This episode of the InspirED SparkCast discusses the 2022 Independent School Cost-Per-Enrollment Study produced jointly by the Enrollment Management Association (EMA), the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), and National Business Officers Association (NBOA) to make informed decisions around funding and support for enrollment efforts.

[Links above lead to the study. Your school must be a member of one of the organizations to be eligible for download.]

This is the Executive Summary on the NAIS website.

Among the independent schools that participated in this research, enrollment costs were as follows:

• The median cost-per-enrollment (CPE) was $3,677

• The median cost-per-inquiry (CPI) was $697

• The median ROI was $7 in tuition for each dollar spent to enroll a new student in their first year

Enrollment costs varied significantly across school demographics. The largest schools (those with 700+ students) had the lowest CPE of all school groups—and saw the highest return on their investment ($8.60 in tuition for each dollar spent on enrollment management in the first year of tuition). Elementary schools had the smallest cost per enrollment ($2,869 per enrollee vs. the median $3,677 per enrollee.) The median CPE for secondary schools was $5,844.

The full report contains additional data on enrollment costs sorted by school type (day/boarding), size, region, and grade levels served.

Kevin MacNeil

Kevin is the CAO and Partner of Metric Marketing. Kevin has worked with more than a hundred independent schools across North America. Exposed to nearly a decade of admissions marketing campaigns, he prides himself on helping schools make decisions based on data. He is a practiced teacher of marketing and advertising, including work with NAIS, NYSAIS, EMA, AISAP, InspirED, ISSL, CAIS.

Metric Marketing started as a web development/tech company in 1999, and Kevin joined them in 2008. During that time, the company began to transform into a digital advertising agency and then a full-service agency. In 2013, Metric started working with private schools, and by 2019, they were working with schools across North America. Kevin realized his and Metric’s passion was to help schools grow.