Student Success & Retention

Belonging Builds Persistence

When students feel seen, supported, and connected, success follows. We help you make that culture real.

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Our Approach

Carnegie partners with colleges and universities to strengthen student success and retention through research, data-informed strategy, inclusive campus culture, and measurable impact. From first-year persistence to graduation, we help institutions keep the promises made at enrollment: connection, support, and opportunity.

Our comprehensive solutions, including Moving the Needle and Student Success Assessments, integrate research, collaboration, and cultural alignment to improve retention and elevate outcomes across your campus. We also help institutions operationalize these strategies within platforms like Slate, ensuring student success initiatives are embedded into the systems your teams use every day.

Solutions That Strengthen Every Student Connection

Moving the Needle

Engage your full campus in a two-year, data-informed partnership that transforms culture, builds belonging, and improves retention. Through workshops, leadership development, and measurable goals, this initiative helps institutions turn insight into sustained impact.

Student Success Assessments

Our comprehensive student success assessments analyze the full student experience—from admissions to graduation—to uncover barriers to belonging and persistence. The result: a strategic roadmap with actionable steps that strengthen retention and student connection.

Student Success Modeling

Powered by predictive analytics and higher education retention research, our modeling reveals the academic, financial, and social factors most tied to persistence at your institution. We help you design targeted interventions that improve outcomes for every learner.

Re-Engagement Strategy

We help institutions re-enroll and support stop-outs using data-driven outreach and high-touch communication. By identifying motivation barriers and tailoring re-engagement pathways, we help students complete their journey and strengthen your enrollment and revenue.

Student Success in Slate

Translate strategy into action within your CRM. We design and implement Slate processes that support persistence, streamline interventions, and connect data to timely, personalized student outreach—helping your team turn insight into measurable retention gains.

How it Works

Analyze the Student Experience

We begin with deep student success research and retention analysis, reviewing institutional data, student surveys, and campus processes to pinpoint the factors that most influence persistence, belonging, and completion at your institution.

Build Campuswide Commitment

Our team facilitates campus-wide collaboration through leadership workshops, faculty sessions, and student listening, ensuring buy-in and shared ownership of your student success and retention goals from day one.

Create a Data-Informed Roadmap

Drawing on insights from Moving the Needle and Student Success Assessments, we create a tailored roadmap that connects data to action, aligning academic support, financial strategy, and culture change into a single, measurable plan for student success.

Maintain a Culture of Belonging

We help you institutionalize success systems that last. Through ongoing monitoring, predictive modeling, and culture-building initiatives, we ensure retention gains continue year after year and that every student feels connected, supported, and equipped to thrive.

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Revitalizing Campus Spaces Builds Community and Catalyzes Growth

The University of the Ozarks launched a strategic plan to enrich student life, strengthen connections with its community, and reverse more than a decade of declining enrollment.

Featured Student Success Case Study

Ohio Wesleyan’s transformation has reshaped the institution from the inside out. Retention gains arrived three years ahead of schedule, leadership capacity has strengthened across departments, and the university is attracting more of the students it most seeks to serve—local, high-achieving, first-generation, and Pell-eligible students.

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Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University

A unified institutional strategy—centered on student experience, leadership development, and data-informed decision-making—accelerated retention gains, strengthened institutional alignment, and reshaped the university’s impact years ahead
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Research

The Next Gen Learners Report

Download Carnegie’s Next Gen Learners Report to explore how teens evaluate college today, from affordability and belonging to AI, authenticity, and career outcomes.

Learn More

Our Thoughts on Student Success and Retention

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Student Success
Carnegie Conversations: Answering Questions About International Enrollment, Public Trust, and Student Success in Higher Education
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Student Success and Retention
The Value Proposition in Higher Education: It’s All About Student Success

By Joretta Nelson

Leadership Development
The Return of Pandemic Leadership in Higher Ed: Why 2025 Feels a Lot Like 2020

By Emma Jones

Leadership Development
Reckoning with Higher Education’s Role in a Polarized America

By Alex Kappus

Build Your Integrated Support System for Student Success

Enrollment Strategy
Align your recruitment and retention goals through data-driven planning that supports students from first contact to completion.
Explore Enrollment Strategy
Strategic Planning
Transform big ideas into actionable strategies. We help you align mission, resources, and leadership to create adaptive plans built for impact.
Explore Strategic Planning
Financial Aid Optimization
Design aid strategies that balance affordability and institutional goals, helping more students say yes while sustaining long-term enrollment health.
Explore Financial Aid Optimization
Slate Optimization
Maximize your Slate CRM with Carnegie’s expert consulting. Streamline admissions and student success processes, improve efficiency, and drive stronger enrollment and retention outcomes.
Explore Slate Optimization

Turn Student Success Into Institutional Strength

There’s never been a more important time to ensure student success and institutional strength. Let’s build the culture, systems, and strategies that help every student—and your institution—thrive.