    
        We take a   behaviorally informed 
             research-based 
             cutting-edge 
             student-centered 
           data-driven 
        
       approach to driving change
      in postsecondary education
    

A college degree is the best path to a secure economic future. But for millions of Americans, it remains out of reach.

Over the past decade, we’ve leveraged behavioral insights to research, design, and test solutions that have helped thousands of students achieve their postsecondary goals.

A behavioral approach goes beyond conventional wisdom.

To improve education and workforce outcomes, we reimagine the context students navigate instead of trying to change students themselves.

Financial Aid

Conventional Wisdom
“If students really need financial aid, they’ll make sure to renew the FAFSA by the deadline. After all, we remind them plenty…”
Behavioral Approach
Many students are derailed by hassles inherent in the FAFSA, mistakenly believe their family makes too much money to qualify for aid, or don’t know about available help such as financial aid counselors. ideas42 designed a behaviorally informed FAFSA communications campaign for the City University of New York that boosted renewal rates by 4-6 percentage points.

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Enrollment

Conventional Wisdom
“If students don’t show up on day one of classes, they must have changed their mind about attending…”
Behavioral Approach
Many prospective students struggle to fit classes into their lives or are confused by the steps they need to take to enroll. And even if they know what to do, they may find those enrollment steps hard to complete. ideas42 worked with Fayetteville State University to develop personalized enrollment road maps that improved students’ perceptions of the enrollment process.

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Self-paced Degrees

Conventional Wisdom
“If students fall off track in self-paced degree and certificate programs, then flexibility must not be as important as people say it is…”
Behavioral Approach
Students in flexibly paced programs often do not know how to optimally pace their work, get derailed by more urgent demands on their time, and lack accountability for their progress. ideas42 worked with Calbright College to provide students with recommended timelines for target program completion, which boosted assignment completion and course progress by 50%.

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Support Services

Conventional Wisdom
“If students don’t use the services we offer, they must not care enough about their own success.”
Behavioral Approach
Students often interpret struggle as a sign that they are not suited for college, or do not realize that asking for help is normal and encouraged. ideas42 worked with San Francisco State University to help students form new narratives around struggling in freshman year, boosting persistence to sophomore year by 10% and also improving academic performance.

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What we offer

We have a simple approach to solving complex problems: take the student perspective. We use this to help changemakers in postsecondary education transform the student experience in three key ways.

Research & Design

We develop custom, targeted solutions grounded in decades of behavioral science research.

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Tools & Resources

We offer free, ready-to-use checklists, guidelines, and more to help you implement proven behavioral solutions for student success.

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Trainings & Workshops

We build your team’s skills in applied behavioral design through expert-led, interactive, customizable courses.

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Have questions about how we work?

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Working with ideas42 has been transformative for Calbright. They helped us identify barriers that our focus population of working adult learners might face and then quickly design, test, and scale solutions that have had a measurable impact on key outcomes. The student-centered, data-driven, and equity-focused nature of ideas42's work is closely aligned with Calbright's own approach to student success, and our collaboration with them has allowed us to enhance our educational model to better meet the needs of the diverse learners we serve.

MARISA BOLD
Head of Strategic Growth and Development, Calbright College
ideas42 has been one of the most effective partners we have worked with. Through their highly structured methodology, we gained valuable insights into the behaviors of our learners, and barriers in our processes that may be inhibiting their success and persistence.…Their insights informed a series of interventions which have resulted in significant positive trends in our success and persistence outcomes. As a consulting partner, they are knowledgeable, organized and efficient.

SUSAN NATHAN
Chief Experience Officer, Southern New Hampshire University
Working with ideas42 was a great experience, and I encourage any institution or organization to work with them on tackling a big challenge. They have a solid process that helped us move through data gathering and creating an action plan quickly, so we were able to implement within a few months after our initial meeting….ideas42 provided us the credibility we needed to push forward a student-centered approach – being able to say we were working with experts in behavioral design changed how many of our colleagues viewed the communication and outreach process we implemented.

MICHELLE MCKELVE
Senior Director, Thrive Center, University of Arizona

Our partners

We have collaborated with dozens of colleges, universities, student success nonprofits, workforce development programs, foundations, and other organizations.