which efforts are helping the student experience and which aren’t, allowing you to make data-driven decisions. It also enables you to adapt your strategies dynamically, continuously improving the student journey as students’ needs continue to evolve.
Intuition and User Testing
As we all know, data alone isn’t enough. Intuition and direct feedback play a crucial role in creating the full picture of your student experience. Conducting user testing sessions in which potential or current students navigate your enrollment process can reveal obstacles that data might not capture. This can be as simple as a conversation or as intricate as a survey.
Additionally, personally walking through each stage of the student journey yourself can provide you with insights into the emotional and practical challenges prospective students face. Think of it as acting like a secret shopper — fill out an inquiry form and see what happens. This method helps you uncover hidden roadblocks that might not be evident from quantitative data alone, adding a human element to your analysis.
Fixing Bottlenecks With ICE Scoring
Now that you’ve got a list of bottlenecks to fix, you need a system to prioritize them. This next critical step ensures that you properly allocate your time and resources. The ICE scoring framework, which stands for impact, confidence, and effort, is a structured approach to evaluating potential fixes and deciding which ones to tackle first.
Impact
The first step, impact, involves evaluating how much a potential fix could enhance the student experience.
Fixes that address issues at the top of the funnel, such as increasing awareness and initial engagement, often get a high score because they can influence the largest number of prospective students. The more qualified prospective students you can get into your enrollment funnel, the more you’re likely to enroll.
By prioritizing high-impact fixes, you can see substantial improvements in overall student engagement and satisfaction.
Confidence
Confidence measures how certain your institution is about the effectiveness of a proposed fix. This assessment is based on evidence from user testing, adherence to best practices, personal experience, and insights from experts in the field.
For example, if you get a large volume of inquiries outside of business hours, you can give a high confidence score to an effort that would engage students at any hour, like Onward or a chatbot.
A high confidence score indicates a strong belief that the fix will achieve the desired outcome, reducing the risk associated with resource allocation. You are more likely to succeed when you base your decisions on robust, tested solutions.
Effort
The final component of the ICE framework is effort, which estimates the time, financial investment, and organizational energy required to implement a fix. This step also considers the level of internal buy-in necessary to move a project forward.
Effort scoring helps you understand the resource demands of each potential fix, allowing you to consider its feasibility against its expected benefits. Implementing a new learning management system (LMS) is a huge project that requires organization-wide input and execution. This equals a high effort score. Refreshing your creative assets? Much less effort.
Prioritizing fixes that require reasonable effort but offer significant impact can lead to more sustainable and effective improvements.
Implementation and Iteration in the Student Experience
Improving the student experience is not a one-time thing. It’s an ongoing process that demands continuous attention and optimization. As your institution implements changes, you’ll need to monitor the effects and iteratively refine your efforts based on the outcomes.
Monitoring Results
The first step after implementing any change is to closely monitor the results. Key performance indicators (KPIs), such as cost per lead, application melt, enrollment numbers, student retention rates, and satisfaction scores, are a gold mine. Continuous monitoring validates the effectiveness of new strategies and highlights areas that may require further attention.
Rinse and Repeat
Once the initial results are known, the next step is to apply the ICE framework again — this time to any new bottlenecks or existing issues that were deprioritized in earlier rounds. This iterative approach ensures that your resource allocation remains dynamic and responsive to the evolving needs of your students and your institution.
Ready to Improve Your Institution’s Student Experience?
At Archer Education, we understand the transformative power of full-funnel data visibility when you’re improving your student experience. Our commitment to transparency and knowledge sharing drives our partnerships with colleges and universities, helping higher ed leaders and marketers exceed their online learning growth and enrollment goals.
Our experienced team is adept at identifying and addressing the bottlenecks that can hinder student journeys, utilizing strategies like those outlined in this article to maximize impact. By applying the ICE framework, we help institutions prioritize and implement improvements that significantly enhance the student experience.
If you’re ready to transform your student journey and achieve remarkable outcomes, contact our team today, and explore how our offerings can bring your educational goals to fruition.
In partnership with Inside Higher Ed, Collegis surveyed 450 students to gauge the impact of higher education technology on both their learning experiences and opinions of the school. Higher ed leaders will want to read our report, “Tech Troubles: How Technology-Student Interactions Impact Retention,” to dive deeper into how technology environments can help (or hinder) the student journey.
Students raise high-stakes concerns
While our study indicates colleges and universities are succeeding in some aspects of technology usage (digital communications, for one), the results also exposed several areas where technology hurdles are damaging, or even disastrous, to the student experience:
Website application hurdles: A quarter of students report some level of difficulty.
No internet, no class? Technical issues cause distractions and lost class time, both on and off campus.
Retention at risk: Over 40% of students who experienced tech issues question whether to continue their education at the institution.
