Recruiting

The purpose of recruiting is to increase the quality, quantity, or diversity in your enrollment mix. Recruiting is best done by faculty, alumni, and current graduate students because they can provide information about the curriculum, work experience, and career choices, and answer the detailed questions that prospects have.

The first phase of recruiting typically starts at UCF in early September with the Graduate Fair. We recommend that the graduate program provide an open house for undergraduate students who may be interested in graduate school early in the fall. Ensure that the information on your website is up-to-date and that you provide links to the Graduate Catalog and the Graduate Application for Admission. We also recommend that you have faculty call colleagues at peer institutions to inquire about potential applicants and then prepare direct emails to send to these prospects.

The second phase of recruiting begins when you have finally offered admission to students in February. It is the program director’s responsibility to organize specific faculty and graduate students to call candidates and answer any questions that they may have. The College of Graduate Studies will follow up with an email to all admitted students with information and request an acceptance or rejection of the offer. Please remember that often students will accept the first offer that they receive (particularly international students) and certainly the best offer they receive.

Best Practices in Recruiting

• Determine where your students come from and the best way to reach that particular audience.
  • If a program attracts part-time students from the local region, determine how to let those potential applicants know about your program.
  • If your program attracts full-time out-of-state students, determine what states, institutions, and professions they belong to.

• Please update your contact information with the College of Graduate Studies when the program director or support staff changes by emailing Michelle Pozdoll at Michelle.Pozdoll@ucf.edu.
• Incorporate the Information Request link into your college, department, and program websites. This links students to the College of Graduate Studies online Information Request form, where prospects can enter their information and receive automated general and program information e-mails from the College of Graduate Studies.
• Enter the information that you have obtained about prospects from various meetings, phone calls, graduate fairs, and other activities into the Information Request so that these prospects will be entered into the database, appear on your weekly prospect report, and receive email communications from the College of Graduate Studies. People who take the time to attend an event are already highly interested in your program and the best way to move them to an applicant is by following up immediately with worthwhile information that they need to know.
• Reports of prospects and inquiries for your program that have not begun a Graduate Application can be accessed through Slate. Contact Leben Goldman at leben.goldman@ucf.edu for more information.
• Conduct a focus group of your current students to find out what they like about the program. Use this information to recruit prospective students and ask your current students to help by sharing their experiences with prospects. Interested in conducting a focus group? Contact Leben Goldman at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu.
• Please make admissions decisions within a couple of days of receiving the application. Thanks to technology, prospects expect instant responses from their electronic applications, and the quicker they receive a response, the more likely they are to enroll. Students should receive an admissions decision within two weeks of the application being processed. International students tend to accept their first admissions offer.

Communications and Advertising

• In general, website information has to be up-to-date, accurate, and consistent. Please check to ensure that you have a link to the Graduate Admissions, the Online Application, Information Request Form, Funding , and the Graduate Catalog on your website.
• Focus your efforts on online advertising, email communications, and your program website, since most graduate prospects will get their information this way. Faculty communication and advertising are the most effective ways to recruit. An accurate and current website highlighting faculty expertise and financial support is crucial to advertising your program. Printed brochures are valuable only for recruiting events or related activities as a supplement to faculty expertise.
• Request State University System and UCF undergraduate lists and send communications to these prospects including information about your program, scheduled events, and testimonials from alumni, students, and faculty. The request forms can be requested from Leben Goldman at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu.
• Implement a systematic communications plan that would allow you to communicate important information to your prospects, applicant admits, and current students. The communications should be personalized, with emails and phone calls from faculty, alumni, and current students. This is the most important part of the process for converting prospects to current students.
• The College of Graduate Studies will supplement your communications through a series of automated HTLM communications specific to your program. These communications are automated by the College of Graduate Studies but should be updated and edited regularly by each program. If you have questions about making these edits or updates, please contact Leben Goldman at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu.
• As soon as an application is received, an automatic response should be sent back to the student informing them about your program and the faculty and research strengths. Websites must include truth in advertising information – number of applications and percentage of those admitted and enrolled, qualifications of the average student enrolled in your program, time to degree for your students, the percentage of students who graduate with their degree, the percentage who receive financial support and the nature of the financial support (fellowships, assistantships, loans, etc.), and stories about the successes of your students and faculty. Applicants are increasingly looking for this information and failure to provide it can discourage a student from applying to your program.
• Invite applicants to an online open house to provide information and answer questions to facilitate the completion of the application process. Contact Leben Goldman at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu to schedule.

Recruiting Events

• Consider hosting open houses, graduate fairs, pizza parties, discussions with undergraduates, tours of your labs or facilities, etc. Create relationships with feeder schools, and make presentations to other colleges’ club activities (particularly those that are four-year institutions).
• Have faculty, alumni, and current students attend recruiting events, including the Graduate Fair at UCF in September, a pizza party to recruit your undergraduate students held in early fall, chat room discussions, etc. Students and applicants want to talk with faculty who are excited about their research and their discipline.
• UCF undergraduate students are our best prospect pool, schedule events specifically to recruit these students into your program.
• When attending recruiting events, you can use Slate Event Pages to collect prospective student information. Contact Leben Goldman at leben.goldman@ucf.edu
• Schedule an online open house (chats) with the College of Graduate Studies for your prospects, your applicants, your admitted students, and your newly enrolled students as a way of answering their questions and making sure they take the next step in the admissions process. Contact Leben Goldman at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu.
• Please provide details about your program events to Leben Goldman at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu for inclusion on the Graduate Students website events calendar.
• Attend the Grad Fair held every year in September, hosted by the College of Graduate Studies. Contact Leben Goldman for more information at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu. Students are provided with information about the Graduate Fair at graduate.ucf.edu/gradfair/.

Recruiting Resources Available

• The College of Graduate Studies provides training to new program directors and staff as needed. Access to GradInfo and other systems will not be issued until this training has been completed. To schedule a training session, please get in touch with Leben Goldman at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu.
• Use the GradInfo website to track inquiries, find data about your program, download forms and files, and download weekly inquiry, prospect, and admissions reports. If you don’t have access to GradInfo, please contact Leben Goldman at Leben.Goldman@ucf.edu.
• Request UCF and SUS undergraduate lists and communicate with these prospects. Request forms are located in the downloads section of GradInfo.
• Request a list from the GRE service center and communicate with these prospects. Request forms are located in the downloads section of GradInfo.

Timeline of Activities

Annual Recruiting Plan