What Does It Take to Own Graduate and Undergrad Enrollment?

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0:00:13.9 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Office Hours with EAB. Today we’re tackling a growing challenge for enrollment leaders, specifically those who have to manage both undergraduate and graduate enrollment at the same time. These two functions may sit under one leader, but they couldn’t be more different. Our experts share what it takes to balance both without stretching your team too thin. So give these folks a listen and enjoy.

0:00:46.5 Madeleine Rhyneer: Hello and welcome to Office Hours with EAB. Today we’re gonna be talking about what does it take to own undergraduate and graduate enrollment? We’re digging into this. I call it both a challenge and an opportunity because more and more enrollment leaders are facing it, and that is responsibility for managing and growing both undergraduate and graduate enrollment at the same time. The reality is that many enrollment management VPs have dual responsibilities, but the two markets require a fundamentally different approach. Graduate students move through a longer, less predictable decision journey. They’re often more debt conscious, and they expect flexibility and clear ROI in ways that differ from undergraduates and their family supporters. So what does it take to successfully balance these two pipelines without stretching your team too thin or diluting your strategy? And where are institutions getting it right? And where are places getting stuck? To help us unpack that, I’m joined by my great colleague and friend, Beth Donaldson. Beth, welcome to Office Hours.

0:01:46.4 Beth Donaldson: Thanks so much, Madeleine. I’m so happy to join you today.

0:01:50.2 Madeleine Rhyneer: Well, we’re gonna have some fun and especially for our friends who are joining the podcast. Beth, you and I come at recruitment work from different kinds of experiences. My professional background was almost entirely leading undergraduate teams. And now in my role at EAB, still talking to my friends about undergraduate recruitment, where you have expertise recruiting both undergraduates and graduates. Please tell our listeners a little bit about your background.

0:02:16.8 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, sure, Madeleine. Over the last 34 years, I’ve had the pleasure of supporting institutions on both the undergraduate and graduate side. I know I’m dating myself, but probably 25 of the last 34 years have been really focused on graduate programs and enrollment. So I’m really excited to talk about all the ways in which we see those differences happening and really ways in which to be more effective in our recruitment practices today.

0:02:46.6 Madeleine Rhyneer: Well, awesome. And you are not dating yourself because I have more years than you. So there we go. And here we are today. So what are you seeing in the market in terms of whether schools have one person leading undergraduate enrollment operations and another one handling grad versus places where you see enrollment VPs managing both ends of the recruitment spectrum?

0:03:08.6 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, we definitely have seen a variety of structures. I would say probably about a third to half of institutions have been able to grant the responsibility of graduate to the vice president of enrollment management because there are systems in place there. But I’ll be honest, the other half of institutions that we really talk with and work with are considering putting that function within the dean of graduate schools as they’ve created that, or the responsibility has been given to individual colleges and schools within the institution. I would definitely say that the majority of institutions still have that decentralized approach. And so they are thinking strategically now about centralization of graduate enrollment recruitment efforts really to improve the economies of scale, because we know that we’ve had very strong undergraduate admissions teams, and they’re really thinking strategically about how they can benefit from those structures going forward.

0:04:10.8 Madeleine Rhyneer: But one of the things I think I hear you saying is that there is no one right model, that the right model is the right model that’s going to work within the culture, organization, and resources of an individual college or university. Does that sound fair?

0:04:24.8 Beth Donaldson: You’re right. I think there’s no right model. But there is a really good argument to say that you need a strategic enrollment plan dedicated to graduate students. And so even if the responsibilities are within the individual schools or colleges, collaboration with the admission team and the vice president of enrollment management and the vice president of marketing is so key and pivotal to your success. As we’ve been able to talk to institutions about their organizational structure and map that out to growth, we’ve really seen that institutions that have had a dedicated strategic initiative to grow graduate with providing the investment and the resources and strong marketing have been able to steal market share and be able to grow their graduate population.

0:05:14.9 Madeleine Rhyneer: Oh, that’s really great advice. I appreciate that. So maybe you could just dig in a little bit. I mean, what are the fundamental differences in strategy between recruiting undergraduates and recruiting graduate students? I feel like we’ve already touched on some of the complexity, and that is the various colleges and the deans and the programs that they’re offering. But tell us more about that. What is it that we need to know to be successful?

0:05:38.1 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, I think first and foremost, and every VPEM knows this, is that we know where undergraduate students are for the most part. We know when they’re graduating from high school. We can talk to them and cultivate relationships with them from sophomore year to senior year. And if we’re interested in growing our transfer population, we know that our focus should be at community colleges. But for graduate programs, adult learners can be everywhere and anywhere, quite frankly, in their educational journey. They may be a young adult graduating from your institutions and want to move into the graduate program, or they may be middle-level professionals thinking about upskilling and so now considering a master’s program. I think the key difference, though, with adult learners is that they take a longer time considering whether or not they should pursue a master’s, where they should pursue a master’s, and what that master’s degree should be than we’ve seen with traditional-age students. And so in our research, we have seen they are not linear. They are not moving down funnel, but they are moving in and out of consideration within that funnel subset. And so we really have to be strategic in the messaging that we’re sending to adult learners to help them understand the importance of pursuing the degree but also expanding that communication plan to students. And so definitely thinking about how you are setting up your email communication to reach adult learners from day one to maybe 36 months down the road is when they’re deciding that, yes, this is the right time for me to pursue a graduate degree program.

0:07:25.1 Madeleine Rhyneer: Awesome. And thanks for touching on communication, because I want to dig into that just a little bit. In undergraduate recruiting, there’s a lot of talk about hyper-personalization in messaging. And of course, everyone’s thinking about what is the power of AI? Is this gonna allow me to have much more tailored, personal, meaningful communications with potential students that actually talk about the things that you can tell that they care about versus sharing more general messages about an institution and the opportunities? So what’s the story on personalization for graduate students? How are teams approaching that?