Plus! Included in the report are reactions to the findings from higher ed leaders. They share the top challenges their schools face in addressing the issues raised by students.
Download the report for summaries by topic, stand-out results from audience segments, charts that show the intensity of student sentiment, and recommendations for technology investments to improve student success.
Learning outcomes are descriptions of the abilities, skills and knowledge that are used for assessing student learning. Learning outcomes should outline what students possess and can demonstrate upon completion of a learning experience or set of experiences. When developing a list of student learning outcomes for educators to set as curriculum objectives to improve student learning, consider the following recommendations:
How to Build Student Learning Outcomes
Choose between 3-5 learning outcomes: You should choose a sufficient amount of learning outcomes to ensure student progress can be measured without becoming overly complicated for educators to assess. It is also worthwhile to point out that not all educational activities will assess all learning outcomes. Each educational activity can assess students’ development and comprehension focusing on 1-2 student learning objectives for each class. Less than 3 objectives likely mean that student learning objectives are not robust enough for an entire course.
Learning outcomes should be straightforward: The outcomes identified and described in your plan should be concise and simple. They should avoid complex phrasing or compound statements that mesh more than one statement together to communicate effectively. Each learning outcome should focus on the development of one skill or the meeting of one goal in order to be straightforward and ensure effective learning.
Learning outcomes should be expressed in the future tense: It is very important for the proper implementation of student learning outcomes that they are expressed in the future tense. The statement should express what an individual student should be able to do as the result of specific instruction or educational activity. Outcomes should involve active learning, and be observable so they can be quantified for examining key student success metrics through learning assessment. They should create and make use of information literacy skills.
Learning outcomes should be realistic: In order to ensure student learning outcomes are successful, they must be attainable for the students for whom they are designated. Outcomes need to be designed with students’ ability, their initial skill sets, cognitive development and the length of the institutional time frame (a week, a semester, etc) designated to attain these skill sets in mind. Further, they should also align with the material for teaching to students.
Learning outcomes should align with the curriculum: The learning outcomes developed should be consistent with the curriculum objectives within the program and discipline in which they are taught. This is especially important when interpreting assessment results to analyze where changes in instruction should be made. Curriculum mapping is one example of an effective way to ensure that chosen learning outcomes correspond to the designated curriculum. A curriculum map is a diagram that explains which learning outcomes are plotted against specific program courses. This helps ensure that learning goals are reached in a timely manner.
Methods of Constructing Learning Outcomes
Implementing taxonomies: Taxonomies of learning experiences and student outcomes can be useful outlines for developing thorough and insightful lists of student outcomes. Taxonomies classify and compartmentalize the different types of student learning. Taxonomies usually follow a structure that divides learning into three categories. The first is the cognitive domain, which has six levels, ranging from the simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, up to increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, followed by the highest order which is classified as evaluation. The second domain is the affective domain involves our feelings, emotions, and attitudes. This domain includes the ways in which humans deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasm, motivations, and attitudes. The final domain is the psychomotor domain, which focuses refers to the motor skills learners are expected to have acquired and mastered at each stage of development.
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) is one traditional framework for structuring learning outcomes. Levels of performance for Bloom’s cognitive domain include knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These categories are arranged in ascending order of cognitive complexity where evaluation represents the highest level. There are six steps within Bloom’s Taxonomy to achieve learning outcomes. The first step is knowledge, which focuses on knowing and remembering important facts, concepts, terms, principles or theories. The second step is comprehension, which focuses on the understanding of specific learning concepts or curriculum objectives. The third step is application, which focuses on skills and knowledge applications to solve problems. The fourth step is analysis, which focuses on identifying different structures and organizations of specific concepts or subjects, identifying relationships and different moving elements within an organization. The fifth step is synthesis, which focuses on the creation and integration of new ideas into a solution, in order to propose an action plan and potentially formulate a new classification scheme by using critical thinking. The sixth and final step in Bloom’s Taxonomy is evaluation, which judges the quality of knowledge more broadly or a specific learning concept based on its adequacy, use, value or logic.
Using power verbs: When constructing learning outcomes, it is important to make use of concrete action words that are able to describe and quantify specific action that is observable and measurable.
Using a Curriculum Map: Once learning outcomes have been developed and approved, making use of a curriculum map can help in viewing how the outcomes developed are being met in each course at an institution. A curriculum map is a straightforward way to visualize the ways in which an educator or institution can list learning outcomes in the rows and the program courses in the columns to demonstrate which courses contribute to each learning outcome. In each cell, letters can be placed to indicate how the course relates to the learning outcome. Use the letters “I,” “R,’ and “E” to identify which courses in the program “introduce”, “reinforce,” or “emphasize” the corresponding learning outcomes. By putting the curriculum maps into place, educators can watch for unnecessary redundancies, inconsistencies, misalignments, weaknesses, and gaps in their learning outcomes in order to optimize them for student success in their program review.
