First-Gen Yield Campaign Drives 21.7% Deposit Growth at a Regional Public University

Top Private Regional College, Midwest

The situation

This regional public university had no real admitted student or deposited student campaign. Students had said yes, or were close to it, and then intentional communication stopped.

For a campus where a significant portion of students would be the first in their family to attend college, and for whom not going was a very real alternative, that silence carried real risk. First-generation students face different decision pressures than continuing-generation students. They navigate financial aid, housing and campus logistics with less family context to lean on. They ask different questions. And when they don't hear back, they're more likely to walk away quietly rather than push.

These students didn't just need information. They needed to feel celebrated, supported and certain they belonged.

The work

Square One built a complete admitted and deposited student campaign from the ground up, designed specifically for this institution's first-generation audience.

• Built a full admitted and deposited student communication campaign from the ground up, filling a gap that had simply never been addressed
  

• Deliberately broke from the institution's previous communication style, introducing a new tone, new voice and fresh visual design that felt warm, energetic and genuinely celebratory rather than transactional
  

• Wrote messaging that treated first-generation students as the capable, college-ready people they are, celebrating their decision, acknowledging what it took to get there and showing them specifically what a college education could mean for their future
  

• Designed a deposited student campaign that sustained that energy through the summer melt window, keeping students connected, informed and excited about what was ahead

The results

• 21.7% increase in deposits year over year and counting. The institution is currently on track to record its best enrollment year in history
  

• Students who might have quietly opted out instead stayed engaged, felt seen and showed up in the fall

The takeaway

First-generation student recruitment fails most often not because of what institutions say, but because of what they don't say. The silence between admission and deposit, and between deposit and arrival, is where first-gen students lose confidence. They don't always signal that they're losing it. They just disappear.

Campaigns built on belonging, on genuine celebration and on anticipating the questions first-gen families don't know to ask, keep students connected through the windows where they're most likely to walk away. That's what this work is about. Not more emails. Better ones.

If your institution is trying to serve first-generation students better, let's talk. Schedule a conversation at squareoneky.com/marketing.