If You Remember One Thing, Make It 15

College can be overwhelming. Pick a major. Pay tuition. Register for classes. Choose extracurricular activities. Balance work and school. It’s not surprising that many students struggle to earn a degree on time without digging themselves into a financial hole. In the 40-year period from 1970 to 2009, the number of students in the U.S. entering undergraduate programs more than doubled. But completion rates have remained relatively unchanged. Only 3 of 5 students at four-year colleges graduate within six years, and the rate is much lower for community college students.

This challenge is familiar to people working to improve success rates across the rapidly changing higher education landscape. The good news is that we’ve learned a lot more in recent years about how to do better. Knowing what works, of course, is only half the battle. Actually persuading people to think and act in new ways is a whole different ballgame.

Designing Solutions

Bridging the gap between discovering what works and actually making it work is where the challenge of designing human-centered solutions comes into play. At Free Range, we worked with the team at Complete College America to focus on how to encourage students to make decisions that give them the best chance at college success.

A recent key insight is that students who take 15 credits per semester are more likely to graduate on time. The obvious reason is that students will quickly reach the 120 credit hours needed for a bachelor’s degree, or the 60 hours needed for an associate degree. But there’s another advantage: students who take this route are more likely to earn better grades than those who take fewer credit hours. And, of course, getting to a degree more quickly saves money and allows students to enter the workforce sooner.

Seems like an easy decision, right? Well, there are a couple of challenges. Federal student aid guidelines tell students that full-time enrollment means at least 12 hours — implying that 12 credit hours each semester are sufficient to allow students to graduate on time. And students don’t believe that more credit hours will improve performance in class — even though this is exactly what research shows. Finally, college life floods students with so much information that making smart decisions can seem harder than it has to be.

Making it Stick

Complete College America has already seen the success of its 15 to Finish initiatives on a number of college campuses. At the University of Hawaii, front-and-center messaging around the benefits of enrolling in 15 credit hours each semester has yielded incredible improvements in student success. So we at Free Range worked with Complete College America to design an open-source campaign for colleges and universities nationwide — to tell students about the benefits of taking 15 credit hours in a way that they couldn’t miss.

A few insights informed the design of the campaign:

Demand attention: Our designers took their cues from a limitless survey of the most eye-catching artwork in any modern context, from concert posters to internet memes to viral content.

Build genuine curiosity: The campaign simply focuses on the number 15 — in all its beautiful simplicity — with the aim of driving curiosity, conversation, and information-seeking.

Be everywhere: A bold multichannel campaign toolkit — including posters, videos, presentations, digital ads, t-shirts and social media posts — reaches students at all possible touchpoints to drive home this important message about student success.

Animated by these insights, the campaign has spread to many colleges and universities in the short time since its release. As enrollment ramps up for 2017, the 15 to Finish campaign will equip students to make important decisions that ensure they get what they came for — a great education that prepares them for a lifetime of career success.

If you’re a college or university that would like to access the 15 to Finish campaign resources, click here.

For more information on Complete College America, click here.

At Free Range, we bring business innovation and creative to small and mid-sized businesses and NGOs. We help clients build brands, start movements, innovate, grow and navigate change. We work smart and work relentlessly to do good by you, your community and the world. Get in touch at freerange.com.