PRESS RELEASE: Carnegie announces merger with Underscore, driven by their mission to provide innovation in the higher education industry.

For immediate release—Westford, MA; Charlotte, NC—Carnegie Dartlet LLC (“Carnegie”), higher education’s most innovative enrollment marketing and strategy company, announced today they are merging with Underscore LLC, the largest dedicated Slate CRM development and optimization company. The move further demonstrates Carnegie’s commitment to providing industry-leading marketing and enrollment solutions that help its university partners connect with the right students. 

Carnegie has pushed the boundaries of higher education marketing since its founding in 1985, offering custom solutions and innovations in digital marketing, lead generation, research, strategy, and creative. Since its beginning in 2017, Underscore has established itself as higher education’s premier Slate CRM development and optimization partner by answering the market’s critical demand for this expertise. 

“This merger offers partner institutions of both companies the opportunity to optimize their recruitment operations through a customized integration of their CRM and marketing efforts,” said Carnegie Chairman and CEO Joe Moore. “The combined offerings will be a welcomed, cost-efficient solution for clients who are ready to search differently.”

Integration opportunities for Carnegie and Underscore clients will be immediate and come with major benefits. Enhanced reporting and communications flow will be available to Slate institutions using any of Carnegie’s digital marketing, lead generation (CollegeXpress), or research services. Student Search clients will have a turnkey solution for extending search digitally. Carnegie’s audience segmentation model (Darts) will return more intelligent recruitment, yield, and retention campaigns and maximize a client’s CRM and marketing investment.

“We are excited to join Carnegie to provide Slate expertise to Slate-Carnegie institutions as well as new partners looking to get the most out of their CRM investment,” said Underscore co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Scott Novak. “On top of this, Carnegie’s many services, from digital marketing to market research to CollegeXpress, are a perfect match to our Slate offerings. We’ve had proven success with shared clients, so we’re thrilled to bring that product innovation to more clients to help schools run Student Search more effectively, segment their audiences more intelligently, and get the most out of their CRM.”

In addition to an innovative spirit, the two companies share a commitment to client attention, personalized solutions, and developing long-term relationships, and clients can anticipate more of the same as the two companies team up.

“Unlike many mergers and acquisitions, this one will be different,” Moore explained. “We are committed to offering our partner institutions the same personalized, high-quality experience they’ve always received.”

About Carnegie 
Carnegie (Carnegie Dartlet) is a higher education enrollment marketing and strategy leader that delivers custom marketing and communications solutions through integrated research, strategy, digital marketing, lead generation, and creative. By generating quality connections between universities and students, Carnegie drives enrollment growth for its clients.

About Underscore
As the country’s largest dedicated Slate development and optimization company, Underscore is transforming the enrollment landscape by leveraging the power of Slate. Underscore’s team of higher education professionals are backed by decades of experience to help partner colleges and universities with Slate implementation, Student Search marketing and enrollment communications, enrollment strategy, custom applications and portals, personalized training, and creative work. Whether the goal is to increase enrollment, eliminate the use of third-party vendors, or simply learn how to better utilize Slate, Underscore is there to help.