Strategize
We work with you to understand your institutional goals and priorities, then design a bespoke data, analysis, and assessment strategy that answers the questions your organization wants answered.
Every institution looks the same. We help yours stand out!
Student-centered, high-impact programming.
Boutique data strategy & program assessment services for
- Career Education & Internships
- Student Research
- Study Abroad & Global Ed
- Honors Programs
- Living & Learning Communities
- Awards & Fellowships
- First-Year Seminars
- Service & Community-Based Learning
Degrees have converged
- Degrees have converged.
- Course offerings are standardized across institutions.
- Programs are hard to distinguish on paper.
- Schools invest in their high-impact programs now more than ever.
What separates institutions is the experience they build around the degree. The programs that carry your identity are the least measured and evaluated operations on your campus. Rubrique Advisory Co. conducts a full, evidence-based assessment of these programs, ties them to your institutional goals and outcomes (e.g., employment and earnings outcomes; donor and alumni relations; recruitment, matriculation, and retention), and writes the stories for your key audiences: campus community, trustees, donors, prospective students and families, and oversight and accreditation agencies.
Assessment shops hand over a dashboard and stop. Communications shops write a glossy story without owning the numbers. We do both, so the story never outruns the evidence and the evidence never dies in a spreadsheet.
How we work
Four steps, one team.
Measure
We design the metrics and instruments, then collect and analyze the data, from a straightforward comparison to advanced modeling and simulation. The method fits the question, not the other way around.
Interpret
We tell you what the numbers mean for your budget and your goals: where to spend, where to cut, and what to protect. Plain enough for a board, rigorous enough to survive scrutiny.
Communicate
We turn the result into a narrative your stakeholders will act on (trustees, faculty, donors, prospective families, and regulators), kept consistent with how your institution already talks about itself.
Why now?
Differentiation has moved off the transcript and onto the holistic campus experience, where institutions can least prove it. Federal policy now ties program-level employment and earnings outcomes to funding, making return on investment a survival question. Colleges are shifting from growth by expanding program selection and class sizes to growth by choosing what to keep, cut, and rebuild, and those calls need evidence-based assessment and communication to campus leaders. The institutions that do well will be the ones that can prove their value and tell that story clearly.
Because the stakes just went up.
2 of 3Programs that fail the Department of Education’s new earnings test in 2 of 3 years can lose federal student loan eligibility.
~13%U.S. high school graduates peaked around 3.9M in 2025 and are projected to fall about 13% through 2041.
~17%New international student enrollment fell about 17% in fall 2025, the largest non-pandemic drop in over a decade.
Outside eyeDonors and funders increasingly want an outside evaluation of high-impact programming.
- Career Education & Internships
- Student Research
- Study Abroad & Global Ed
- Honors Programs
- Living & Learning Communities
- Awards & Fellowships
- First-Year Seminars
- Service & Community-Based Learning
Signature Program Evaluation
We assess and tell the story of the programs that make you different.
Our Signature Program Evaluation provides end-to-end assessment of your key student-centered, high-impact initiatives: defining success metrics and outcomes; developing a bespoke data strategy, measurement plan, and study design; and reporting findings tied to your enrollment and yield, retention and completion, giving, and graduate employment and earnings numbers.
Then we develop a full strategic communication packet for your trustees, donors, and campus leaders to support evidence-based decisions, and for students and families to show them the college experience your institution can provide.
Data Readiness Diagnostic
One low-commitment first step.
Not ready for a full engagement? Not sure how your high-impact programs align with your institutional goals? Overwhelmed by the amount of historical data you have collected?
We can start with a Data Readiness Diagnostic: a 6- to 8-week, fixed-fee review of what your data holds, where the gaps are, and what it can and cannot yet answer.
Let’s talk impact.
Tell us about your program and we’ll contact you to design a custom assessment plan.