College recruiting is going through a “period of disruption,” said Rob A. Spademan, associate vice president of university marketing and communications for Cleveland State University. That’s due to the stagnant number of high school grads, to the student debt conversation and to the digital revolution, which has led to more out-of-state advertising. Students can “shop around” more easily now than ever, and universities are realizing they have to look at students as customers, Spademan said.

Cleveland State set out to grow its pool of potential applicants about six or seven years ago, recruiting students who were of a similar background to its existing students (first-generation students from inner-ring suburbs) in farther-flung regions like Michigan or Indiana. In Northeast Ohio, the university looked to grow interest outside the inner-ring suburbs, Spademan said. Spademan said the number of freshmen at the college had almost doubled from about 950 in fall 2009 to about 1,800 in fall 2015. But total enrollment dropped just a bit in the past year, from 17,345 in fall 2014 to 17,260 in fall 2015. At the University of Akron, expanding its horizons has meant moving beyond the primary focus areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania to include states like Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and New York, said Lauri Thorpe, the school’s associate vice president for enrollment management. The school also has streamlined the admission process, providing certainty to parents and students by letting them know decisions about admission and financial aid earlier.There was a 2.7% drop in total enrollment between fall 2014 and fall 2015, from 25,865 to 25,177, Thorpe said. But, she said, the entering freshman class rose 3.6%, to 4,278. Youngstown State University has seen a similar trajectory in recent years. When Gary Swegan, associate vice president for enrollment planning and management, came to the school in November 2013, the university had seen three straight years of enrollment declines. The university brought in an outside company for direct recruitment marketing, which helped widen the application pool, Swegan said. After that, Youngstown State saw a 90% increase in applications. “We’re getting it turned around here,” Swegan said. But in terms of enrollment, Youngstown State is still down. It dropped from 13,381 in 2013 to about 12,551 in 2014 and 12,471 in 2015. A large portion of that was a drop in continuing students, Swegan said — a combination of a lack in retention and in smaller class sizes in the upper classes. The retention piece started to turn around in the first year of selective admission in 2014, Swegan said.