Making the Sale
Attracting today’s students to Antioch takes a grasp of online marketing--with videos, a streamlined admissions process, government financial aid, and supportive networks. This year, it's working.
“It’s always that initial interaction, getting their attention, that’s the hard part. Once we have it, they get it. You know, they see the value, they understand the difference.” – Admissions Dean Shane Creepingbear, speaking of potential community college transfers.
The Antioch admissions process nowadays has a lot in common with small-business entrepreneurship. The college must be nimble and innovative in its marketing, flexible in dealing with customers—that is, students—and alert to new opportunities.
It’s a lot to keep up with, but the pieces are falling into place with the help of online marketing tools combining data analytics and videos, a streamlined admissions process, recruitment partners, and refined messaging, says Admissions Dean Shane Creepingbear ‘08. Winter admissions of 23 this year were the highest ever, and Antioch is progressing toward its enrollment goal of 175 total students this fall, in keeping with the school’s 175th anniversary.
Companies that use data analytics to match colleges with likely applicants can serve as a force multiplier for small admissions offices like Antioch’s. One that Creepingbear is most enthusiastic about is Niche.com. Founded as College Prowler by two Carnegie Mellon business students in 2002, the company has evolved from a publisher of college guidebooks into a digital company that helps schools market themselves to potential students based on information collected about users of its website.
“Niche gathers between 60 and 70 points of data on these students to get a sense of what these students are interested in,” Creepingbear explains. “They’re looking at things like cultural fit, programs, cost, location, and based on how the student fills out their profile, Niche would then recommend schools that fit their profile in some way or another.”
The first thing prospective students learn about Antioch on Niche’s website is, “This school offers Direct Admissions!” To use that feature, students will enter certain data, such as their grade point average, that a college needs to assess a student’s eligibility. If these data fit the college’s entrance requirements, the student will be told when they inquire about Antioch or refer to Antioch, “Congratulations—you’re eligible.” The student is then directed to a “next steps” form and is asked to submit other information, including a high school transcript. “Once we get all that information, I confirm that everything’s accurate, that they are meeting our requirements, and then I can process their decision manually,” Creepingbear says.
Direct Admit, which is also offered on College Board and the Common Application platforms, “kind of inserts them a little bit further down into our funnel,” Creepingbear says. It offers another key advantage: weeding out students who aren’t serious about applying. On average, students only submit Direct Admit forms to three schools, he says. “So now our counselors don’t have to spend time begging these students to complete their application or start their application or please meet with us to learn more about Antioch.”
As of January, Antioch had already admitted 450 students, a big increase over the same period last year. [See the associated article about this year’s incoming class.] “These students are engaged. They’re emailing us, sending us their FAFSAs,” he says, referring to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. On receiving this, the college calculates how much financial aid a student will receive, and how much their family will have to contribute.
While unable to afford the full tuition scholarships given to the first entering class after the college reopened, Antioch can still offer a generous financial aid package to most applicants who need it, allowing them to graduate with minimal or limited debt. The neediest students are eligible for federal Pell Grants. As part of the federal Work College program, all residential students will get an on-campus job, with the proceeds going toward tuition and fees, and can opt to work additional hours for pay.
It’s a fact of life that Antioch must sell itself to students, instead of the other way around. The college admits 82 percent of applicants, and has to work for them. Central to its marketing strategy in recent years was affordability, and the college counted on a certain number of Pell-eligible students, who brought with them a reliable federal income stream. The college is now broadening its marketing approach. It signed up last year with the Atlanta-based tech firm StudentBridge to produce videos—or what Creepingbear calls a “digital viewbook”—about the college. “Those are huge, huge for us,” he says. Students who discover Antioch on Niche “can click over to these really well done videos (and) to our more enhanced website.”
One result may be an increase in more affluent students. Through Niche, “we’re seeing applications come in from what I would consider wealthy school districts, private school attendees,” Creepingbear says. The college also focuses recruitment particularly on Ohio and nearby metropolitan areas of Pittsburgh and Detroit. Ohio offers its own financial support: the need-based Ohio College Opportunity Grant, as well as an Ohio STEM grant, for which some Antioch students have qualified.
Ohio community colleges have become an increasingly important source of transfer students. In the last two years, Antioch has reached articulation agreements with four of these schools--Clark State, Sinclair, Columbus State, and Edison State—that provide a pathway into a four-year degree program. Marketing to their students “is a little bit trickier,” according to Creepingbear. These students typically are in associate-degree programs geared to a specialized career path, and are being asked to explore liberal arts. “It’s always that initial interaction, getting their attention, that’s the hard part. Once we have it, they get it. You know, they see the value, they understand the difference.”
This regional focus hasn’t stopped Antioch from teaming up with partners to cast a wider geographical net when that can be helpful. One such partner is John Capozzi, of Washington, D.C., the son of an Antioch alumnus, who has recruited a number of Job Corps graduates for the college from around the country. (See associated article.) Creepingbear has also worked with the Job Corps and the IDEA (Individuals Dedicated to Excellence and Achievement) public schools, a network of college-prep charter schools in Texas begun by Teach for America veterans. He is excited about a new partner, Bottom Line, which provides personalized guidance for first-generation and low-income students before and during college. The nonprofit recently started an Ohio branch. “We brought all of their counselors to campus a couple weeks ago for a campus tour to meet folks. They’re just completely smitten with Antioch,” Creepingbear says.
A tense period for the admissions staff is the time between when an acceptance letter goes out with a financial aid offer and a student’s decision to come. Of the students admitted for 2026, the college set a goal of getting 65, or 14.4 percent, to enroll. This year, Antioch launched a quick fundraising campaign to defray the $450 deposit as a welcome gesture. In doing so, it runs the risk that some students may commit to enroll and then not show up.
Creepingbear will be helped getting to the fall enrollment finish line by two new counselors, who are also fellow Antiochians: Zoe Ritzhaupt ’20 and June Wonn ’22(?) “They’re coming back with some energy and excitement to do this work.”