Measuring Student Learning Outcomes
Assessment of student learning outcomes: Assessment is a systematic and on-going way of collecting and interpreting information in order to analyze its effectiveness. The academic assessment process can also provide greater insight into how well learning outcomes relate and correspond to the goals and outcomes developed to support the institution’s mission and purpose. An ideal learning outcomes assessment process aims to answer the questions of what an institution is doing and how well it is doing it. Assessments begins with the expression of learning outcomes and course learning. The key to writing measurable outcomes involves describing the first three components: firstly analyzing the outcome, secondly, determining the method of assessment, Third, involves recognizing the criteria for success, as part of the student-centered assessment cycle.
Program and Performance outcomes: program and performance outcomes describe the goals of a program rather than focusing on what students should know, do or value at the end of a given time period. Program outcomes can be as one-dimensional and simple as a completion of a task or activity, although this is not as meaningful as it could be and does not provide the educator with enough information for improvement. To accomplish the latter, educators and department heads should try to assess the effectiveness of what a given program has set out to accomplish. Performance outcomes usually have quantitative targets and specific timelines.
I started this visualization to show how first-year classes at the highly rejective colleges had changed since COVID-19 forced them all to go to a test-optional approach for the Fall of 2021. But it sort of took on a life of its own after that, as big, beefy data sets often do.
The original point was to help discount the conventional wisdom, which is propped up by a limited, old study of a small set of colleges that showed test-optional policies didn’t affect diversity. I did this post last year, after just one year of data made it fairly clear they did at the institutions that had the luxury of selecting and shaping their class.
This year I took it a little farther. The views, using the tabs across the top, show the same trends (now going to 2022) for Public Land Grants, Public Flagships, the Ivy and Ivy+ Institutions. In each case, choose one using the control.
Note that I had colored the years by national trends: 2018 and 2019 are pre-test optional, gray is COVID, and blue is post-test optional. This is not to say that any individual college selected either required tests or went test-optional in those years, but rather shows the national trend. And remember these show enrolling students, not admitted students, which is why gray is critical; we know COVID changed a lot of plans, and thus 2020 may be an anomalous year.
The fourth view shows where students of any selected ethnicity enroll (again, use the dropdown box at the top to make a selection); the fifth view breaks out ethnicity by sector; and the final view allows you to look at diversity by sector and region (to avoid comparing diversity in Idaho, California, and Mississippi, for instance, three states with very different racial and ethnic makeups.)
On all views, hovering over a data point explains what you’re seeing.
If you work at a college or university, or for a private company that uses this data in your work, and want to support my time and effort, as well as software and web hosting costs, you can do that by buying me a coffee, here. Note that I won’t accept contributions from students, parents, or high school counselors, or from any company that wants to do business with my employer.
And, as always, let me know what jumps out at you here.
A new approach to freshman migration, which is always a popular post on Higher Ed Data Stories.
If you’re a regular reader, you can go right to the visualization and start interacting with it. And I can’t stress enough: You need to use the controls and click away to get the most from these visualizations.
If you’re new, this post focuses on one of the most interesting data elements in IPEDS: The geographic origins of first-year (freshman) students over time. My data set includes institutions in the 50 states and DC. It includes four-year public and four-year, private not-for-profits that participate in Title IV programs; and it includes traditional institutions using the Carnegie classification (Doctoral, Masters, Baccalaureate, and Special Focus Schools in business, engineering, and art/design.
Data from other institutions is noisy and often unreliable, or (in the case of colleges in Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and other territories, often shows close to 100% of enrollment from that territory.)
Instead of explaining how to interact with these views, I’ve put a text box on the view when appropriate. You won’t break anything by clicking; I promise.
If you use this in your business, I appreciate your support on Buy Me A Coffee to help with web hosting, software, computer, and labor costs. If you are a parent or a high school counselor, just scroll right to the views.
Yes, there are some data problems in every report using IPEDS data, so don’t make any strategic decisions based on what you see here (I corrected Harvard’s 2012 glitch of not reporting anyone from California but 220 students from Arkansas instead, and I see Kenyon 2022 is funky. I only report what’s in the data, folks.)
When PhD student, Cate Adamson finds an unknown painting in her university’s basement, she journeys to Spain to uncover the mystery. An impoverished duke, misogynist advisor, and intrigue in the archives. Attribution is the perfect gift for the academic in your life!
Linda Moore, author of Attribution, joins me in this featured interview. We talk about her book and how to get comfortable talking about your book too.
I’ve you’ve ever felt anxious about talking about your book, this is a great interview for you!
Start with this short video, that goes behind-the-scenes on women’s experiences in the academy. This video is fire, please share it with your friends.
