Admissions teams know the numbers: students deposit in April and quietly disappear by July. While we often attribute summer melt to financial hurdles, competing offers, or logistical confusion, there’s a deeper, less comfortable reality worth confronting:

For many students, melt is about commitment—or the lack thereof.

By the time a student ghosts their enrollment steps, the real issue likely isn’t a missing form or unclear deadline. It’s that they never fully bought in. And if we treat melt solely as a yield logistics problem, we’ll keep missing the bigger opportunity: strengthening student commitment before it wavers.

Here are three strategic shifts to address melt by building stronger student alignment from the start.

1. Smarter, More Authentic Marketing—Before the Admit

Commitment doesn’t begin with a deposit. It begins far earlier—when a student starts imagining themselves at your institution. Yet many schools still treat pre-decision marketing as a broad awareness campaign rather than an opportunity to shape emotional alignment and intent.

Students are paying attention well before the admit letter. And if they don’t feel seen or inspired during the exploration and application phase, their commitment—even if admitted—remains fragile.

Opportunities:

• Leverage behavioral insights (inquiry data, content engagement, visit preferences) to tell more personalized, relevant stories throughout the search and application journey—not just post-admit.
  
  
• Create moments to address real student concerns and aspirations—career clarity, belonging, affordability—not just rankings or campus stats.
  
  
• Align tone and format with how students consume information today: short-form videos, peer-led panels, real-time chats—not just static emails.
  
  

By the time a student receives an offer, they should already feel like they belong. That doesn’t happen by accident—it happens when the right stories are told at the right time, by the right people.

When students feel emotionally aligned early, they don’t just apply. They commit.

2. Create Milestone Moments That Reinforce Identity

Enrollment decisions are as emotional as they are rational. Students are looking for signals that say: this is where I belong, and this is who I can become here. If we’re not actively creating those moments, we’re leaving commitment up to chance.

Opportunities:

• Celebrate micro-milestones: progress toward direct admission, completing an application, choosing a major, uploading immunization records, even finishing high school. Find ways to reward and make these moments exciting check points as they get closer to joining your community.
• Personalize the alignment: consider ways that you can prevent students from having to self align to your campus and enrollment requirements and rather be shown how they are a fit.
  
  
• Build early affinity: digital meetups by interest area, identity group, or program track help students associate your brand with their community.
  
  

Students stick with the schools that feel like theirs—not just one of many.

3. Reduce Post-Acceptance Friction

A highly committed student can still melt if the handoff between admissions and onboarding feels like a bureaucratic maze. It’s not just about clarity—it’s about emotional energy. Anxiety is friction. Uncertainty is friction. Silence is friction.

Opportunities:

• Audit the student journey from admit to orientation. Where are the drop-off points? Where are instructions unclear or duplicated?
  
  
• Invest in streamlining: Look into ways to reduce clicks, emails, forms, anything that can deter students or add one more “to do”.
  
  
• Offer human connection early—student-led onboarding calls, quick video guides, or on-demand Q&A can make a large institution feel navigable.
  
  

When students feel guided, supported, and confident, they’re less likely to disengage.

Final Thought

Summer melt is not just a yield metric—it’s a reflection of how well you’ve built belonging, trust, and momentum. If a student never felt deeply connected, they were never truly enrolled.

If you’re interested to see how a deeper connection and insights from a students’ k12 journey can build into this commitment, connect with our team today to learn how we are investing in these strategies to build experiences to offset “summer melt”.