March 26, 2026

Dr. Kyle Brantley
Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing & Communications

Is it Getting Hot in Here or is it Just My Funnel?

As the days get longer and warmer, the risk for melt rises right along with the sweltering temps.

Yield and melt are two sides of the same enrollment coin. Yield measures how many students progress through your funnel all the way to enrollment. Melt is the antithesis to those funnel conversions—those admitted and deposited students who do the whole "Irish goodbye" thing.

And here's the reality: summer melt doesn't usually happen in July. It happens in the silence between February and August.

If a student applies, gets admitted, completes the FAFSA, and deposits by, say, February… what kind of communication are they receiving for the next six or seven months leading up to official enrollment? For many institutions, that stretch becomes enrollment no-man's land. That's when doubts creep up. That's when competing offers swoop in. That's when "maybe" quietly replaces "yes."

Your ultimate strategy in your funnel? Drive yield up over time while aggressively mitigating melt—the slow hemorrhaging at the very end of your funnel.

Melt by the Numbers

So what's the damage?

Eduventures recently reported nearly a 50% increase in melt since 2021—from 13% to 19.4% across their client database.

Meanwhile, the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals' (NACCAP) Fall 2024 Final Funnel Report Executive Summary revealed an average melt rate of 15.3% for private faith-based partners.

That's nearly one in seven committed students who vanish from the incoming class.

No matter where you are, the goal is simple: whittle that percentage down year over year. If you're at 15% melt today, aim for 12–13% next year. If you can get under 10%, that's excellent. But don't chase perfection—chase progress.

Two or three percentage points recovered can mean dozens of students retained before they ever step foot on campus.

Why Students Melt

Even after committing, students can walk away. Why? Because deposit doesn't equal confidence.

Common drivers of melt include:

• Financial uncertainty
• Doubt about fit
• Distance and homesickness
• Missing orientation
• No meaningful connection to campus
• Social pressure from friends or relationships going elsewhere
• Anxiety about academic performance
• Feeling invisible after deposit

Notice something? Very few of these are administrative problems. Most are emotional and relational gaps.

Summer melt is less about paperwork and more about reassurance. So what steps can you take to mitigate melt on your campus? Here are ten melt strategy recommendations to keep your students engaged and retained to the point of enrollment.

Ten Melt Strategy Musts

1. Conduct a Risk Analysis.

Know your melt rate from the last 3–5 years. Identify patterns and flag at-risk students. These may include:

• Out-of-state students
• Athletes
• First-gen
• Deposit timing: Late deposits vs. early deposits
• Students in certain academic ranges
• Those who never visited campus
• Students who never completed the FAFSA
• Students who delay orientation registration

These are not statistics—they're red flags. Know your patterns, build a melt risk report, and follow up intentionally.

2. Address Financial Concerns Early (and Clearly)

A deposited student should not be guessing how they're paying for college. If a deposited student doesn't know what or how they are paying, that's a big red flag.

Ensure:

• Aid packages are understood.
• Payment plans are explained.
• Deadlines are clear.
• Questions are answered quickly.
• Parents/guardians are looped into the conversation.

You should be clear and confident they're clear and confident.

3. Simplify Everything

Complex processes create friction. And friction fuels melt. Simplify your process as much as possible.

Provide:

• Clear checklists
• Graphical timelines
• Simple forms
• Workshops to walk through key steps, like FAFSA and housing sign ups
• Repeated next-step communication for those who stall out

Ask: where is your process unnecessarily complicated?

4. Lock in Housing.

If a deposited student hasn't secured housing or selected a roommate by mid-to-late summer, melt is knocking.

Housing equals belonging. Belonging reduces melt.

The earlier you can move housing assignments/selections up in the cycle, all the better.

5. Structured Post-Deposit Communication.

How can you stay on your deposit's radar and keep them engaged and excited? Create a drip message campaign that runs the span of melt season.

This post-deposit drip email series should introduce:

• A welcome from the President and/or SGA president
• Student life opportunities
• Campus dining options
• Campus safety highlights
• Campus amenities such as the fitness center and student union
• Career services
• Student success stories

Your recruiters should stay in touch too—via phone, text, and email—periodically. Not excessively. Not invisibly. Consistently.

Don't just send information. Build relationship. Move them from identifying as an "admitted student" to a "future member of our community."

6. Engage with Social Media.

Meet students where they are: their devices. Stay active on Instagram and TikTok, featuring incoming student spotlights. Share "what to expect" content. Answer FAQs in short-form video.

Better yet—deputize student workers as content creators during melt season. Ask current students what they would've wanted to see at that stage and assemble a team of students to create content accordingly.

Have fun with it! Make it authentic. Don't be too polished. Real life is better.

7. Engage Parents Intentionally.

Gen Alpha decision-making is heavily influenced by parents and guardians today, so it's critical they feel included in the conversation.

Host periodic Zoom sessions for parents with reps from admissions, financial aid, student affairs, and housing. Invite questions ahead of time to elicit engagement and prepare your response, but also be ready to field questions on the fly.

Create a parent-specific email flow that addresses:

• Outcomes
• Safety
• Support systems
• Spiritual life (for faith-based institutions)

Incorporate the emotional element into it by sending out short parent testimonials throughout the summer. Allow them to see themselves in other parents further down the road in this journey. Reassurance travels fastest parent-to-parent.

8. Host Casual Market Hangs

Focus on your markets with high concentrations of deposited students and host informal gatherings at coffee shops or ice cream spots where students can come and go over the course of two to three hours. No speeches. No podium. Just presence.

Be sure to include:

• The area recruiter — the university rep the student should have the strongest relationship with
• A few current students from the region — the presence of their local peers (and future classmates) will help with relatability and comfort
• An open tab — who doesn't love that?

This face-to-face touchpoint is a great way to confirm decisions and offer personal reassurance that the student has made the right decision.

9. Utilize Quick-Response Surveys

Send brief pulse-check surveys to deposited students and their parents.

Gauge:

• Level of commitment
• Unanswered questions and curiosities
• Financial confidence
• Orientation readiness

Ensure responses are immediately provided to recruiters for prompt follow-up. Speed communicates care.

10. Hype Up Orientation

Whether your orientation is early summer (ideal) or right before classes start, build anticipation, ease anxiety, and prepare them to kick off their exciting next chapter of life with you. Orientation shouldn't be seen as another hoop to jump through. It should be seen as a premiere recruitment experience.

Hype up orientation by:

• Dripping information in the months leading up to your event(s)
• Highlighting speakers and sessions
• Sharing photos from past events
• Communicating the benefits for attending earlier orientation sessions (e.g. better class schedules)
• Featuring student voices: quotes and/or stories from your orientation leaders

And watch those delayed sign-ups. The longer they wait, the higher the risk for melt.

Final Thought: Melt is Not Inevitable

Imagine saving 5–10% of your class from walking out the door before they ever walk onto campus. Summer melt is reducible when institutions put thought and coordination into the kinds of strategies like those above to ultimately replace:

Silence → Communication
Uncertainty → Clarity
Isolation → Connection

I sincerely wish you the best as you work to beat the heat this melt season. And if you'd like to talk more about fortifying your funnel—from first lead to first day—we'd love to help you turn deposits into durable enrollment.

Speak with a Strategist