Jennifer: Hello everyone, my name is Jennifer van Alstyne. And welcome to The Social Academic on YouTube. I’m here today with author Linda Moore we’re talking about her amazing book, Attribution, which is about a PhD student named Cate.
Linda, would you mind introducing yourself?
Linda: Hi, everyone. I’m Linda Moore. I spent more than a few years collecting degrees from various universities and I’m so excited to talk to people in the academic community.
Jennifer: Today we’re talking about your book, Attribution, which is on the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics. And I’ve put it on the Gift Guide because it is such a fun story. I think that you’re really going to relate to the protagonist Cate who is a PhD student in art history. Can you tell us a little bit about Cate?
Linda: Cate Adamson is a complex character, young, 23. She’s suffering from the challenges of the drowning death of her younger brother, only sibling, and her blue-collar parents who are back in Michigan. She had to drop out of her program at University of Michigan to do a lot of help around her family’s home. And then finally decided the only way that she could really help them was to move forward and prove to them that a daughter could have a future as well.
She goes off to New York and there she meets her nemesis faculty advisor who won’t approve any of her dissertation topics. And she is assigned to do the ugly job of inventorying the art in the basement of the university. She has found a hidden painting in an old chest that isn’t on the inventory list and decides that it could be a Golden Age masterpiece from about 400 years ago in the era of Philip IV in Spain.
During the holidays, she takes the canvas to Spain and looks for experts. And I’ll leave it there because I don’t want to give off any spoilers about where the book goes.
Jennifer: Cate’s journey is so much fun and her struggles as a graduate student I think are so relatable for the people that are on my blog who are going to read Attribution.
Jennifer: When it comes to Cate’s journey and her struggle as a grad student, she’s up against an advisor who isn’t appreciating the research that she is bringing to the table. And she wants to study women.
What is it about women artists that makes Cate’s journey so difficult?
Linda: Well, it’s interesting and shocking actually how little women have been highlighted in the history of art.
The famous Janson History of Art book that we were all assigned in history of Art 101 or even in High School AP History of Art it is still the go-to book. The initial edition had no women artist, none.
I mean we’re talking from cave art days of the Neanderthals to Contemporary Art. It didn’t have Georgia O’Keefe. It didn’t have Mary Cassatt. It didn’t have Frida Kahlo. It took until the 70s when the Women’s Movement was really coming more alive for Janson’s son, who did a rewrite of one of the editions, to begin adding women.
I thought, ‘Okay well that was 50 years ago.’ However, if you look at the collections…
The piece on the cover which is a nude by Velázquez held in The National Gallery of London. And I read that The National Gallery of London only had 15% of its collection was women artists.
Linda: And I’m shocked. And I thought, oh well, the Brits. You know, but honestly, The Met in New York has…are you ready? 7% of its collection are women artists.
Linda: Yes. And that’s with a lot of distinguished women being on the board and being in the curatorial staff. So I think there is now a resurgence of a movement to correct these things. And with that is coming a lot of women who are extraordinary like Artemisia Gentileschi who was the artist that we know a lot about because she was raped by her painting tutor in the 1500s in Italy. And that is all that trial was documented in the courts. So we have a lot of information. Many paintings of hers are now being reattributed to her because of the fact that you know people didn’t believe such good works could have been done by a woman so they would attribute them to some contemporary man. She has had numerous exhibitions there’s a lot of exciting work going on to try to rewrite the history of women in art.
Jennifer: I love that it sounds like it really inspired some of the circumstances in your book.
Jennifer: One thing that I really love is that I can tell your passion for art. Tell me a little bit about your background in art.
Linda: Well I am a political science major as an undergraduate with a minor in Spanish and anthropology. I really became excited about art when I went to Madrid with the education abroad program of the University of California. A wonderful program that has grown so much since I was in it and I continue to be a big supporter of that program.
I discovered art. My grandmother was a painter, but the kind of art I was able to see in Europe. To be able to study Spanish art in the Prado, Italian art in the Prado, and see the real paintings, not slides in the darkened lecture hall. I was just blown away, very excited.
I never stopped loving art. I spent some time in other careers, became a hospital administrator, did different things. And then decided that I really wanted to open an art gallery. I focused my art gallery on the art of the southern cone of South America, not something we see very much in California, or even in the United States.
I was inspired by that because I’d gotten my master’s degree from Stanford and Latin American studies with a specialization in politics. But I realized I could teach a lot more about Latin America and what was going on through the artist’s eyes from that part of the world. I can remember even the days where I had to bring a map of South America to the gallery and share with the staff where was Uruguay, even Argentina. I mean our knowledge of the geography of South America is quite bad.
Jennifer: I understand. I’m from Peru and people ask me where that is all the time.
Linda: Oh yeah, and politics of Peru right now…we could have a whole conversation about that.
Jennifer: Yes, absolutely.
