Indiana Wesleyan boosts enrollment by 20% with DegreeSight.

The challenge

Inquiries were growing faster than evaluations.

Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) faced mounting challenges in managing a rapidly growing volume of dual credit and transfer student inquiries. The institution struggled to provide pre-admission credit evaluations, a key factor in converting prospective students, especially within the competitive dual-enrollment market.

Existing systems lacked the automation and integration capabilities required to scale these efforts efficiently, leading to operational strain and missed opportunities to engage prospective students early in their decision-making process.

The solution

Inbound and OCR, connected to Colleague.

To address these challenges, IWU partnered with DegreeSight to implement the INBOUND platform, integrated with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and the Colleague Student Information System.

This solution enabled prospective students to upload transcripts and receive instant, student-facing workflows while enhancing the prospective student experience. The implementation positioned IWU to better serve both traditional transfer students and those coming from dual-credit programs.

How it was done

Integration, OCR and a team retrained.

DegreeSight worked hand-in-hand with Indiana Wesleyan University to transform its approach to transfer and dual-credit recruitment. The initiative began with a detailed systems integration, connecting DegreeSight’s INBOUND platform with IWU’s existing Colleague SIS infrastructure. This integration allowed for seamless data exchange, supporting real-time credit evaluations and ensuring accuracy in articulation decisions.

Simultaneously, OCR technology was deployed, enabling students to submit their transcripts digitally and receive immediate evaluations of how their credits would transfer to IWU. This innovation removed friction from the inquiry process, giving prospective students the clarity they needed to move forward with their application.

Beyond the technological integration, DegreeSight led a comprehensive training and change management program with IWU’s admissions and counseling teams. Staff were trained not only on how to use the new tools but also on how to adjust their workflows to capitalize on the newfound efficiencies. This shift allowed counselors to redirect their focus from manual transcript processing to strategic recruitment and relationship-building with prospective students.

The collaborative efforts yielded immediate results: IWU began generating an average of 19 qualified leads per week, with significant improvements in yield rates across both freshmen and transfer segments. The streamlined credit evaluation process empowered IWU to offer prospective students personalized, timely answers about how their prior coursework would apply, ultimately driving a 20% increase in both freshmen and transfer enrollments.