.png){kind=small}
College Background
Since 2022, Adrian College has been ranked as one of the 'Most Innovative Schools' by U.S. News & World Report. This recognition is driven by a leadership team at Adrian College that has spent decades preserving the best parts of the traditional higher education experience, while also striving to fix the currently broken business model that is forcing so many colleges to close. By “saying yes” to a partnership with Rize 4 years ago, Adrian College has launched 27 majors, 13 minors and 8 certificates in Business, Technology, Engineering and Healthcare.
Since 2022, Adrian College has been ranked as one of the 'Most Innovative Schools' by U.S. News & World Report. This recognition is driven by a leadership team at Adrian College that has spent decades preserving the best parts of the traditional higher education experience, while also striving to fix the currently broken business model that is forcing so many colleges to close. As President Jeffrey Docking shares:
"This four-year experience can be absolutely transformative. Not only inside the classroom, where students learn the skills they need to become better professionals, but also outside the classroom, by surrounding them with peers and professors who truly believe that education is the path to a better life. Anything we can do to enhance that amazing, transformative experience is what motivates me."
VP of Enrollment, Dr. Frank Hribar, adds,“Here at Adrian, we believe that educating the heart is a critical complement to educating the mind. By providing our students with a myriad of opportunities in areas they may not have even conceptualized before arriving here, we help them find their spark and stoke the fire of their passion and motivation. That's the be-all, end-all for us. If we can achieve this for our students, then we have fulfilled our mission for those who enroll and ultimately graduate from Adrian College.”
And yet, particularly post COVID, small private institutions are facing significant enrollment challenges. An EAB analysis of federal enrollment data predicts that by 2030, approximately 449 colleges are expected to see a 25% decline in enrollment, and 182 colleges could face a 50% decline (The Hechinger Report) (University Herald). These statistics underscore the clear and urgent need for small private colleges to innovate and adapt in order to sustain their operations and continue providing high-quality education to students.
President Docking: “We can pretend that enrollment isn't the issue, but it is the issue for most small, private schools. There is much to love at these colleges; more often than not they have wonderful professors who teach in beautiful buildings accented with ivy, brick, and stone. They have rich histories with great traditions, donors, alumni, and athletic teams – all attributes that combine to create a unique American college experience. However, big problems exist just beneath the surface, problems not immediately visible to the occasional visitor. And the largest of these problems are the lack of majors that students have available to study, popular majors that students want because they lead to high-paying jobs, especially in the areas of technology, healthcare, and business. As a result, we lose the enrollment we could have if we offered those majors.”
Dr. Hribar empathizes, “Times are extremely tough, especially for my peers on the enrollment side of higher education and particularly at private institutions.”
In light of these challenges, President Docking responds, “what I've learned is this: if the President of the college says yes to a big, innovative idea, others at every level are also emboldened to be innovative in their own way. Knowing this is a place that embraces innovation, it gives people permission to fail. Whenever people come to me with innovative ideas, I always say ‘it's great to try new things and succeed. It's also okay to try new things and fail.’ And if we fail, we'll high-five and say we gave it a shot. But it's not okay not to try new things.
By “saying yes” to a partnership with Rize 4 years ago, Adrian College has launched 27 majors, 13 minors and 8 certificates in Business, Technology, Engineering and Healthcare. Perhaps more important than the total number of programs, Adrian has developed an efficient and effective process to add new offerings every single year. From Computer Science to Engineering to Nutrition and most recently, Artificial Intelligence, Adrian’s calling card, emblazoned on their website, is a “Culture of Innovation.” In campus communications and on visit days, students are reminded that Adrian is on the cutting edge and constantly evolving to prepare its students to be future leaders in any field.
As President Docking notes, “It is very difficult for a college to start even one or two new majors over several years because it can cost millions of dollars and can be a very heavy lift, requiring you to hire people, write curriculum, and promote these new programs.” By embracing collaboration, Adrian’s academic portfolio has not only broadened, it is increasingly nimble, market-responsive and aligned to shifting student demand.
Dr. Andrea Milner, Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs, shares, “we've been able to increase our academic offerings by 70% in the last five years, providing far more options to both incoming and current students. We've achieved this, in part, at a lower cost with Rize and the Lower Cost Model Consortium. It’s been a game changer for Adrian College.”
Even more exciting to President Docking is how the faculty on Adrian’s campus have embraced innovation alongside Rize. After growing the Computer Science program over the last few years, Adrian has hired additional Computer Science faculty who recently proposed a new master’s program - and potentially Adrian’s first ever doctoral program. These professors also supported Adrian’s roll out of new robotics scholarships to attract students in STEM.
With the typical teaching, mentorship and research load of an instructor at a small college, staying ahead can be a challenge. However, by embracing collaboration as leverage and as a multiplier on their time, these instructors have executed on new, unanticipated, and needed efforts to grow enrollment in STEM.
By more than doubling their program offerings, Adrian experienced a significant lift in their recruitment efforts. Dr. Hribar shares, “Roughly 20 percent of our 2024/2025 incoming class selected a Rize major on their college application. In particular, Adrian has become much more competitive with STEM students, especially those interested in areas like engineering, computer science and cybersecurity.”
Dr. Milner adds, “In regards to our enrollment growth, compared to many peer colleges, Adrian College continues to outperform, especially since the integration of the Rize programs. We feel that the proof is in the pudding, and the integration of Rize programs have kept us in 'the black,' financially stable, above the competition, and out of the headlines of struggling colleges. This collaboration with Rize is clearly helping us grow our enrollment.”