Linda: But in any case I really enjoyed the way that art, and being involved with the artists, and understanding their world, their history, their current challenges…that art embodies all of it. And I enjoy that so much. I was always learning. Still, always learning all the time in so many areas.
Jennifer: Well, the first time we met was at an art show. You told me pretty immediately about Attribution. It was maybe the first time that an author had been so open and so generous with the creation that they had made. I loved it and I was so excited to read it.
I heard about Cate’s journey and I was like I’m gonna read that book. And Attribution really did touch me. You’re so comfortable talking about your book that when I saw you again at Warwick’s for your reading I was like ‘Oh my gosh, not only is she comfortable talking about her book in person, she’s letting people know that she’s sharing it on Instagram in Reels, on social media.’ That is difficult for so many people. It’s scary and anxiety provoking.
What’s it like to talk about your book?
Linda: Having been an art gallery owner, it was quite easy for me to talk about other people’s art. I’m for the first time talking about my own art, right? So there it is [Linda holds up the book]. I have it, you know, all over the place here. That’s marketing 101. Let people remember the name of the book, Attribution.
I finally had a talk with myself and I said, “Okay, if you were making the most fabulous chocolate chip cookies in the world. And people raved about them and told you how good they were, you would have no trouble at all saying, ‘Jen have some of my chocolate chip cookies they’re really really good.’ And that feels quite natural to say right?”
I convinced myself I worked really hard on this book for a long time, and I worked to make sure that backs were correct, that every single word was spelled right. I’m sure there are still a few errors but we sure made an effort. And the cover, everything about it. I felt it was a competent quality book, just like my chocolate chip cookies.
And I would say, “Please try my book, I think I’m offering you something you’ll enjoy, something I’m proud of.” And I always end with saying, “Let me know what you think, because I am interested to hear from readers.” And hopefully the next book will be even better.
But I can’t say that there aren’t moments when I think the other person must be thinking, “Oh my god, there she goes about that book again.”
[Jennifer laughs.]
Linda: So I try to at least moderate a bit who my audience is and hold back so I don’t end up losing all my invitations.
[Jennifer laughs:] Oh, thank you for saying that too. Because you know, I think people are anxious about having that reaction. And you’re someone who’s doing this quite often. You are talking about your book. You are being open about it. And people aren’t snubbing you. People aren’t like, “Oh my gosh, there’s Linda, let me run the other way.” No.
They’re talking about your book. They’re at your readings. They’re helping share it with their friends. And I think that that is something that the power of connection can really create.
I just want to share some comments with you from the live chat: “Have some of my chocolate chip cookies, yes, I love it.”
Attribution is on the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics. We do recommend that you buy it for yourself, buy another copy for a friend. Honestly, I loved reading this book. So I highly recommend it.
Linda: Well it is easy to talk about something that you personally enjoyed.
Inviting conversation about your book
Linda: I love really to hear other people talk about [the book], which you can only make that happen by first talking about it yourself.
I went to quite a few little presentations about marketing books. And you know this whole world was all new learning for me. I learned that in spite of all the social media, and all the things, which I know Jen you’re very dedicated to it. And I too am. Is that still, word of mouth is that big source of how people find their way to a book.
But how do you get word of mouth going? I mean you can only know the hundred people on my Christmas card list, right? That’s easy to get to. All that you know my relatives, and their neighbors. And you know but ultimately your circle kind of starts to slow down because we can only all know so many people personally. To begin to reach beyond that does mean to keep the conversation going.
I do think of it like a conversation instead of a sales pitch, because you know for some people my book is not right. It’s not their thing. And I’ve spent more than a few sessions in Barnes and Nobles and other bookstores, and the first question I ask people is, “Do you read novels?”
And if they say, “No, actually I read biographies of sports figures,” I go okay. And then I might convert to a conversation of who their favorite team of this or that is, because I don’t think they’re probably going to be a reader for my book. But sometimes, and I used to say this in the gallery, “If you can’t make a sale, make a friend.” So, I try to make a friend. Then I might find out that his sister would really enjoy the book, but maybe he wouldn’t.
Jennifer: Exactly.
Linda: Word of mouth is ultimately there, but it all begins with putting yourself out there in a variety of ways, including social media. And physically showing up, and being willing to to raise your flag and say, “Hey, I’m an author.”
Jennifer: Tell me a little bit more about social media. I know that you’re on Instagram and Facebook. Tell me about why you decided to join social media.
Linda: I was already on social media, mostly Facebook, a little bit Instagram. I had a Twitter account which now…
No one look for me on Twitter because, “I’m sorry Elon, I am not a friend or a fan in any way.”
I don’t want to be part of something that, I don’t know if I even have a word for it but it certainly isn’t a dialogue with people. And it’s not it’s not my world.
