Forecasting and Predictive Analytics: Combining Techniques for Better Projections

Accurate enrollment projections are fundamental to the efficient management of an institution, but there is more than one way to make them. Finance organizations have long used spreadsheet-based forecasting to estimate future revenues and expenses. Institutional research and enrollment management have been using predictive analytics to estimate student retention and, by extension, future enrollment. Yet the two rarely confer and even more rarely cooperate.

Outcomes: Understand the difference between a forecast and a predictive model * Understand the unique features of each model type * Learn about a project to combine data from the two