The Signal: Ep. 79 – Valerie Fox: The New Front Door to Graduate Enrollment

Host: Jeff Dillon
Guest: Valerie Fox (EAB, formerly VP Marketing Communications at Bentley University)
Date: March 20, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the fast-changing landscape of graduate enrollment and marketing in higher education, exploring how technology—especially artificial intelligence (AI)—has become the “new front door” to graduate admissions. Host Jeff Dillon talks with marketing and enrollment strategy leader Valerie Fox about the shifts in student behavior, the risks of treating graduate enrollment like an extension of undergraduate marketing, and how institutions can build a more effective, future-ready approach.

Fox draws on decades of experience across higher ed and consumer brands to share specific recommendations, lessons from data on over 8,000 prospective students, and best practices for leadership and digital transformation in higher education.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Valerie Fox’s Path to Higher Ed (03:10)

• Fox’s background includes building digital strategies for consumer brands (Bose) and higher education (Bentley University), as well as consulting with major institutions.
• She has gravitated toward moments when “industry rules are getting broken,” such as the early days of e-commerce and social media.
• At Bentley, Fox led a digital transformation, helping shift the institutional mindset from print and tradition-bound marketing to sophisticated, student-centric digital experiences.
• Quote:

  "I really got hooked then on building something new in kind of this legacy environment. Bose was kind of like the Titanic and I was on this team...trying to veer that ship slowly in a different direction." — Valerie Fox (04:09)

2. The Mindset Shift for Digital Transformation (07:22)

• Effective transformation hinges more on changing mindsets than simply updating technology.
• Fox emphasized getting leadership and staff to see the institution “from the student side,” leveraging user research and analytics to foster buy-in and align teams.
• Board members began to shift when they saw digital ROI framed in strategic, business-centric terms.

3. Graduate Enrollment: Wake-Up Calls and Myths (10:39)

• Major misconception: Universities often try to “scale the undergraduate playbook” for graduate enrollment, despite significant differences in audience, resource allocation, and organizational structure.
  • Undergraduate recruitment is often centralized and well-resourced, while graduate efforts are fragmented and under-measured.
• The market is crowded, noisy, and competitive, especially for adult learners.
• Quote:

  "Undergraduate units are highly operationalized... Graduate education is often very fragmented and siloed and... not measured at all." — Valerie Fox (10:50)

4. Sharpening Market Insights: Data, Not Intuition (12:22)

• Too many graduate programs are launched based only on internal enthusiasm rather than market demand.
• Essential to ground decisions in public data:
  • IPEDS conferral data (student demand)
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics (employer demand)
  • Competitive/pricing analysis by region and program
• Leaders must continually reassess the market—not “set and forget.”
• Quote:

  "Launching a program... if you're not doing this and you're still launching programs, you're really... just hoping that the students will emerge. And that's a tough position to be in for a lot of institutions." — Valerie Fox (13:35)

5. The Challenge of Differentiation in a Crowded Market (14:12)

• Generic language (“supportive faculty,” “outcomes,” “innovation”) is the default—these are “sector minimums” that don’t stand out.
• Schools must get specific: What is truly distinct about their programs? Does it overlap with what students actually value?
• Example: Schools requiring online portfolios with demonstrable skill-building, layered with employer certification or alumni engagement, create distinctive barriers that are harder for competitors to mimic.
• Program-level specificity is especially critical for attracting and converting adult learners.
• Quote:

  "To strengthen the brand story, institutions really have to ask, what are we doing that's distinct from our peers? That's thing one, and thing two is, is there overlap with that distinction with what students really want?" — Valerie Fox (15:03)

6. Evolving Student Expectations—Efficiency, Autonomy, and Stealth (18:04)

• Adult/professional learners—non-traditional prospects—now expect hyper-efficiency, self-service, and on-demand answers akin to consumer platforms (Netflix, Uber).
• 80% of graduate/adult applicants are “stealth” shoppers: researching independently, avoiding info sessions, and making decisions without direct outreach.
• Higher ed websites are mission-critical “confirmation” touchpoints as qualified, decision-oriented visitors increasingly utilize self-service tools.
• Quote:

  “The biggest changes... right now is this shift towards efficiency, autonomy, digital-first decision making. Students are more efficient. They're using AI—rapidly adopting that—to continue doing all of this on their own.” — Valerie Fox (18:12)