I will say Facebook we love to love it and hate it all at the same time. I know a lot of people have left, but I initially got on there and was traveling a lot before COVID over the last 10 years.
Facebook is such a great way to share with people: here’s where I am, here’s you know what I’m looking at this morning in some beautiful place. And a reminder of all these people’s birthdays and things I would never in a million years remember that. Just to reach out to friends. It takes so little effort to do it, that I really do appreciate it.
I have found great joy and looking at my friend’s grandkids photos and where they’re traveling. And learning about what they’re reading, sometimes I find my way to really interesting stories.
Since I’ve been writing stories on my Linda Moore Author page, and Facebook, and Instagram, about these women artists who’ve been forgotten. I post pictures of paintings that are in the book. And also photos of places in the book. But it leads to a lot of interesting conversations. Especially during COVID, when we were also isolated. It was really nice to connect with people in a safe way. And that continues.
I have met just such amazing people. It blows me away when I get a note from New Zealand or somewhere that someone’s read the book. Now how could that happen any other way?
Instagram, the Reels, was not my world. But I will tell you, my daughter-in-law, who had 25,000 followers for, are you ready? For the dog. His name is Ravioli, if you want to be his friend. My daughter-in-law encouraged me to do Reels. And I have had some fun with it. I mean the ones of me doing exercise, which you know gets a lot of attention mostly because I’m so not fit it seems to be a hit.
Linda: It gets attention because they’re so sweet. I went home immediately after your reading when you mentioned your Reel to Eye of the Tiger. I watched it and I was like this should be viral! Everyone should see this Reel, it’s amazing. I loved it.
Linda: Oh good, put it out there, Jen. But it does allow you to share a different dimension of yourself. And it could be you hitting a golf ball and missing five times, I don’t know. But it’s just a way to show that you have many layers.
People suffer from stereotypes of lawyers, and doctors, and professors. And I think that an opportunity to show you with that pet that you love, or with the house you’re trying to renovate, or you know whatever else is going on in your life. Because it makes you relatable as a person, as a human being. Even if you’re teaching students, to share that dimension of yourself I think is a really wonderful way to connect with the world.
Jennifer: Thank you for sharing that. Just from the live comments, Dr. Jennifer Polk says, “I appreciate Linda sharing about having fun taking risks on social media. I’ve not done that so much. Reels scare me.” I think that’s true for so many people.
What was it like asking for some help with Instagram? Your daughter-in-law is helping you with those Reels. Most people are anxious to ask for help or guidance in any way. What was that experience like for you?
Linda: Well, I would say in general about everything in your life, nobody knows everything. So asking for help is a very human quality whether it’s you know making those chocolate chip cookies, or ending up trying to figure out how the heck do I do a Reel? And my daughter-in-law will tell you that I am not a good student of Instagram.
I’m still trying to figure it out. I had not wanted to ask her because I knew she was really good at it. And just like you were saying, I was reluctant because it seems like an imposition. But she came to me. We struck a deal where she wanted some of my airline miles that had piled up when I went nowhere during COVID, to go to a friend’s wedding. I traded her miles for making me Reels.
Jennifer: I love it.
Linda: Then she decided she wanted to go with me on some of these book tours to Seattle, and other places. It was really fun to have her along, and be partners in this. She was doing some of the filming so I learned more of her artistic approach to production of these things.
Now I do a few little videos of my own and I’ll send them to her. You can take a look at those. I don’t think they’re Academy Award-quality, frankly. She does a great job especially. The ones I do are not nearly as good…She’s taught me a lot.
But you know what? There’s a lot out there where you can learn. You can just Google it. You don’t have to necessarily put yourself in front of people. But for people who are close to young people, to make a friend and maybe offer something in order to get some help. I think that young people are very happy to help.
The guy who cuts my hair taught me how to do the first Reel I ever did.
Jennifer: Really?
Linda: Yeah, it’s on there. You can see him, he’s trying to do my hair and he says behind me, I’m filming right? And he says behind me, “Oh, we’re gonna need a miracle here.”
And I go, “Oh no!” It’s so simple really. All I had to do was hold the camera.
I think that it’s also great to connect with young people. I envy faculty and others who have the opportunity to be around young people as they get older. And to understand their world and make yourself vulnerable to be the one that’s the student and they’re the teacher and change roles. I think that’s healthy. If that’s a motivator of why you might want to do this to understand their world better. I think that’s maybe an easy call.
Jennifer: Attribution is such a fun read. I encourage you to pick up a copy of Attribution by author Linda Moore. It’s on the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics because it’s about a PhD student named Cate who really has a journey to find herself, to find her power, to find what she wants for the world. I just loved this book and I know that you are going to love it too.
Jennifer: Linda, tell me have you had any struggles or anxieties yourself about marketing the book? I mean it sounds like Instagram was something that was new to you but it sounds like you really approached it with some fun. Was there something that you did struggle with though?
