About the Episode
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About the Episode:
In this episode of EduData, Jamie Boggs and Timothy Davis sit down with Vanessa Didyk (CEO) and Garvel Kindrick (Head of Enrollment Data) from ZeeMee, the student engagement platform transforming college admissions. Together, they dive deep into how ZeeMee leverages behavioral signals, machine learning, and a student-first design to deliver astonishing insights — like predicting commitment with 90% precision.
From decoding engagement patterns to understanding the power of a low-index applicant, the discussion uncovers how ZeeMee’s new multi-stage predictive models can shape recruiting strategies, reduce melt, and even anticipate alumni giving before students apply. Plus, the team shares a peek behind the curtain at the tech and talent powering this innovation.
Whether you're an enrollment leader, data enthusiast, or just love the intersection of education and technology, this episode is packed with actionable insights and future-ready thinking.
Key Takeaways
- ZeeMee’s behavioral data platform boosts enrollment success: Students in ZeeMee communities apply at twice the rate, yield at four times the rate, and melt at half the rate compared to non-users.
- Predictive analytics is no longer optional: ZeeMee’s commitment model uses behavioral data to predict who will apply, commit, and yield with up to 90% accuracy.
- ZeeMee’s model is student-centric, not institution-centric: This allows colleges to see real-time intent signals based on a student’s full digital journey—not just engagement with one institution.
- Data signals drive smarter decision-making: Chat frequency, community engagement, and student interests all feed into ZeeMee’s predictive scores to inform where to allocate recruitment resources.
- New tools coming to campus dashboards: ZeeMee is launching updated dashboards and counselor-friendly recommendations to help admissions teams take data-driven action daily.
- Enrollment teams save money by focusing efforts: Identifying low-likelihood students early helps institutions reduce spend on unnecessary outreach, like costly mailers.
- ZeeMee democratizes enrollment intelligence: Young admissions professionals get daily action lists derived from real-time behavioral insights—turning “what should I do today?” into data-backed decisions.
What is ZeeMee, and how does it serve both students and institutions?
ZeeMee is a student-first engagement platform that helps high schoolers build authentic college communities before they set foot on campus. Students discover and join communities for the schools they’re interested in, find future roommates and friends, and consume real, student-generated content. While it’s built with students in mind, the data collected through these interactions—like which schools they follow or how much time they spend engaging—also fuels predictive models for institutions. In short, ZeeMee makes the college search journey more personal for students and more insightful for marketers.
The platform’s design deliberately mirrors social media apps, offering a familiar, peer-driven interface. Students organically discover ZeeMee via word of mouth and Reddit, or through institution-led invitations. This early engagement isn’t just about socializing—it drives higher conversion at every stage of the enrollment funnel. In fact, students who engage with ZeeMee communities are statistically more likely to apply and enroll, and far less likely to melt.
What kind of behavioral data does ZeeMee track, and why does it matter?
ZeeMee's predictive models are built on a rich ecosystem of behavioral signals. These include how many profiles students view, how active they are in chats, how many friends they make, and how much time they spend in each school’s community. These “under the surface” metrics are key to understanding where a student is in their decision journey—and they often reveal intent well before traditional indicators like application submissions.
ZeeMee’s standout innovation lies in how it contextualizes student behavior across multiple schools. If a student suddenly shifts engagement from School A to School B, ZeeMee’s model registers that change and adjusts their predictive scores accordingly. This offers colleges insight not only into how students interact with their own brand but also into how they engage with competitors—something most CRMs or website analytics can’t capture alone.
The result is a student-centric approach to enrollment marketing that offers schools dynamic, real-time views of intent and interest—helping them reach the right student at the right time with the right message.
What is ZeeMee’s commitment model, and how accurate is it?
ZeeMee's commitment model assigns each student a score from 0 to 1—representing their likelihood to commit. These scores are then grouped into high, medium, and low “buckets.” The high bucket contains the top 15% of students who are most likely to enroll, with the model predicting outcomes with an impressive 90% precision rate. Meanwhile, about 65% of students fall into the low bucket—and historically, less than 0.5% of those actually commit.
This categorization lets admissions teams focus their time where it matters most. Medium-score students are the swing votes—they might tip toward enrolling with the right nudge or fall off without it. ZeeMee's model offers clear cues for admissions teams on when and how to act.
Perhaps just as valuable, ZeeMee’s tools help institutions avoid wasted spend. For example, low-score students—while not ignored—can be moved into lower-cost channels like drip email, rather than expensive print mailers. The model even helps identify “soft apps”—applications from students unlikely to enroll unless further nurtured.
How is ZeeMee improving the admissions team experience?
Recognizing that many admissions counselors are early in their careers—and not trained data scientists—ZeeMee is building dashboards that don’t just show data, but interpret it. The upcoming platform enhancements will suggest specific, daily actions for recruiters: who to call, who to text, who to re-engage. These recommendations are automatically updated based on live behavioral changes.
This empowers counselors with both the art and science of recruitment. Instead of guessing who’s “worth” the outreach, they can confidently engage based on predictive accuracy. Meanwhile, directors and associate directors no longer have to spend hours slicing data in Slate or other CRMs—ZeeMee's system serves up the insights in real time.
This shift toward automation and recommendation represents a broader trend in enrollment marketing: using data analytics in higher education to drive daily action, not just end-of-cycle reporting.
What’s next for ZeeMee’s data modeling capabilities?
ZeeMee’s team is expanding the commitment model to cover the full student lifecycle—from interest to application, to enrollment, retention, and even alumni giving. This “cradle-to-grave” approach is built on years of behavioral insights and bolstered by layering in traditional CRM data, website traffic, and more.
Using a random forest model trained on millions of student records, ZeeMee’s next-gen tools will be able to tell institutions not just who is likely to enroll, but when and how to best support them. As ZeeMee CEO Vanessa Didyk noted, they’re even building models to predict who will donate back to the institution—before that student even applies.
These tools are built using robust cloud infrastructure (AWS, Python), and the ZeeMee data science team—led by enrollment experts like Garvel Kindrick and senior data scientist Mayur Waghela—brings both technical precision and strategic insight. The data volume is staggering: ZeeMee processes millions of records per week, helping ensure predictions are grounded in real-world student behavior.
Connect With Our Co-Hosts:
About The Enrollify Podcast Network: The EduData Podcast is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!
Some of our favorites include Generation AI and The Higher Ed Geek.
Enrollify is produced by Element451 — the next-generation AI student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful and personalized interactions with students. Learn more at element451.com.
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