How Lake Forest increased yield and reduced melt with ZeeMee
As the enrollment landscape grows more competitive and unpredictable, colleges and universities are rethinking traditional recruitment strategies. Rising costs, shifting student behaviors, and a shrinking prospect pool are pushing institutions to move beyond volume and focus on meaningful engagement.
Recognizing these shifts, Lake Forest College sought new ways to adapt, prioritizing authentic student connections to drive impact across yield, engagement, and melt.
About Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts institution located in Lake Forest, Illinois, just 30 miles north of Chicago and steps from Lake Michigan. Its scenic 107-acre campus features historic architecture, wooded ravines, and expansive green space.
Home to approximately 1,800 undergraduate students, Lake Forest offers a globally diverse community, with students representing over 40 states and 100+ countries. The college emphasizes a personalized education that allows students to pursue both practicality and passion, preparing them to become well-rounded, competitive graduates.
The Challenge
Shifting from volume to meaningful engagement
Like many institutions, Lake Forest College was facing increased pressure from the looming enrollment cliff and shifts in the standardized testing landscape. Traditional top-of-funnel strategies were becoming less effective, prospective student names were more expensive to acquire, and often lower in quality.
Recognizing this, the admissions team made a strategic decision: instead of focusing solely on generating more inquiries, they would invest in improving yield and deepening engagement with admitted students.
Achieving this required a new approach that would entail communicating the college’s unique value and helping students build real connections before making their enrollment decision.
The Solution
Driving engagement and supporting outreach with data-driven insight
Lake Forest College partnered with ZeeMee to create a more personalized, community-driven recruitment experience. In utilizing tools such as bulk messaging, live events, and the dynamic action button, they were able to achieve their goal of helping students form connections while also meeting enrollment goals.To build upon this success, they implemented RISE to enhance their engagement approach. Through RISE, they were able to equip their enrollment team with data to prioritize outreach, enabling deeper, more meaningful, and scalable relationships with students before enrollment decisions were made.
The Success
For the Fall 2025 cohort, ZeeMee played a significant role in driving student engagement and enrollment outcomes. More than 3 in 5 committed students were active on the platform, highlighting its widespread adoption among enrolled students. Admitted students who engaged on ZeeMee were 3x more likely to commit compared to those who did not, underscoring the impact of meaningful connection throughout the decision process
As a campus that enrolls students from all over the country and world, ZeeMee allowed us to build our incoming community and connect incoming students to each other ahead of their arrival to campus. Students’ ability to create a sense of community and belonging that carried over to their first weeks on campus was critical in both securing enrollment and ensuring students remained Foresters through move-in day. The success of these efforts have made ZeeMee a critical component of our recruitment strategy.
Michael Cohen
Senior Associate Vice President for Enrollment
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