Many schools do survey research to learn about why families do not choose to enroll after an admission offer (we’ll call these “declining families”). Often this work is done in the late spring, but I have recently been asked a few times about whether it’s too late to do the work now, in the middle of the fall. “It depends,” of course, but here are some considerations.
What will you do with the information you gather? For example, are you trying to explain low yield to the board? Or are you making a case for needing more financial aid? Is your team considering a program change that this data will inform? Different desired outcomes will inform time-sensitivity, as well as the formulation of questions.
Did you attempt to survey this group earlier? If so, you might consider a personal email with a link to a much shorter survey that acknowledges the earlier communication. Or, depending on the actual list of people, you might reach out personally to just a few and ask if they’d be willing to hop on the phone for a few minutes.
Are you worried about low response rates? My general rule of thumb is that some data is better than no data at all. It is nearly impossible to get statistically significant results in schools because our sample sizes are just too small. I wouldn’t worry about low response rates as long as the development and implementation of the survey is not too time-consuming for your team.
When is it just too late? When surveying families who have left your school (attrition), I don’t think it’s ever too late. Families who have something to say will often appreciate the opportunity to share. For the declining families, though, I’d say it’s probably not worth doing after November 1. By that point, families are embedded in their new school and are probably not thinking a lot about their experience with you anymore. Having said that, I do think that if you take the uber-personalized approach and reach out to people one-on-one for specific reasons, you might get good feedback at any time. It’s just about asking the right questions and framing the conversation effectively.
The bottom line is that survey research is an extremely valuable tool as you assess and understand the family experience with your school at various points in the journey. Timing is very important, but it’s not the only consideration when deciding whether to embark on the work.