Linda: Well I think like this kind of thing, Jennifer, doing podcasts and radio interviews are even more difficult. Because I’m a visual person. An interview is kind of almost more anxiety.
Jennifer: Oh, that’s interesting.
Linda: Now I’ve sort of been through the trial by fire learning method. I have learned a few things. Number one, don’t be boring. That goes for Instagram and Facebook and all of that.
Try to find something interesting. If you’re not educating, then entertain, or both. Both is best, where people can learn something but it’s also extremely entertaining and enjoyable. Because no one goes there because they have to. I think that most important to just be yourself. Like you’re sitting with a conversation and try to just like we’re having coffee, Jen. And not worry.
I was on a panel recently at a bookstore Book Passage in the Bay Area. The moderator had sent us some questions ahead, like we might have questions like this. But I’ve done enough of these to know that nothing ever goes like the plan, right? So you have to be flexible.
There was another panelist, this is a super Highly Educated person, and she had written out all the answers to her questions. She was ready to read them like it was a lecture or presentation. I explained to her that I thought it would not necessarily go that way. She couldn’t depend on her answers. I could see that was a real change in her thinking. Because in the moment, she would be frustrated that she wasn’t getting through the assignment, right? But there is no assignment. It’s a conversation that needs to be very flexible if it’s going to be real and authentic.
Jennifer: So being adaptable. And it sounds like you can prepare, but you can’t prepare for everything. And being able to have that conversation and be interested in the spontaneity that the conversation might go in is really important.
Jennifer: Well thank you Linda, so much for coming on and telling us more about what your approach to book marketing is. And how you really are connecting with people, individual people, to help share your book. I think that it makes such a difference.
I could see the passion of the people who were in your audience at Warwick’s book shop here in Southern California. They were really interested not only in what you were saying, but why you were saying it. I think that your story and Cate’s story in Attribution, which is again on the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics, pick up a copy…is so interesting. It’s something that people find memorable.
Linda: Thank you, Jen. Also let me say to those reading, you can reach me on my website. And please, email me. I answer all the emails. If you have a particular question or something that we didn’t touch on that would interest you, I’m very happy to hear from you by email.
Jennifer: Thank you so much for reading! Linda, thank you so much for joining me.
Our last interview of the year goes live next week. Don’t miss it.
Linda Moore is an author, traveler, and a recovering gallery owner. She studied art history at the Prado while a student at the University of Madrid and earned degrees from the University of California and Stanford. Her gallery featured contemporary artists and she has published award-winning exhibition catalogs. Her writing has appeared in art journals and anthologies. She has looked at art on all continents and visited over 100 countries She resides with her book-collecting husband in California. Her debut novel Attribution about an art historian who finds a hidden masterpiece, is available wherever books are sold.
With the Comprehensive Spending Review due next Wednesday, I thought it might be worth making some general points about student loans (in anticipation of potential changes to repayment thresholds and other parameters).
I do not think student loans are a good vehicle for redistributive measures.
As I told a couple of parliamentary committees in 2017, the current redistributive aspects are an accidental function of the decision to lower the financial reporting discount rate for student loans from RPI plus 2.2 percent to RPI plus 0.7. Such a downwards revision elevates the value of future cash repayments and in this case it meant that the payments projected to be received from higher earners began to exceed the value of the initial cash outlay.
The caveat here: in the eyes of government. That is the government’s discount rate, not necessarily yours. One of the reasons I favour zero real interest rates over other options is that it simplifies considerations of the future value of payments made from the individual borrower’s perspective.
Originally, student loans were proposed as a way to eliminate a middle class subsidy – free tuition – and have now become embedded as a way to fund mass, but not universal, provision.
I believe that if you are concerned about redistribution, then it is best to concentrate on the broader tax system, rather than focusing solely on the progressivity or otherwise of student loans. You can see from the original designs for the 2012 changes that the idea of the higher interest rates were meant to make the loan scheme mimic a proportionate graduate tax and eliminate the interest rate subsidy enjoyed by higher earners on older loans. The original choice of “post-2012” student loan interest rates of RPI + 0 to 3 percentage points was meant to match roughly the old discount rate of RPI plus 2.2%. Again, see my submission to the Treasury select committee for more detail.
I will just set out a few illustrative examples here as to why some of the debates about fairness in relation to repayment terms need a broader lens.
It is often observed that two graduates on the same salaries are left with different disposable incomes, if one has benefited from their parents, say, paying their tuition fees and costs of living during study so that they don’t lose 9 per cent of their salary over the repayment threshold (just under £20,000 per year for pre-2012 loans; just over £27,000 for post-2012 loans).
That’s clearly the case.
