The Enrollment Brief

A Forbes article on the rise of the "vibe school" caught fire last fall, and Jeff Kallay brings it to the table for a closer look. The premise: a growing number of families are bypassing the Ivy League in favor of campuses that pair academic rigor with balance, social energy, and stability. Jeff, Scott, and Jarrett unpack what actually creates a vibe, why staying out of the political fray has beco...

Most conversations about AI search in higher education center on visibility: how do we show up in ChatGPT or AI Overviews? Jarrett Smith opens this episode with a different question, sparked by a paradigm-shifting moment auditing a school he knew inside out. The AI tools weren't just surfacing search rankings, they were holding up a mirror to the institution's actual brand, with eerie accuracy. In...

For many enrollment leaders, the greatest frustration is being held accountable for metrics they don't fully control. Scott Rhodes opens the discussion with a blunt truth: no amount of marketing can fix a campus experience that feels dead or a classroom experience that feels transactional. A core theme of this episode is the mismatch between the residential promise made in the brochure and the act...

In The Enrollment Brief's debut episode, Jarrett Smith, Scott Rhodes, and Jeff Kallay dive into a thought-provoking report from Advent that suggests a fundamental shift in the student psyche. While colleges have traditionally marketed the residential experience, today's incoming freshmen are increasingly transactional, viewing their degree as a high-stakes career investment. The team discusses how...