Graduate enrollment tends to be an afterthought on some college campuses—that is until the undergraduate enrollment numbers begin to drop and the university needs to fill the gap. That’s when the graduate admission office becomes the cool kid at the party and everyone pays attention to them! But until that happens on your campus, you will probably find yourself saying . . . what about grad?
The truth is most college campuses are driven to accommodate the undergraduate population, and they are the face of the university. There are a plethora of products available to help undergraduate admission offices find prospective students, but . . . what about grad?
There are a handful of useful services for a graduate admission office to use, but directors still scramble each year to find the new crop of prospective graduate students to fill their dwindling prospect funnels. They purchase GRE and GMAT test-taker names like everyone else and also plead with their faculty members to help spread the gospel to their undergraduate students.
So now let’s answer the question . . . what about grad? What can you do to help build your funnel and enroll more students to fill that graduate enrollment gap? Carnegie has a few things that can help you stay the cool kid at the party, and hopefully we can provide you with that one new idea that will impress your boss!
- Target students wherever they are on campus at colleges that don’t offer the graduate programs you offer with IP Targeting. This is the ultimate digital marketing strategy that puts your school in front of students on an entire campus while they use their phone, tablet, laptop, or PC.
- Create an integrated direct marketing plan using traditional search and e-mail outreach along with your digital campaign to develop a surround-sound strategy.
- Check out our graduate lead generation platform, which uses over 30 years of proven strategies to provide you with unlimited leads to help build your funnel with quality leads.
I’m a former Director of Graduate Admission with over 20 years of admission experience, and I’ve personally dealt with many of the challenges above. In one year at Carnegie I’ve seen how incorporating a strategic marketing campaign can truly help you build your graduate enrollment. So after you incorporate these ideas and you begin to see results, don’t be surprised if you hear the director of undergraduate admission say “what about grad” when asked for examples of innovative marketing on campus!