GRADUATE ADMISSIONSSAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Diane McCormickAssistant VP Enrollment Management

Mary PascarellaDirector of Graduate Admissions

Moving Graduate Admissions from Academic Affairs to Enrollment Management

Who We Are

• Established in 1879 as a teachers college•Over 19,200 students enrolled• 7 Academic Colleges•Over 80 bachelor degrees, 62 master degrees,

and 6 doctoral programs• Two satellite campuses – The Woodlands Center

and Northwest Houston University Park• 25 fully online programs

Changes in Culture

•Go-live with Banner in 2010 – change in processing applications and technical needs• Slow increase graduate enrollment•Need to market online and graduate programs

effectively•Need to identify enrollment barriers especially

for students who could not physically come to campus during normal office hours.

Enrollment Audit

• Selected a third party consulting firm•Audit consisted of the following departments

⁻ Undergraduate Admissions⁻ Graduate Studies⁻ Registrar’s Office⁻ Financial Aid⁻ Bursar’s Office⁻ SAM Center (advising)⁻ Institutional Technology

Findings• Foundation of application processing and prospect student

database system were housed in Enrollment Management not Academic Affairs• Paper based application process system• Lack of communication to prospects and applicants• Basic marketing efforts existing but needed to be expanded• Minimal web presence or search engine optimization at the

graduate level• Graduate advisors were the main point of contact for

prospects and applicants was mainly

Audit Findings

From Academic Affairs

To Enrollment Management

Move Graduate Admissions

Web Optimization Team

•Refresh SHSU homepage to focus on prospective student audience, not our internal users• Improve search engine optimization for program pages•Update program landing pages•Campus awareness and buy-in

Digital Marketing

•Partnership with Hobsons Solutions•Focus on graduate and online programs•Online advertising with key words for search engine optimization•Relationship building with program advisors•Email communication to prospects and applicants

Campaign Creative

Prospect Management• Prospects click our advertising and are sent to a Microsite

that advertises “Featured Programs”• Prospects do one of two things:• Complete a form that triggers a communication plan (direct response)• Leave the microsite, but visit the University website directly (indirect

response)• Direct response leads are added to a communication plan• Communication plans include:

• Automated series of email messages (number and content of messages varies depending on area of interest).

• Telephone calls to establish personal connections with students

Campaign Response

• Two distinct kinds of response to the Online Marketing Campaign.• Direct campaign response – Prospects complete an

interest form and the leads drop into Hobson’s communication plans• Indirect response – Prospects back out of the microsite

and use a search engine to locate the university’s .edu website.• Results in increased referral traffic• Lead’s generated via regular Hobson’s Interest Pages or

applications directly from the website.

Direct Campaign Response

Direct Campaign Response

*Through March 24, 2014

Marketing Comparison

Prospect*

11,830

Prospect*

835

Applied 153—1.3%

Enrolled5—

0.04%* From June 2013-March 2014

Applied 151—17.7%Enrolled14—1.7%

Reply Cards Digital Marketing

Application Conversion Rates - Comparison

For general population, applications opened August 2012. Digital Marketing efforts started in June 2013.

Direct Campaign Response• Please note – Summer and Fall 2014 Registration has

not yet opened. Digital Marketing was set to impact Fall 2014. • 91 Apps on file for summer/fall 2014

Indirect Campaign Response

THE NEW ORDER OF BUSINESSSystems and Roles

Infrastructure

•BANNER with BANNER document imaging and ApplyTexas• For 2013 we processed:• 1,141 Spring• 1,051 Summer• 2,265 Fall

• Supplemental materials such as references, resumes, and transcripts are sent by mail or email• CRM is Hobson’s Connect

How We Structured the New Department

•Our Recruiter – VIP of many hats!• Recruitment – minimal fairs. On-campus events and

programs professional associations.• Serves as liaison with application processors and

other constituencies• Office Manager

•2 Application Processing Analysts•2 Marketing Professionals

Decentralized Centralization

•Admission decision remains with academic program • We do not interfere with the program

advisor/student relationship• We assist with the process of applying

•We admit all 3 terms•Deadlines and supplemental materials vary by program

How We Communicate with Prospects

shsu.edu/programs/master-of-science-in-accounting/

Initial First StepsEmbrace program specificity – no one size fits all

Leverage CRM for communication to prospects

Program Advisor Emails

Application Status Emails

Accept Emails from Advisors

Application Processing and Review

Transparency

App collection and review largely a paper-based and manual processSolutions:• Scheduled weekly per-

applicant status reports for advisors• Summary reports to Deans

Two App Analysts

The “front line of Graduate Admissions” for prospects and grad programs• Analysts assigned to colleges

to improve customer experience• Field 2,000+ calls/month

and even more emails

We Took Our Show on the Road•Met with programs• Learned pain points and goals•Mostly,

we listened

Lessons Learned

•Gain credibility through reports and data•We have a paper-based application system•Program Advisors change like the wind•Graduate catalog is not a business process manual•Transparent processes

Diane McCormick dgm006

@shsu.edu

Mary Pascarella marypascarella

@shsu.edu