Develop a Recruitment Strategy
In this section we will outline all the important information that should be addressed in your recruitment strategy and provide a timeline for navigating graduate school recruitment at University of Georgia.
Analyze recent trends (3-5 years) in applications and enrollments:
Information may be accessed in GradSlate for current data and the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) for historical data.
- Look at the numbers of inquiries, applicants, admitted, enrolled:
- How many recruits contact you for information prior to applying?
- What’s the size of your recruitment pool? Can you expand it?
- Conversion rates and yields: How well do you convert inquiries to applicants? Admitted applicants to accepted students?
- Identify gaps/opportunities:
- Are you missing potential recruits because they can’t find you? Is this an opportunity to review/revamp your website?
- Do you have a high number of incomplete applications? Can you improve your communication/outreach plan?
Set achievable goals (how many new students can you train effectively/year?):
- What is your capacity for graduate student growth over the next few years? What can your current faculty, curriculum, available funding/budget, etc., handle?
- Are there plans to grow faculty numbers, review/update curriculum?
- Identify your target populations (regional, national underrepresented, international). Do you want/need to expand a particular pool of students?
Identify areas of potential strength and build upon them:
- Where do your successful recruits come from? Domestic or international? Are they more likely to come from particular undergraduate institutions/programs? Do you have greater success with certain feeder schools/programs or colleagues from other institutes/programs? How can you build/strengthen these connections?
- Are your faculty working with preferred schools to recruit students directly? Or REI programs?
- Do you recruit locally? Are your faculty active in UGA Double Dawgs? The UGA Honors Program? UGA undergraduate organizations/associations?
- Are your assistantships competitive? Do you take advantage of institutional recruitment assistantship/fellowship awards and tuition waivers (e.g., the Presidential Graduate Fellow, Graduate School Doctoral Fellow, etc.). Visit Funding from the Graduate School for further information.
- Do you have the necessary staff support needed to do outreach, such as respond to inquiries, plan events?
- Are your courses engaging and up-to-date?
Look at peer and aspirational/competitor institutions/programs. What are they doing to attract potential students?
Identify the types of students you want to recruit. Are you looking for applicants from particular undergraduate majors or with prior work experience, research experience, or who have earned an MS?
Are your top admits going elsewhere for a particular reason? You can review reasons given for declining offers of admission or not enrolling after acceptance here.
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