About Us
At Collegiate Consulting, our mission is to empower colleges and universities to thrive in an ever-evolving educational landscaping by harnessing the power of data.
A Trusted Partner. As a boutique firm, our commitment is to become a trusted partner, guiding institutions towards excellence, efficiency, and innovation. We specialize in solving complex challenges through the creation and interpretation of insightful metrics. By combining cutting-edge analytics with a deep understanding of the unique needs of higher education institutions, we strive to provide actionable insights that drive informed decision-making. Through collaborative solutions and a passion for advancing education, Collegiate Consulting is dedicated to shaping a brighter future for higher learning.
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Comprehensive Approach. An important component of becoming a trusted partner is to first take the time to understand the full scope of the problem at hand. Only after the problem has been clearly defined, will we proceed by analyzing the root of the problem, developing key metrics for insight, before eventually tackling potential solutions.
1 | Scope
2 | Discovery
3 | Findings
4 | Takeaways
The initial step of our approach, defining the scope of the problem, will begin well before contract is signed. Once we have a better understanding of the issue at hand, we will submit an initial proposal and depending on the complexity of the problem, schedule additional conversations to help us clearly define the problem we'll be partnering to solve.
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Once we have a well-defined problem, Collegiate Consulting will begin our discovery process, researching, developing, and aggregating key metrics culminating in a comprehensive data set that will serve as the heart of our analysis.
Upon finalizing our data set, Collegiate Consulting will begin the process of analyzing the data, harnessing tools such as R, Python, and Tableau, to come up with meaningful metrics to base our conclusions. All of our data findings will be fully available to interact with through our secured server.
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Finally, after our analysis is complete we will provide a written report and offer a presentation for administrators and/or board members to discuss our findings and provide key takeaways and recommendation(s) for the best path forward.
Unlock the Value of Our Data Library. Collegiate Consulting strongly adheres to philosopher Lau Tzu's famous proverb, "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
While we love to solve new problems with repeat customers, once we collaboratively come up with a solution that meets your needs, we encourage institutions to become self-sustaining by maintaining (or letting us maintain) updated metrics used in our analysis with an annual subscription to our ever-expanding data library.
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Our unique strategy gives control to the institutions, letting them determine if they have the infrastructure needed to maintain metrics with access to our data or if they'd prefer us to host and maintenance their dashboards. To facilitate our do-it-yourself option, we provide full-access to our algorithms and data after partnering, which gives institutions the option to continually update metrics and track progress year-over-year in key strategic areas for a fraction of the price of a full-contract renewal,, For institutions without the support of an institutional research or business analytics team or those that want their dashboards always in ready mode, we remain happy to host and support your dashboards for a yearly subscription of 20% the project cost.
Our History
Iowa, William C. Fletcher remained the ultimate salesman. Even at age 75, 31 years into his 35-year stint as the volunteer Head Golf Coach at Coe College, Coach Fletcher’s charisma and energy attracted impressionable golfers (of all skill levels) to embark on their higher education journey in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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Eventually, I found myself standing in line with future classmates and lifelong friends, each of us waiting to ring Coe’s Victory Bell, signifying the beginning of our college journey. Scattered amongst the group were 12 more freshmen golfers --- Coach Fletcher delivering for the admission office once more. While our academic experience lived up to everything Coach had promised, the wisdom imparted upon us, and the friendships formed under his tutelage would leave the most indelible impact.
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The Cup. An onion volcano erupts in the foreground, as shrimp flew through the air. Our golf team, on our annual Spring Break voyage south, surrounded a hibachi grill capping off a day in the sun. When my teammate Drew’s beverage arrived in a porcelain Buddha Cup, I innocuously suggest we should play a match for the cup the next day. Upon accepting my challenge, a tradition was born that would forever change our lives.
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Last summer, Drew & I celebrated the 20th edition of the Buddha Cup with a road trip to Louisville, Kentucky, keeping us on schedule to play a Buddha Cup in every state by our 75th birthdays. While our post-college lives have crisscrossed across the US, the Buddha Cup remained the constant, an opportunity to get together to rehash old stories and solve the world’s problems.
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The Company. As time accelerated and Drew (now an economics professor and higher education researcher) and I (an enrollment manager and consultant) both settled into our careers in higher education, our Buddha Cup trip conversations more frequently turned to the serious issues facing colleges and universities, namely in the areas of enrollment management, academic planning, and budgeting.
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When we eventually had the opportunity to work together professionally on a project studying the Performance, Investment, and Productivity of Academic Programs at a small liberal arts school, we instantly realized we had stumbled upon valuable metrics for schools to assess academic programs and faculty staffing. And so, with Coe College's Victory Bell serving as inspiration for our logo, Collegiate Consulting was born, with a mission to help colleges and universities use data to develop key metrics to solve critical problems.
In the early days of 2024, Collegiate Consulting was born, but our roots trace back decades earlier when fate would intervene to set in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to the launch of our company. As such, here is the story of how Collegiate Consulting came to be...
The Coach. Weekly articles inscribed with hand-written notes. Regular phone calls. An in-house recruitment visit. Years removed from running the largest car dealership in Eastern
Our Team
Brian Nigg, MBA
Founder & Principle
Brian is the Founder & Principle of Collegiate Consulting. After graduating from Coe College in 2005 with a Bachelors of Arts in Computer Science and English, Brian has dedicated his career to higher education, also completing his MBA from the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business in 2011.
Previously, Brian has served as the Assistant Director of Admissions & Operations at Coe College (IA), the Senior Associate Director of Admission at Creighton University (NE), and Director of Admission/Senior Business Intelligence Analyst at the College of William & Mary (VA).
With experience in a small liberal arts school, a midsized comprehensive university, and a "Public Ivy," Brian has developed keen insights into what problems are currently facing a variety of institutions and how data can be used to develop metrics to address the complex challenges facing higher education today.
Drew Westberg, PhD
Senior Analytic Consultant
Drew will serve as Senior Analytic Consultant for Collegiate Group. After graduating from Coe College in 2005 with a Bachelors of Arts in Economics & Business Administration, Drew continued his higher education journey first completing a Masters in Urban & Regional Planning at the University of Iowa before completing his PhD in Economics at the University of Missouri Kansas City in 2012.
Previously, Drew served as a City Planner with the city of Cedar Rapids, before eventually reuniting with his undergraduate alma mater where he currently serves at the Henry Tippie Associate Professor of Economics.
In addition to teaching responsibilities in micro economics and money and banking, Drew sits on the Coe College's Budget and Finance committee and dedicates much of his research responsibilities to higher education.