But the parents had to pay c. £50,000 upfront to gain that benefit for their child. And it is by no means certain that option is the best use of such available money. Only a minority of borrowers go on to repay the equivalent of what they borrowed using the government’s discount rate, and as an individual you should probably have a higher discount rate than the government. You also forego the built-in death and disability insurance in student loans.
Payment upfront is therefore a gamble, one where the odds differ markedly for men and women. (See analyses by London Economics and Institute for Fiscal Affairs for the breakdowns on the different percentages of men and women who do pay the equivalent of more than they borrowed.)
If a family has the £50,000 spare (certainly don’t borrow it from elsewhere), then the following options are likely more sensible:
pledge to cover your child’s rent until the £50,000 runs out: this allows student to avoid taking on excessive paid work during study and will boost their disposable income afterwards;
provide the £50,000 as a deposit towards a house purchase;
even put the £50,000 in a pot to cover the student loan repayments as they arise;
etc.
In two of those cases, you’ll have a useful contingency fund too.
All strike me as better options than eschewing the government-subsidised loan scheme.
Moreover, those three options remain in the event of a graduate tax or the abolition of tuition fees.
That fundamental unfairness – family wealth – isn’t addressed by changing the HE funding system. (I write as someone who helped craft the HE pledges in Labour’s 2015 and 2017 manifestos).
In many ways, the government prefers people to pay upfront because it reduces the immediate cash demand. From that perspective, upfront payment works as a form of voluntary wealth taxation (at least in the short-run). Arguably, those who pay upfront have been taxed at the beginning and are gambling on outcomes that mean that future “rebates” exceed the original payment for their children.
Perhaps this line of reasoning opens up debates about means-testing fees and emphasises the need to restore maintenance grants … but really it points to harder problems regarding the taxation of intergenerational transfers and disposable wealth.
I am not a certified financial advisor so comments above are simply my opinions. You should not base investment decisions on them.
Well, the name seems to mislead people into thinking that the provider of student finance is a private institution, potentially making profit out of students, when it is in fact publicly owned.
There are 20 shares in the SLC: 17 are owned by the Department for Education (which has responsibility for English-domiciled students) and another three, each of those owned by one of the devolved administrations.
When you want to see what’s going on with student loans you look at government accounts: national, departmental or those of devolved administrations.
OK. So what’s the point of mentioning this factoid?
I believe that the misunderstanding about the publicly-owned nature of the SLC contributes to thinking that leads to other confusions, such as those surrounding function of the interest rate in student loans and what the effect of reducing them would be.
Let’s leave aside the misunderstandings about the recent ONS accounting changes and concentrate on the claim that reducing interest rates would “address the size of the debt owed itself”.
The government is looking to reduce public debt, but lowering interest rates would only do this in the long-run, if the loan balances eventually written off were written off by making a payment to a private company to clear those balances.
There is probably another confusion here regarding the Janus-faced nature of student debt: it is an asset for government (it is owed to government) and a liability for borrowers. The outstanding balances on borrowers’ accounts are not the same as the associated government debt.
When the government thinks about public debt in relation to student loans, it is thinking about the borrowing it had to take on in order to create the student loans.
Imagine that I borrow £10 in the bond markets to lend you £10 for your studies: I have a debt to the markets and an asset, what you owe me. The interest on the former and the latter are not the same and the terms of repayment on the latter are income-contingent so I don’t expect to get sufficient repayments back from you to cover my debt to the markets.
Student loans are not self-sustaining. It requires a public subsidy – any announcements about loans in the spending review at the end of the month will be about how much subsidy the government is prepared to offer.
Economic & Fiscal Outlook, Office for Budgetary Responsibility (March 2021), adapted from Tables 3.14 & 3.26
I have constructed the table above from forecasts for Total Managed Expenditure and Financial Transactions taken from the Office for Budgetary Responsibility’s latest publication (it accompanied Wednesday’s Budget).
It shows how newly issued student loans are now split into two components for the purposes of presentation in the National Accounts. The portion of loans that are expected to be repaid are classed as “financial transactions”, while the portion expected to be written off is recorded as capital expenditure. The latter scores in “public sector investment”, which was adopted as a new fiscal target prior to the pandemic (net investment cannot exceed 3% of national income), though the rules are currently under review.
We can see that student loan outlay is expected to reach £20billion in the year to March 2021, rising to £23.6billion in five years’ time. The majority of new outlay is now expected to be written off and that share rises over the forecast period. By 2025/26 repayments on all existing loans are projected to re000000000000000ach nearly £5billion per year. (This figure has improved since the sale programme for post-2012 loans was abandoned, since the treasury now gets the receipts that would have gone to private purchasers).
As mentioned in recent posts on here, the Department for Education only currently has an allocation of £4billion to cover the capital transfer / grant element of new loans and so it has to be granted large additional budgetary supplements each year. This situation has dragged on as the planned spending review has been postponed. We can now expect developments in the Autumn.
