But Martineau BA’08 MS’12 PhD’13 and his team in the Office of Institutional Analysis are doing a lot more than just predicting a student’s likelihood to graduate. They’re using real-time data to identify students who might need extra support along the way. And this approach has produced some extraordinary results. Most notably, the six-year graduation rate has skyrocketed from 55 percent to 70 percent since 2011. The U is just one of two research universities in the country to see such a jump. “Improvement like this is truly outstanding,” says Martineau. “It puts us at the forefront of a national movement.”

Martineau credits a meeting he had with then-provost Ruth Watkins as one of the driving forces for the change. After reviewing the data his office had been collecting, she challenged them to use it for meaningful and systematic change—to help more students graduate and do it more efficiently. “Her mantra has always been that access to college without completion is a hollow promise,” he says.

What followed was a fundamental cultural shift in how the U views big data—from reactive to proactive. Martineau puts it this way: “When it comes to decision making, we’ve gone from looking in the rearview mirror to seeing out the front windshield.”

financial aid

SHOW ME THE MONEY

It doesn’t take big data to know that if students run out of tuition money, their degree is at risk—no matter how many nudges they get or when they take math. That’s why the U is expanding its focus and offering additional resources to help students cover the cost of attending school, says Brenda Burke, executive director of the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.

“Students’ first concern shouldn’t be how they’re going to pay for school,” she says. “They should be able to focus on coming to school, going to classes, and getting the education and experience they need to go out and be successful after they graduate. And they should have access to a variety of financial aid resources when determining how to cover the cost of college.”

Burke has helped oversee a staggering increase in scholarship and federal funding going directly to students. Much like how the U views big data, these improvements came from changing culture, she says. More outreach was key, which led her office to having a new outreach coordinator, who will coordinate more than 50 financial aid and scholarship workshops around campus and the surrounding community this year alone.

In addition to going out to the community, financial counselors are making themselves more available than ever. Before, students had to make an appointment—sometimes weeks or even months out.But now, the office has an open-door policy, which has made a huge difference. Annual visits to the counselors have increased from 400 to more than 7,000 over the past few years.

One of the first steps to receiving financial aid and need-based scholarships is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, which provides guidance on what types of grants, scholarships, loans, and work study options are available to students. The state of Utah has the second-lowest completion rate of the FAFSA form in the nation; just 38 percent of students fill it out, leaving an estimated $40 million of potential grants on the table. Since the open-door policy went into effect at the U, total FAFSA completion has improved by nearly 30 percent, and total financial aid dollars awarded increased by nearly 20 percent.

But students don’t have to physically go to the office to benefit from the improvements. Now, the U has a new scholarship database that consolidates most department and college scholarships into one central online location. Instead of searching the web for hours, students can fill out one application, along with interests, background, etc., and they are notified by email when new opportunities open. All these efforts are having an enormous impact. Over the last five years, scholarship dollars awarded at the U have shot up by an astounding 93 percent.