Case Study: USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck reduces admissions melt with Big Squid, Inc.

USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck - Customer Case Study

USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, the oldest social work school in the West and the largest in the U.S., wanted to reduce application fallout and “melt” — students dropping within 30 days of enrollment — which was hurting enrollment quotas, tuition revenue, and margins. Big Squid, Inc. worked with the school to analyze existing student enrollment data and improve admissions decisions.

Using Big Squid’s machine learning platform, Kraken, Big Squid, Inc. built a model that assigned each applicant a probability of dropping so admissions teams could identify high-risk students earlier. The model achieved 89% accuracy in predicting which applicants were likely to drop, contributing to a 7% admit reduction and enabling proactive outreach, screening, and support for at-risk students.

USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck