I once ran a report that indicated that we sent 17 million emails during a student recruitment year-long cycle. Seventeen million personalized messages, carefully timed drip campaigns, sophisticated segmentation strategies.
The result? Not much changed between that cycle and the prior cycle.
Did we do a great job answering what families most wanted to know? I was not so sure.
We asked our friends in Career Services for a conversation.
What Families Actually Want to Know
Most every campus visit includes the same moment. Parents ask, one way or another: “What will my daughter do after graduation? What kind of job will she get? Is this degree worth the investment?”
We often respond with generalities. “Our graduates are critical thinkers.” “Liberal arts prepares students for multiple career paths.” “Ninety-eight percent of our graduates are employed or in graduate school within a year of graduation.”
These answers are true. They’re also insufficient.
Families aren’t asking philosophical questions. They’re asking practical questions about employment outcomes. And when we can’t answer with specifics, they can’t distinguish us from the next campus they visit.
We Need Better Data
Most colleges and universities track a great of outcome data, but it is harder than it looks. There might not be a mechanism to collect the data from seniors. Faculty know outcomes anecdotally, but there isn’t a systematic way to collect that knowledge in one place. Institutional Research is short staffed. While everyone understands this data is important, it is no one person’s job, so the data is scattered at best.
Systematic data collection requires sustained institutional commitment.
So, Admission often recruits without the most compelling and recent evidence they could offer.
What Strategic Integration Looks Like
The colleges getting this right have made career outcomes central to enrollment strategy.
They’ve invested in systematic outcomes tracking—every graduate, every year. Institutional Research leads data collection, ensuring rigor and credibility that families trust.
They’ve made outcomes data accessible to Admission and Communications. Employment rates by major show up in inquiry communications. Employer partnerships become recruitment talking points. Recent graduates share career stories in digital and yield campaigns.
They’ve created feedback loops that include faculty who understand that career issues matter. When Career Services discovers certain programs produce particularly strong outcomes, faculty understand why and can speak authentically about career preparation. When outcomes reveal challenges, faculty respond with curriculum innovation.
Most importantly, faculty participate in recruitment as credible voices connecting liberal arts education to career success. Enthusiastic professors who can also articulate career pathways create powerful moments that can change a prospective student’s life.
The Investment Required
This integration requires institutional commitment:
Institutional Research must be supported so they can implement systematic outcomes data collection—better survey tools, sustained tracking systems, and CRM integration so enrollment can access intelligence easily.
Career Services and Admission need regular collaboration. Joint planning. Shared metrics. Career staff participating in yield events where they speak credibly about outcomes.
Faculty need outcomes data to inform both teaching and recruitment. When professors understand employment trends in their fields, they strengthen both curriculum and conversations with prospective students.
Why This Matters Now
Families are making increasingly practical calculations about college value. Abstract benefits of liberal arts education matter greatly, but they’re insufficient to justify significant investment when families can’t see concrete outcomes.
Colleges that can demonstrate strong outcomes—with real data, not aspirational language—have enrollment advantage. Colleges that don’t collect and analyze the outcomes data are missing the strategic enrollment opportunity.
The Path Forward
Start by asking Institutional Research: What outcomes data can we report with confidence? Where are gaps?
Then: How do we collect better data systematically for every graduate? For every alumnus who graduated 5 and 10 years ago.
Next: How do we collect and share this intelligence across campus? Faculty need to understand outcomes in their programs. Enrollment needs data they can communicate authentically.
Finally: How do we integrate outcomes into recruitment? Not as occasional success stories, but as fundamental evidence of value?
Career Services isn’t a support function for enrolled students. It’s proof of institutional mission delivered. When we treat it that way—when IR, Career Services, faculty, and Admission collaborate around outcomes data—prospective student conversations change.
Families stop asking whether liberal arts education leads to careers. They start asking: “Tell me about your students’ post college plans in my daughter’s intended major.”
And we can answer with evidence.
J. Carey Thompson is the founder of CVET Enrollment Strategies, bringing 35+ years of senior enrollment leadership experience across admission, financial aid, career services, communications, athletics, and institutional research. CVET partners with private colleges and universities to develop comprehensive, evidence-based enrollment strategies. Learn more at cvetconsulting.com.