David Felsenthal likens college recruiting to Alaskan salmon fishing. Before it became a state, the fishing industry fought its entry into the union, preferring to operate in an unregulated market. “The big problem,” Felsenthal said in a 2018 interview, was that the streams were being overfished.”
What does this have to do with college enrollment? “The challenges enrollment leaders are having in terms of filling the class, making sure they’re bringing in a diverse student body, are huge,” he said. “As hard as salmon fishing is, I don’t think there’s anything harder than being the head of enrollment right now.”
Previously the Chief Executive Officer of The Advisory Board, which he took public in 2001, Felsenthal is now the CEO of EAB, which partners with more than 2,500 schools to drive transformative change through data-driven insights and best-in-class capabilities. A self-professed “research dork,” Felsenthal oversees an institution that helps students “achieve their enrollment and growth goals, retain and graduate more students, and advance their strategic priorities.”
As the company has changed over time, so too have the priorities of college students. In a report published this June, EAB found that nearly one-third of prospective students had removed a college from their wishlists based on political factors and that two-thirds of first-year students said having access to mental health resources was near the top of their list of priorities. The company’s report, “Recruiting the Anxious Generation,” illustrates how colleges can best attract the right students in this atmosphere.
Such work is big business, and under Felsenthal’s leadership, EAB has grown to over $500 million in revenue per year. For the Princeton University graduate and alumnus of Stanford’s Business School, helping students has been his job for nearly three decades. It’s hard work, but for Felsenthal, it comes naturally; if he’s swimming upstream, it’s by choice.