Ethical Behavior and Best Practices for Enrollment Professionals

Our work requires candor in our communication with families, students, and colleagues, within our own schools, across other schools, and in the wider communities we serve.

We invest in our own professional growth and in the resources that help our offices serve families and institutions well. We seek access to the best ideas in admission, enrollment, and financial aid practice.

We treat families, students, adn institutions fairly. By doing so, we help more families flourish and we advance the broader mission of independent education. 

Our best work emerges from sharing ideas with one another. Collaboration strengthens families, schools, and the profession as a whole. 

The interests of students and families anchor our work. The following practices help us honor that responsibility.

Be transparent about the process, requirements, and fit.

Process expectations should be clear and applied consistently across applicants. While every applicant is evaluated individually, decisions should center on the likelihood that the school is a strong match for the student’s needs and the student’s potential for success at the school.

Honest, complete information sharing between families and schools is essential to good admissions decisions. That depends on trust: academic, personal, financial, and behavioral information shared by families, teachers, and prior schools must be treated as strictly confidential.

This responsibility now extends to the digital systems that hold this information. Schools should secure application data thoughtfully, establish clear policies about who can access what and for how long, and be prepared to articulate to families how their information is collected, stored, used, and shared.

Building diverse and inclusive communities is an ongoing priority, even as the financial circumstances of individual schools vary. Our processes should be accessible and welcoming. Our communications, across print, digital, and in-person channels should accurately reflect both who we are as schools and what selectivity looks like in practice.

Families deserve a complete picture of what enrollment will cost before they commit. That means disclosing not only tuition and fees but also the additional expenses families typically incur, including athletics, meals, extended-day care, auxiliary programs, books and materials, technology, transportation, lab fees, and travel for school programs.

Ideally, financial aid awards are determined independently from admission decisions. Need-based aid should remain a central priority and a meaningful expression of our institutional missions. Where merit scholarships are part of the picture, criteria should be clear and consistent.

Families should learn about their financial obligations and aid support before they are required to commit to enrolling. When timing makes this impossible, schools should release families from their commitment if adequate aid cannot be provided.

Each school’s enrollment procedures differ, but the standards are the same: set clear expectations with families, communicate decisions promptly, and ensure that partner schools also understand the decision outcomes when that information is relevant.

Allow time for considered decisions.

Families need time to weigh enrollment offers thoughtfully — including financial aid outcomes — before committing. Regional associations and consortia that establish a shared decision timeline support family choice and build trust across the profession.

When current students explore other school options, families deserve accurate official records and a fair opportunity to conduct that exploration without obstruction. At the same time, schools’ enrollment contracts represent commitments that families and other schools should respect.

Decisions should reflect what we know about the school and the students who thrive in it. Committee review, shared evaluation standards, and ongoing attention to student outcomes strengthen our judgment over time.

What families experience after enrolling should match what they were promised during the admission process. Admission professionals should ensure that everyone who represents the school —in person, in print, online, and on social media — does so accurately and honestly.

Schools increasingly rely on CRMs, applicant analytics, AI-assisted tools, and digital communications. These tools deserve thoughtful policies on privacy, security, bias, and human oversight.

Decisions affecting a student’s future should not be delegated entirely to automated systems. Any algorithmic tools used in the admission or financial aid process should be reviewed regularly for fairness, and staff using them should understand both what these tools do well and where their judgment is required.

Schools must understand and follow local, state, and federal laws — including those governing student privacy, nondiscrimination, financial aid, and the handling of minors’ data online.

Require records from a current school before final decisions. A formal transcript from the sending school ensures that the admitting school has the academic and enrollment information it needs to evaluate fit and protects the sending school from unexpected attrition.

Recruitment is one of the most sensitive areas of our work. Regional associations and consortia provide important shared standards, and member schools should uphold their commitments to those agreements.

In our communications, we should be honest about fit and refrain from practices that pressure families, limit their choices, or push them toward commitments before they have had time to consider their options.

Schools should not initiate the recruitment of students currently enrolled at other independent schools. This expectation applies not just to the admission office but to anyone who participates in recruitment or yield activities — including coaches, arts directors, and special-program leads.

Admission professionals and other community members who directly participate in admission decisions have an inherent conflict of interest if they also offer for-profit admission, enrollment, or financial aid counseling. Anyone participating in incentive compensation should be transparent about that arrangement with both their school community and any private clients.

The variety of educational options in our communities is a strength. It means more families can find a good match. In marketing, conversations, and outreach, schools should focus on what makes their own program distinctive rather than on disparaging others. Speaking poorly about other schools, whether independent, public, or private, runs counter to our commitments to collegiality and social responsibility.