Work Smarter, Not Harder, This Fall
Month: September 2026
September is a pivotal month for college admissions professionals, with recruitment season kicking off and critical fall event planning underway. To say things are busy would be an understatement. So how are you and your team going to juggle it all? With automation and AI, that’s how.
Whether you use Slate or Element451, here are some ways to use these powerful tools to streamline your admissions operations this fall.
Fall Travel
Life on the road can be exhausting. Help lighten the load for your counselors and road warriors by taking advantage of these tools:
Slate | AI Dashboard
This easy-to-implement tool integrates with person record dashboards to provide quick, digestible updates that counselors can reference while on the go:
- Activity Summaries
“How many emails has a student opened? When was the last time they logged in to the portal? Is their application complete?” All of these questions and more can be answered with the AI Dashboard. - Engagement Scores
Let AI analyze each student’s level of engagement and provide an overall score and summary. Counselors can review these scores in seconds and go into meetings feeling even better prepared. - Recommended Follow-Ups
Not only can AI tell you how engaged students are, but it can also provide your team with recommendations on how best to follow up, whether that’s scheduling meetings with key players (coaches or faculty) or sticking with one outreach method over another.
Whatever you or your staff want to know about prospective students, the AI Dashboard can be built in a way to get you answers.
Slate | AI Form Scanner
With more and more schools implementing cell phone bans, the days of scanning a QR code and filling out an inquiry form online are quickly disappearing. In fact, many colleges and universities are going back to handwritten cards. Although a great workaround for the phone bans, if you’ve ever had the pleasure (displeasure? 🤔) of trying to decipher a teenager’s handwriting, the thought may make you shudder.
That’s where Slate’s new AI Form Scanner comes in.
Simply open up your Slate Mobile app and snap a picture of the completed card to have Slate AI automatically convert it into a form submission!
Pro Tip: Have the student stick around while you scan the card, so they can confirm their info.
Element451 | Bolt Discovery & Agents
These two tools are serious game-changers, helping students and your team make the most of their time and (packed) schedules.
- Embed Bolt Discovery on your website and get your counselors ready to tell the world how easily students, families, counselors, and alumni can find what they’re looking for. No more endless scrolling or page searches… simply type in what you’re looking for and Bolt Discovery will hand deliver it (OK, not literally, but you understand).
- Use a Bolt Chatbot Agent on your landing pages and forms to provide students with a low-pressure, safe environment to ask the questions they might otherwise feel too embarrassed to ask. Once set up, be sure to have counselors promote it as a resource following high school visits or college fairs.
Pro Tip: Get the most out of your AI bots by keeping your Knowledge Hub fresh. Remember, if the bots don’t have access to the latest information, neither will your students!
Campus Visits
Get ready for visitors by including AI in your preparation for open houses, tours, and events!
Slate | AI Portal Components
Use Slate AI to help create new components wherever you see a WYSIWYG editor, including entire custom portals! With a little bit of time and focus, you could create an entirely new campus tour sign-up page or open house portal. Push the limits and see what types of engaging and colorful ideas AI can create for you.
Element451 | AI Agents
Leave the reminders and follow-ups to AI Agents that can autonomously reach out to students to promote events. Agents can be configured to reach out via any method you choose and with a tone that aligns with your audience. Want them to reach out via email first, and then text later? Can do!
Element451 | Bolt Agent Custom Skills
Every campus has unique processes, and now your AI can, too!
Instead of relying exclusively on pre-built behaviors, admissions teams can create Custom Skills that teach Bolt exactly how to respond to institution-specific questions and workflows.
Whether it’s connecting students with financial aid when they ask about scholarships, explaining honors admissions, helping them register for a specific campus event, or directing applicants to the correct counselor based on academic program, Custom Skills will bring your personalization to the next level.
Behind-the-Scenes Work
As the engine behind your recruitment strategy and the key to your bots’ accuracy and usability, it’s critical you keep your CRM humming smoothly.
- Update Reports, Queries, and Segments: Track outreach effectiveness, recruitment metrics, and applicant trends.
