Smarter Admissions, Stronger Strategy: A Conversation on the Future of Enrollment

In higher education, speed and precision are becoming as critical as mission and equity. As students demand faster decisions and institutions face mounting enrollment pressures, many campuses are rethinking how admissions, financial aid, and academic planning work together. The goal is not just to keep up with the changing landscape but to lead with confidence and clarity.

In this conversation, Mark Campbell, Co-Founder of Campbell Schreiber, and Rob Green, Chief Operating Officer at MyDocs, discuss how AI-powered transcript processing is reshaping enrollment operations. Together, they explore how strategy and technology can align to help institutions serve students faster, fairer, and more effectively.

Mark brings more than 25 years of experience as a senior enrollment officer at leading institutions, including Berklee College of Music, The New School/Parsons School of Design, and The Cooper Union. Through Campbell Schreiber, he now helps institutions build bold, mission-aligned enrollment strategies that engage entire campus communities. His firm’s work is rooted in equity and in the belief that once an institution understands its enrollment foundation, all else becomes possible.

Q: What is driving the urgency for speed and intelligence in today’s admissions cycle?

Mark: Most institutions are fighting for their very existence. The competition is fierce, and students expect answers quickly. They want to know about admission, transfer credit, cost, and aid in days, not months. Schools that cannot provide those answers risk losing students to institutions that can. You have to be fast, customer-service oriented, and equipped with tools that make it possible.

Rob: That expectation for speed has completely changed the admissions process. Institutions can no longer afford to spend weeks retyping data from transcripts or waiting on manual evaluations. By using AI to structure and process academic data instantly, admissions teams can make quicker, better-informed decisions and free up staff time for meaningful student engagement.

Q: Why are transcripts still such a challenge in admissions?

Mark: Every school I have worked with had to manually re-enter and re-calculate transcript data. You’d spend hours pulling out GPA details for an engineering applicant versus an art applicant. Automation that can do this instantly, and accurately, is a huge leap forward.

Rob: Transcripts come in hundreds of formats from around the world, which makes comparison and evaluation difficult. What I like about what we do is how we  extract and standardize transcript data into a consistent format so every applicant can be reviewed using the same structure. It supports international grading scales, language translation, and even custom GPA calculations for different programs. The result is cleaner data, faster reviews, and more equitable comparisons.

Q: How does automation support strategic enrollment planning?

Mark: When you can instantly see how a student performs in key subjects or how well their coursework aligns with a major, you can make smarter decisions. This helps not only with admissions but also with placement and retention. Having that kind of structured, actionable data empowers the entire enrollment strategy.

Rob:Our MAP does exactly that, it transforms raw transcripts into visual summaries that show GPA trends, course rigor, and subject-area performance. For enrollment leaders, that means better insight into where strong candidates are coming from and which programs attract them. It is the kind of intelligence that helps institutions plan, not just react.

Q: How can technology like this help advance equity and access?

Mark: Standardized, structured data leads to fairer decisions. Whether a student is from Beijing or Florida, you are reviewing their record in the same way, with the same information available. That consistency supports transparency and equity in the admissions process.

Rob: Exactly. When data is inconsistent, human judgment tends to fill in the gaps. By automating extraction and applying standard academic codes, we remove a lot of the subjective interpretation that can unintentionally disadvantage students. This supports both fairness and compliance while maintaining the human review element that admissions teams value.

Q: Many institutions are exploring direct admission models. How do you see that trend evolving?

Mark: Students want immediacy. They want to apply, get admitted, and understand their costs all in the same interaction. Forward-thinking schools are already heading in that direction. The ones that hold on to slower processes do so at their own risk.

Rob: That is one of the reasons we built FirstLook. It allows prospective students to upload a transcript through an institution’s website and receive instant feedback on their eligibility or scholarship potential. It is a fast, student-friendly experience that helps institutions engage earlier, improve yield, and compete with national direct-admit platforms without relying on third parties.

Q: How can institutions ensure that their culture keeps pace with technology?

Mark: Technology is the engine, but culture is the driver. Schools have to be ready to adapt their processes, policies, and even mindsets to operate in a faster, more student-centric world. Early adopters will not just gain efficiencies, they will gain an advantage. Once institutions see that this technology does not replace people but empowers them to do higher-level work, the cultural shift follows naturally.

Closing Thoughts

For both Campbell Schreiber and MyDocs, the future of enrollment management is not only about efficiency but also about mission. Strategic planning and smart automation must go hand in hand.

Mark Campbell and his firm help institutions design mission-aligned, equity-infused enrollment strategies that bring the entire campus into the process. MyDocs provides the technology foundation that makes those strategies actionable, transforming transcripts into structured insights that drive faster and fairer decisions.

As Mark often says, once you have the enrollment piece figured out, all else is possible. Together, strategy and technology are paving the way for institutions to plan boldly, act decisively, and serve students with clarity and care.