More than 300 colleges have adopted direct‑admissions offers and are now grappling with how to manage a fundamentally different prospect pool. Enrollment‑management experts including Laura Rudolph and Geoff Baird told The Chronicle and enrollment consultants that direct admits show different engagement patterns and often arrive with low prior awareness of institutions. Colleges that fold direct admits into traditional pipelines risk missing behavioral signals and depressing yield; Hampshire College cited combined tracking as a factor in a major enrollment miss. The debate centers on whether institutions should build separate outreach, advising and technology flows for direct admits or revamp entire recruitment strategies—an operational and IT lift for mid‑sized and resource‑constrained campuses. Practitioners say success hinges on tailored communications, distinct yield metrics and investment in analytics to detect alternative inquiry timelines.