COVID-19 Impact on Admissions – Michigan Admissions Collaboratory

Standardized admissions testing has long been a key element of the college admissions process for many postsecondary institutions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced institutions to quickly adopt test-optional admissions or merit aid policies due to the limited availability of standardized testing. Using qualitative data from focus groups and interviews with 57 chief enrollment officers, we explore the test-optional implementation strategies used by postsecondary admission offices during the pandemic, which included: using alternative measures of academic achievement; leaning into holistic admissions processes with contextualization tools; and implementing dual systems of evaluation for students with and without test scores. While most offices were largely stuck in competency traps, relying on traditional decision-making practices rather than seeking out new ones, others created new evaluative practices or utilized existing evaluation tools in new ways to significantly change their admissions processes. Examining test-optional policy implementation may help explain why these policies, often meant to improve racial and socioeconomic diversity, have yielded only modest benefits.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by steep declines in community college enrollment in the United States, requiring institutions to quickly adapt to changing economic conditions and student needs. Through interviews and focus groups with 11 enrollment management leaders from community colleges across the country, this paper explores the strategies that community colleges employed to try to increase enrollment and retention during the first two years of the pandemic. We found that participants instituted a wide variety of targeted recruitment and enrollment tactics, while their institutions also made changes to academic programs and student support services to improve enrollment and retention. These strategies were often dependent on their institution’s local context and were in many cases only possible with the support of pandemic relief funding, leaving open questions about the long-term sustainability of pandemic-era enrollment management practices.