7. AI as the New Front Door (20:51)

• Fox’s research: 8,000+ graduate/adult prospects surveyed—saw a 5x spike in students using AI to assemble shortlists of programs.
• While 60% of higher ed marketing leaders are researching AI-related search visibility, only one-third have begun implementation or even conducted a visibility audit.
• The risk: If AI becomes the new front door and institutions aren’t proactive, they risk disappearing from consideration.
• Quote:

  "If AI is becoming the new front door for college discovery... institutions that aren't actively ensuring they're visible... are really going to fall behind in a big way." — Valerie Fox (21:49)

8. Rethinking Marketing Technology & Analytics for Enrollment Growth (22:29)

• Most institutions are not tying web data directly to investments and outcomes. Many remain stuck on “vanity metrics” (pageviews, clicks).
• Institutions need to focus on “behaviors that are keeping the lights on”: application starts, information requests, and other high-value conversions.
• Creating a direct link between marketing spend and true enrollment-driving digital actions is essential.

9. What Separates High-Growth Institutions (24:52)

• Successful schools “prototype their way forward”—piloting and iterating, rather than tying up change in multi-year committees.
• Culture of disciplined experimentation and willingness to sunset low-performing efforts is pivotal.
• Quote:

  “The institutions that are accelerating growth are the ones that are running pilots instead of multi-year committees. They're defining what success looks like before they launch... They’re willing to stop doing things that no longer work.” — Valerie Fox (25:11)

10. Overcoming Cross-Functional Resistance (26:53)

• Friction often stems from different teams having different (and often outdated) market assumptions.
• Building consensus requires:
  • Establishing a shared, data-driven understanding of market realities (AI, digital, student behavior)
  • Using simple frameworks (2x2 matrices, pyramids, decision trees) to cut through complexity, clarify goals, and drive alignment.
• Quote:

  "Campus love[s] complexity... But I like using frameworks to kind of just compress complexity. Whether it's a two-by-two, a pyramid, a decision tree... Can we rally around this? That tends to also accelerate conversations and decisions..." — Valerie Fox (28:14)

11. Looking Ahead: Critical Advice for Leaders (29:38)

• The next 3–5 years will test long-held enrollment assumptions.
• Sustainable growth will not come from having the “best programs” (easy to copy) or the “biggest ad spend.”
• Instead, winners will have the clearest, most AI-optimized digital front doors—where web, brand, and enrollment strategies are tightly integrated, not siloed.
• Quote:

  “Leaders need to stop treating...separate work streams for website or for brand strategy or for enrollment strategy. Those work streams need to be tightly integrated because they all work in concert... to really amplify your brand on the channels, the AI driven channels that you need for students to find you.” — Valerie Fox (30:07)

Memorable Quotes

• “You need a shorthand, you need an assist, right? To really sort through, synthesize, compare, cut through what can feel like an endless sea of sameness.” — Valerie Fox (20:57)
• “Most critically is they're willing to stop doing things...no longer work. And that's often a very unpopular stand in higher ed. But it’s one you have to take.” — Valerie Fox (25:22)
• “It's never too late to make a good decision.” — Jeff Dillon (26:21)

Key Timestamps

• 03:10 – Fox’s journey and consumer brand experience
• 07:22 – Mindset over technology in digital transformation
• 10:39 – Myths about graduate enrollment
• 12:22 – From intuition to data in launching programs
• 14:12 – The challenge of higher ed brand differentiation
• 18:04 – Dramatic shift in non-traditional student expectations
• 20:51 – AI as the new front door: student and institution readiness
• 22:29 – Better use of marketing tech and analytics
• 24:52 – Prototype culture vs. committee culture
• 26:53 – Aligning cross-functional teams to overcome resistance
• 29:38 – Forward-looking advice for the next five years

Summary

Valerie Fox and Jeff Dillon provide a clear playbook for higher ed institutions urgently needing to adapt to a technology-fueled, AI-mediated era for graduate enrollment. From discarding assumptions—like the “undergrad playbook” working for grad programs—to replacing siloed strategies with a unified, data-driven digital front door, the conversation is packed with actionable insights for enrollment leaders, marketers, and institutional strategists alike.

“If AI is the new front door, then your digital strategy, website, and brand need to be tightly integrated—or risk being invisible.” — Valerie Fox (30:07)