Aaron Basko

Aaron has over 25 years of experience as an enrollment growth specialist and student success strategist. Aaron has led teams that have engineered historic growth turnarounds at three different colleges, both public and private. He specializes in creating cross-functional teams for strategic enrollment planning and retention success.

As a thought leader and author, Aaron has written for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, University Business, The Times Higher Education, and The Journal of College Admissions. He has been quoted many times in Forbes on admissions topics. Aaron has served as a consultant for a major U.S. news outlet and multiple colleges and universities.

Aaron is a Fulbright International Education Administration Scholar (2015, Japan). He holds a Master of Arts in History (Latin America) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, Summa Cum Laude, from West Virginia Wesleyan. He was a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow (FLAS) and a Wesleyan Scholar, and a Truman Scholar finalist. He was also a Rotary Exchange Scholar in Argentina in 1993. He is certified in MBTI, Enneagram, and holds a Bridge TOEFL/TEFL Master Certification. Aaron is fluent in Spanish, with a specialization in working with international and bilingual students.

Aaron has authored seven books on career development, language learning, and college guidance for international students.

Aaron has served as an enrollment leader at five different institutions. Highlights include:

• Led an enrollment turnaround effort for a comprehensive institution that delivered a 22.3% increase in freshman class size and a $1.81M increase in overall net revenue in the first nine months

• Launched international recruitment initiatives, increasing international enrollment by 500% in one cycle and international deposits by over 700% in the second year.

• At a small college with years of declining enrollment, he led a comeback from a four-year enrollment low to a 21% increase during the pandemic. In his second year, applications grew by 37% and new enrollment by 40%, while the average SAT increased by 30 points and net revenue by over 60%

• At a regional public institution, Aaron managed overall University enrollment within a 1% margin of target goals over five years. He delivered the largest and most diverse incoming classes in the University's history, including a 14% increase in first-time students and a 20% increase in diversity

• He spearheaded the creation of two campus-wide Enrollment Master Plans, one of which garnered a commendation in the University’s Middle States reaccreditation process.

• He co-led a team that transformed a fifteen-year decline into a five-year turnaround and unprecedented success, with applications increasing by 64%, admit rate falling from 62% to 36%, yield rate rising from 27% to 30%, and the SAT average increasing from 1241 to 1300.