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• College Financial Success

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Understanding Summer Melt in College-Bound
Students
For college-bound students, the transition from
school to a higher education institution is a
daunting yet exciting journey, full of unexpected
surprises. From receiving the acceptance letter
to arriving on campus in the fall, these young
adults have to deal with some major enrollment
related responsibilities and decisions that carry
significant weight and nerve-racking pressure.
Consequently, a percentage of enrolled students
intending to attend college never make it to
campus, leading to summer melt.
Wondering what that is? In this blog, we will
discuss the fundamentals of summer melt, the
factors contributing to it, and the steps you can
take to overcome this problem.
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What is Summer Melt??
Summer melt can be described as a phenomenon that
occurs among college bound students due to which
they fail to appear for classes in fall.
According to the US Department of Education, the
percentage of college eligible students that
melt away during summer across the nation is
between 10 and 20. Studies from the department
also indicate that a vast majority of these
students come from a low-income background and
are also a part of minority groups.
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What are the reasons behind Summer Melt?
While there are multiple factors that contribute
to summer melt, we have mentioned some of the
most common ones below. Lack of Funds College
education is expensive. During the transitional
summer, when students begin to assess the cost of
necessities, such as tuition, housing, and
healthcare, the reality of college expenses and
their financial constraints sets in. Lack of
funds contributes to the vulnerability of
low-income students in particular, and they often
end up withdrawing in the summer due to the
absence of financial aid. Lack of Support Post
high school graduation, most students struggle to
find a reliable source of advice and support to
help them navigate through the enrollment
process. Without adequate support, fulfilling
even the simplest of pre-college requirements can
seem like a challenging ordeal to some,
increasing the likelihood of summer
melt. Transition Anxiety Transition anxiety has
a lasting psychological impact on students.
According to research, college bound students can
suffer from a disturbed sleeping pattern due to
transition anxiety. Students emotionally
unprepared to leave home are highly likely to be
affected by summer melt.
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Keeping Summer Melt under control
Colleges plagued by the summer melt can fight
back by developing a sound understanding of
factors causing the melt in their campus, and
take effective measures to counter the effects of
this phenomenon. The funding allocation program
from Virtue Analytics, for example, enables
colleges to optimize grant allocation which
allows them to tackle summer melt. The program
also comes with student lifetime value
calculators and financial forecasting instruments
with the help of which colleges can
essentially freeze summer melt! If youre
interested in implementing a data analytics based
funding allocation or enrollment management
system in your higher education institute, get in
touch with our representatives today .
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