Look Inside A Personalization System

Most institutions say they want to be personal at scale. But very few can explain what that actually looks like inside the day-to-day work of an admissions office—especially in October, when counselor capacity is at its most strained and application activity is at its peak.

Next week, we’ll be talking with Reggie Hill, Associate Vice Chancellor of Strategic Enrollment at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, about how his team is managing that tension. It’s not a conversation about future-state AI or one-off tactics. It’s a look at how one institution has built a structure that supports real connection, grounded in student behavior, that still fits inside a busy admissions cycle.

What makes UMSL’s approach worth paying attention to isn’t that they’ve automated everything or built a new tech stack from scratch. It’s that they’ve made clarity part of their system. Counselors aren’t working harder—they’re working on the right students, because the system tells them where to focus each morning.

They’re not guessing. They’re not scrolling through old exports. They’re not relying on outdated priority lists. They’re acting on behavioral proximity—who’s leaning in, who’s drifting, and who’s signaling readiness without yet taking the next step.

That shift makes all the difference in October.

Most teams are overloaded right now. With applications surging, fall events still running, and staff trying to stay on top of outreach, it’s easy to fall into reactive mode. Messages go out based on availability, not urgency. Follow-up gets delayed. Counselors default to checking boxes because they can’t see the full picture.

UMSL has avoided that trap by turning personalization into a workflow—not just a tone. They’ve made behavioral data actionable. That means students who are sending signals get timely, relevant follow-up. And it means students who aren’t engaging get flagged early—before they slip into silence.

It’s not a flashy system. It’s a focused one.

And that’s the real takeaway. Personalization at scale doesn’t require big declarations or flashy tech. It requires systems that surface the right students, at the right time, with enough clarity that counselors can act without hesitation.

Next week’s conversation with Reggie will dig into the specifics of how they’ve done that. We’ll look at how they structure counselor workflows, how they connect daily data to enrollment strategy, and how they think about real personalization—not as a marketing phrase, but as a service to students.

October isn’t the time for new initiatives. It’s the time for clarity. And UMSL is showing what that looks like in real life.

Join us October 28 for a grounded, real-world look at how UMSL is powering connection through behavioral prioritization: crowdcast.io/c/vpreggie