The enrollment comparison shows just how impressive Adrian’s enrollment performance has been. Michigan is commonly cited as one of the most challenging environments for small private colleges given demographic shifts. According to Bridge Michigan, since 2019, “only Alaska and Mississippi reported bigger drop-offs in college-going levels than Michigan.” In fact, enrollment at many private Michigan colleges has declined 16% since the 2018/2019 Academic Year, while Adrian has maintained its enrollment. Based on Adrian’s current average revenue per student, bucking the statewide trend means Adrian has preserved $6mm more revenue than would be expected.
In addition to recruiting new students, offering over two-dozen new majors has been instrumental in helping Adrian achieve its goal of retaining more students. Dr. Hribar states, “we've had record retention the last two years. This is another place where Rize really supports our structure and our enrollment.” Dr. Milner adds:
"In the past, when students withdrew, we did our best to interview them and get some data to understand why. From the data that we are able to extract, a lot of students were leaving because they had changed their idea about what they wanted to major in, and we didn't offer it. Now we have a much wider array of academic offerings, which has been a game-changer for us because we can provide what students tell us they want when they are considering transferring to another institution."
In fact, data from Adrian shows that students switching into Rize majors, a key means of supporting retention, has increased 23% year-over-year.
For 80% of the 20,000 people surveyed in the most recent Strada-Gallup Education Survey, qualifying for a good job was an extremely important factor in deciding to pursue higher levels of education. Adrian College recognizes that the key to long-term enrollment growth is premium student experiences that provide students with a clear return on their investment. Dr. Milner remarks, “students want a high-quality education with experts teaching and providing them with those top educational experiences. Premium student experiences are our highest priority. The whole point of our collaboration with Rize is the return on investment for the student and the high-quality of their experience.”
Lori, a 2023 Adrian graduate, shares how her project-based Rize experience prepared her well for her internships and current post-graduate role: “For my final Certified Financial Planning (CFP) course, I had to create an entire financial plan for a hypothetical client. It was a huge project because it challenged us to take information from all of the different modules and combine them into this one portfolio. That was definitely an eye opening experience, and it prepared me for my internship at Morgan Stanley because I was helping to create their clients’ risk management portfolios.”
Though the launch of so many new offerings in a few short years is impressive on its own, Adrian knows that an accompanying enrollment strategy is critical to optimizing growth. One of the most valuable components of the Rize partnership has been the Enrollment Consulting and Enrollment Marketing services Rize provides. Rize collaborates with all partners on enrollment launch strategies and engages in regular data reviews to assess performance compared to targets. Rize also provides all partners with access to a content library that includes programmatic marketing materials that can be deployed across web pages, email campaigns, social media posts, and blogs.
Data-informed strategy and content are key components of a successful enrollment plan, but another key component is having a dedicated employee accountable to enrollment goals. This is a role that Dr. Jake Docking, Dean of Retention and Enrollment Services, has stepped into and excelled at.
In a recent article Jake shares some of his strategies and results as an owner of leveraging the Rize partnership to drive results,
"For Fall 2022, Adrian received 51 enrollment deposits from students interested in the new academic programs. During the 2022-23 recruitment cycle, we implemented five tactics targeted toward increasing enrollments in new programs and saw deposits rise to approximately 100 in Fall 2023 – a 2x increase over the prior year."
The number for Fall 2024 is currently projected at ~130, another 30% year-over-year increase. Through consistent communication about new academic programs, Adrian keeps their students engaged and informed throughout the admissions process. Jake credits Rize’s support as a huge help to not just launching but also marketing these new programs: “Rize provides a wealth of general video, image, infographic, and written recruitment content that is incredibly helpful in marketing the new programs. I couldn't have created our 20 touch points with prospective students entering our admissions funnel without all of the content that Rize provided.”
Beyond recruitment, Jake and Frank echo Dr. Milner’s focus on total enrollment when assessing the Rize partnership, “Rize is a very helpful retention tool. I utilize these really popular, in-demand majors to keep students at Adrian who may feel unsure about their future at Adrian in email campaigns and other communications. I love to remind students that they don't have to go to Michigan State to get these majors, minors and certificates.”
When looking to the future, Dr. Milner shares,
"We have a little catchphrase here, ‘College of the Future.’ Everything we discuss or decide is grounded in what the students want as they move forward into the future. We aim to be truly innovative and support students in their ideas. We are bold and willing to take risks while maintaining a steadfast culture of collaboration. That's the beauty of partnering with Rize."
Reflecting on her time at Adrian, Lori shares, “there is always something that they're trying to improve. They're always asking the students if there is something else that we would like to see. Which is really nice. They definitely listen to the students.”
President Docking concludes, “Higher education in America is in the midst of an existential crisis and it will take strong and focused leadership to return to a secure and thriving future. The reality is that unless you are fortunate enough to work at a College with at least a billion dollars in the endowment, you can be in financial trouble very quickly. The solution is binary: innovate or die. That might sound harsh, but that's the situation we face, with schools closing at an average of one per week. We believe the solution lies in a more efficient business model for small private institutions that retains small classes and individual attention, but leverages our collective advantages to teach students in a new and better way. Here at Adrian, we've been able to maintain the traditional college experience, including the value of a liberal arts education, by transitioning to a hybrid model through our partnership with Rize, which we consider the College of the Future. With Rize, we are creating both a better business model and a better educational experience that will guide us into the future."
Download Adrian's story here. If you’re interested in learning more about Adrian College's story or how you can partner with Rize, request a call with our Academic Partnerships Team.
