How to Recruit Graduate StudentsGetting the results you want

The Do’s, The Don’t, and the Absolute Musts

Graduate and Professional School Enrollment Management Corp.

November 10 & 11 2008

• In order for a graduate student recruitment program to work, it must be practical, doable, affordable, and routinely evaluated.

• Successful graduate student recruitment involves more than just providing information. It also involves building relationships with those recruits that you hope to convert to enrollees.

Key goals and traits of a powerful graduate recruitment program include:

• Step 1 - Generate as large of an inquiry pool a possible.

• Step 2 - Convert inquiries into applicants.

• Step 3 - Convert your best applicants into enrollees.

Inquiries

Applications

Accepts

Enrollees

Prospects

Short-term actions:1. Evaluation of current program

QuantityQualityMix

2. Determine optimal capacity

3. Develop clear and actionable written recruitment goals

4. Set a budget

Your program’s web statusA. Position in search result (page and rank)• first-page traction is vital

B. Landing page

C. Quality of the site

Google search: graduate program in _________

30-Nov-08

Dept. 1st page 2nd page > 2nd page

Amer. Studies     X

Anthropology     X

Botany X    

Chemistry     X

Comm & Jour     XEcology     XEnglish     X

Creative writing     X

Geography      

Geol & Geophys     XHistory     X

Interntl. Studies     X

Mathematics     X

Mod & Class Lang   X  Music     X

Philosophy     X

Physics & Astro     X

Political Science     X

Public Admin.     X

Psycology     X

Sociology     X

Statistics     X

Zoo & Physiology X           

Check on optimization status

General search

Google search: university of wyoming english graduate program

Page one rank link

1 uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/REGISTRAR/bulletin/2asengl.html

2 uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/uwgrad/info.asp?p=2240

3 graduate-school.phds.org/university/uwyo/program/profile/english/

4 www.gradschools.com/ListingFunctions/Program

5 www.gradschools.com/ListingFunctions/Program

6 www.hum.utah.edu/english/?pageId=24

7 www.uiowa.edu/~englgrad/incoming/index.html

8 www.tetonscience.org/grad_students_faculty.shtml

9 www.uwyo.edu/creativewriting/info.asp?p=3040

10 www.collegedirectory.els.edu/scr/SchoolInfo.asp?sid=3335&mjrgrp

   goal: uwacadweb.wyo.edu/english/

Example – focused search

Short-term actions (cont.):

5. Search engine optimization for your website

6. Collect data

Inquiries

Applications

Accepts

Enrollees

Prospects What’s next??