- Review Staff Assignments and Automations: Align your strategy with real-time data that keep all stakeholders across your institution happy.
- Clean Up Duplicate Records: Stay organized and avoid confusion.
Final Thoughts
Implementing AI might feel a bit daunting, but we’re confident that these tools will help make your and your team’s lives easier. Not only that, but they can help increase engagement and strengthen connections between prospective students and your institution — something we can all get behind.
Need a hand getting started? Just reach out — we’re always available to talk through your needs and help set you up for success!
Welcome Adult Learners Back to School
Month: September 2026
by Beth Levine, Senior Copywriter
Are you worried about the impending “enrollment cliff” we’ve heard so much about? We hate to be the ones to tell you, but it has arrived. The good news, however, is that you can help prevent your institution from dangling at the edge or dropping off the cliff altogether by expanding your efforts with an alternative group that’s more than large enough to make up for the shortfall in traditional students.
Adult learners.
With only ~37% of U.S. adults aged 25 or older holding a bachelor’s degree, and more than 43 million people in the U.S. who started college but never earned a degree, there is a LOT of potential for recruitment.
But of course the motivations and challenges this group faces are significantly different than those of high school students ready to head directly off to college. In turn, that requires shifting your approach and messaging — emphasizing what adult learners are really seeking in your institution — in order to meet them where they are, catch their attention, and ultimately get them to enroll and successfully complete their program.
“Adult learners are the ultimate pragmatists. They’re balancing careers and families, and they simply don’t have time for fluff,” says Megan Brammer, Director of Client Strategy at Spark451. “From a marketing perspective, you have to lead with the ‘how.’ How you’ll value their military service, how your schedule fits their life, and how you’ll get them to the finish line faster. Success with this demographic is all about showing them the shortest, smartest distance between their experience and their goals.”
Meeting Adult Learners Where They Are
In order to fully engage this audience, you need to not only understand the unique barriers they face, but also provide solutions to overcome them.
Barrier: Scheduling
Solution: Flexibility
Often dealing with time constraints due to employment and family responsibilities, adult learners should be made aware of flexible options that are open to them. Outreach should highlight fully online programs, asynchronous courses, and night or weekend classes that can accommodate their needs.
Case Study
A major public research university in the mid-Atlantic partnered with us to highlight the many degree tracks and convenient on-campus and online options available to adult learners. Strategic optimizations drove standout performance, especially in lead generation. Over a 30-day period, conversions surged by 53% while cost per lead dropped by nearly 35%, demonstrating how a refined audience strategy and channel alignment can significantly improve both scale and efficiency when reaching adult learners.
Barrier: Costs
Solution: Accelerated Degrees & Life Experience Credits
Cost is frequently a major consideration for adult learners, especially when facing multi-year programs. To help alleviate this concern, focus on how you can get them to the finish line faster through accelerated degrees and/or life experience credits. Not only will these save adult students both time and money, but it demonstrates that your institution values the time and effort it took to complete prior courses, build a career, or complete military service.
Case Study
We developed a plan that enabled a prominent public university in the Northeast to connect with more adult learners who could take advantage of their online degree completion programs, bringing in nearly 300 conversions in just six weeks. In fact, their undergrad enrollment for summer 2026 is up 50% year over year!
Barrier: Time Commitment
Solution: Workforce Development Programs
For those who aren’t looking for a full degree but would still like to earn a credential, a workforce development program may be ideal. This educational path is typically much faster — think courses that can be completed in weeks or months — and less expensive, yet leads immediately to a new and rewarding career. Plus, they may be stackable toward a later degree, if desired.
Case Study
We partnered with a New York State community college to increase awareness among adult learners of their workforce development program and helped them double program enrollment in one year, expand their course offerings, and secure grants to provide free tuition to many students.
We'll Get You Started
If you’re interested in building on or promoting programs designed for adult learners, we would love to have a conversation about how the experts at Spark451 can help. We’ll partner with you to explore strategies and creative concepts that will attract potential adult learners to your school, and reach them wherever they are.
