Incorporating Faculty into your Recruitment and Yield Efforts: Innovative Ideas and Strategies to Create Buy In Presented by: Dana Messinger, Director of Graduate Admission, The New School for Social Research Simone Varadian, Associate Director of Admission, Teachers College, Columbia University Brendon Troy, Dir. Grad Marketing & Recruitment Strategics, New York University Agenda
▶ Introductions ▶ Learning Objectives ▶ Virtual Faculty Outreach ▶ On Campus Events ▶ Influencing the Faculty at Other Institutions ▶ Faculty Travel ▶ Creating Buy In - tips on getting (more) faculty involved ▶ What Worked? Lessons from our campuses
2 The New School for Social Research
▶ Private College within The New School ▶ 10,000 Graduate & Undergraduate Students ▶ Located in New York City ▶ Offer 9 MAs and 6 PhDs in the Social Sciences and Humanities ▶ Incoming MA class of about 180 and PhD class of 50 ▶ Share resources with other graduate and undergraduate programs (event planning, recruitment, operations, etc) ▶ Do both all grad recruitment and NSSR specific travel and events 3 New York University
▶ Private, “Carnegie R1” research university ▶ Located in New York with campuses in Washington, DC, Shanghai, China, and Abu Dhabi, UAE, plus 10 other global sites ▶ 24,706 graduate and professional degree-seeking NY students (48% of student body) enrolled at 18 schools, colleges, centers, and institutes in hundreds of programs ▶ 8,658 international graduate & professional students ▶ Decentralized Admissions and MarComm for grad & professional ▶ Central “Graduate Marketing & Admission Consulting” office 4 Teachers College, Columbia University
▶ Private, graduate university with Columbia University affiliation ▶ Degrees in Education, Psychology, Leadership, & Policy ▶ Located in New York City ▶ Over 5,000 students in 120+ degree programs ▶ Largest graduate school of education in the U.S. ▶ 70% masters, 30% doctoral, 21 % international ▶ TC Admissions responsible for all travel and recruitment activities ▶ Technolutions Slate
5 Learning Objectives
▶ Identify strategies that can help you better engage faculty in your recruitment and yield efforts ▶ Identify ways to improve how you currently utilize faculty ▶ Identify 2 or 3 new ways to utilize faculty in your recruitment efforts
6 How Can you Utilize Faculty? Getting them involved in Recruitment and Yield Efforts
7 Virtual Faculty Outreach: Benefits
▶ Ability to connect live with large groups of students from outside area ▶ Modest financial & time commitment for both administrators & faculty
8 Virtual Faculty Outreach: Benefits
▶ Frequency and time can vary by schedule and willingness to participate ▶ Record sessions to reuse throughout cycle ▶ Customize based on comfort level
9 Virtual Faculty Outreach: Customize by Faculty
Extroverts Artist Presenters ▶ Live video feed ▶ Embedded video ▶ Loose format ▶ Structured format ▶ 1x per ▶ 1x per month semester Collaborators Webinar Regulars ▶ Include ▶ 2x per month Student & ▶ No muss, no Program Staff fuss Participation
10 Virtual Faculty Outreach: Throughout the Cycle
Enrolled (Anti- Prospects Admits Melt)
11 On Campus Events: Models
▶ Featured speaker(s) ▶ “Fair”-style open house with departments / programs ▶ Sit in on a class ▶ Invite prospects to other pre- existing events ▶ One on one meetings / appointments ▶ Pre-enrollment advising / sample curriculum, etc
12 On Campus Events: Benefits
▶ “Prestige” of institution a key factor in students’ decisions ▶ Faculty are an integral part of that ▶ Anecdotal evidence that this is a strong influencer on enrollment decisions ▶ On campus events allow for face to face contact with faculty ▶ Students see them in their element ▶ Evidence that this is even more powerful than other outreach
13 Influencing the Influencers
▶ Most students seek faculty advice on where to apply to grad school for MA and PhD program ▶ Can you tap into your faculty contacts to build your network of recommenders?
▶ Hosting Happy Hours in targeted cities for local faculty ▶ Faculty to faculty outreach ▶ Everyone likes free drinks!
14 Influencing the Influencers - Conferences
▶ Can you purchase sponsorship at an industry conference that will allow your faculty to pitch your program?
▶ Can you host a happy hour around a conference?
15 Faculty Travel - School Visits
▶ Can you use their connections to other institutions? ▶ Are they former faculty there? ▶ Do they have friends at these institutions? ▶ Do you know alumni that would help schedule visits? ▶ Are they already visiting campus for a lecture?
16 Faculty Travel
▶ Inviting Faculty to Off Campus Yield Events ▶ Can you pair this with a happy hour? ▶ Creating Panels with Partner Universities ▶ Do faculty have connections to help you do this? ▶ Are there alums?
17 Faculty Travel - Conferences
▶ Are you buying tables at college conferences to advertise? ▶ Can your faculty propose sessions at these college conferences?
18 Recruiting Your Undergraduates
▶ Announce bachelor-master’s programs or graduate programs in class or in one on one meetings ▶ Hold lunches for undergraduates in partnership with grad admission
▶ Bachelor’s-Master’s fair with faculty representatives
19 How Do You Get Faculty Involved? Strategies for Getting to Yes
20 Creating Buy-In: Faculty Concerns
Faculty Concerns ▶ How much time will this take? ▶ Will it yield results? ▶ I’m nervous about something new! ▶ What if students ask me questions about things I don’t know? ▶ What if students outside of my program show up?!
21 Creating Buy-In: Faculty Concerns
Preparing for Faculty Concerns ▶ Start with your faculty champions ▶ Be ready with statistics ▶ Provide successful examples from other faculty and programs ▶ Consider “top-down” (Provost / Deans / Department Heads) vs. “bottom-up” (allies) approaches
22 Creating Buy-In: Make it Painless & Attractive
▶ Faculty Engagement preferences ▶ Motivations for faculty to participate ▶ Desirable locations ▶ Enlisting program admin staff ▶ Avoid recreating the wheel ▶ Handle as many details as possible
23 What Worked (and What Didn’t) War Stories from the Road
24 Questions?
25 Stay In Touch ▶ Dana Messinger [email protected] https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/
▶ Simone Varadian [email protected] http://www.tc.columbia.edu/
▶ Brendon Troy [email protected] nyu.edu/gradadmissions
26