0:08:03.9 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, I think teams need to think strategically about how they do that work. They probably don’t have the bandwidth right now internally to focus on personalization, but it’s an area that is so important. Because graduate students are looking for more specificity. They want to know what they’re gonna learn in the classroom, the skills that they’re gonna develop, how they can network within specific industries, and outcomes, whether that is a research opportunity, being able to publish articles, or get really real-world experience as they’re completing a Master’s in Education or an EdD program. And I think the biggest challenge for VPEMs is how do they get at that very specific information and add that into their communication plan and on their website. Because what we’ve found is that normally that information is so scattered and dispersed across the institution where the program coordinator may really be very versed in outcomes versus the dean, versus even the student success coach or the career center. And so the real challenge is being able to identify what are the proof points and then spend the time adding that in based on the student’s program of interest in their communication plan and emails out to students.

0:09:29.2 Madeleine Rhyneer: So I really love that because I think there’s a lesson there for undergraduate recruitment planning as well. I think the same challenges exist. And I think that probably the difference is graduate students are pretty clear. They’ve chosen a program. They have an ideal outcome in mind for what that program would be for them, and they’re looking for the proof points that would bring them along in their journey. Undergraduates, of course, they think they have an idea about what they want to major in, but we know that they change their minds pretty significantly, a significant percentage do. And that’s a good thing. It suggests the power of exploration once they get to college. But their parents, if they’re dependent minors using the federal definition, their parents as ratepayers are gonna be really concerned about, is my investment actually gonna lead to a productive result? And let’s be honest, a productive result for most families is they’re thinking about a job, both the students and the family members. So I love you talking about… Finding out who has that information, getting those proof points, and communicating it effectively.

0:10:33.6 Madeleine Rhyneer: I think there’s a really good leveraged message there. So let’s talk about financing for a minute, since we’re talking about family supporters or adults choosing to pay for a graduate program. What’s happening in the world of funding for graduate schools these days, and what are lessons for both undergraduate and graduate recruitment, and especially any of those that may be similar?

0:10:55.8 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, I think on the graduate side, our financial strategy has been 15 or 20 years behind the undergraduate space. Most institutions right now offer very limited merit scholarships and little to no need-based scholarships for students. But as we are preparing for the elimination of Grad Plus loans on July 1, I think having the right pricing for your programs and now thinking strategically about the right scholarship leveraging model will just increasingly become more important for institutions. And as we think about that, institutions that are dedicated to strategic growth have to really think about whether or not they are in the position to do that. And so being able to offer additional scholarship dollars to drive enrollment means that you may have a lower net tuition revenue per student, but overall total net tuition revenue increases are definitely where you will be able to see results and ultimately the goal, quite honestly, if you’re really focused on increasing Master’s students. We’ve really seen in our research that students are cost-conscious. They will rule out an institution based on cost because for them, and you said it, we’ve seen this for the last few years with parents and traditional-aged students.

0:12:24.7 Beth Donaldson: Our adult learners are really driven by the return on education. And right now we’ve seen that they have maybe been unwilling to pay for college, but I suspect they may not have the ability to pay. And so we really have to be thoughtful in that consideration and right now really think about how we can add more merit-based and need-based scholarships to what we’re offering to prospective students. And then lastly, I’ve thought about this because I knew we would be talking today, I don’t think institutions are doing as much as they could with growing their external corporate partnerships. And partners’ right now, we know that there are companies that are still offering tuition reimbursement. And so if we can build those partnerships and inform prospective students of which companies are offering it, that’s a really nice financial benefit for any student that we enroll in our programs.

0:13:25.6 Madeleine Rhyneer: Well, I love that push. So let me ask you, in the conversations that you’re having, because I think you’re right about there’s kind of a disturbance in the force about pricing, loans, and certainly everyone is very cost-conscious and that’s understandable in a sort of inflationary economy. Are schools really… What’s your experience… Are schools really doing this? Are they having those kinds of conversations in a strategic way?

0:13:50.4 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, we’re really seeing that institutions are being more thoughtful of that. If you would have asked me that question six months ago when we started to talk about the elimination of Grad Plus loans, I would say no. But right now, just even with my colleagues in our financial aid area, they’ve been having a lot of conversations with institutions about having the right price for your programs, but then also thinking strategically about the leveraging model that you all need to really implement at the institution. So I’m excited about that because it means that we’re being forward-thinking in this area and that we will continue to have access for students that right now know they need to pursue a Master’s degree program to climb the career ladder or to change careers. And we know that so many adult learners have been displaced and lost their jobs. And so any way that we can provide them that pathway into a graduate program just brings me joy. And it’s just really very thoughtful for us as institutions to consider.

0:15:00.5 Madeleine Rhyneer: Awesome. So let’s talk about another aspect of cost-consciousness, and that is debt aversion. There’s debt aversion at every level of society for education, both undergraduate and graduate, which is interesting because people are much less debt-averse about buying a car, one of the worst possible financial investments you can make, although utilitarian, whereas with education, you’re investing in your future and certainly at the graduate level, you’re investing in your advancement in your future. So we know that many people today lived through the Great Recession of 2008, which still has a long tail in memory. People lost jobs. They may have seen their family members not only lose jobs, but potentially lose a home. So we understand where the debt aversion is coming from. So how are you seeing this impact kind of how people are thinking about their pricing and their strategy with the end of the Grad Plus opportunity?

0:15:54.4 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, I definitely think you’re right. This generation has seen so much economic uncertainty and we don’t know what the future may hold. And so adult learners are thinking strategically about, “Will I still have a job in six months?” or “Will they cut back my hours?” if I’m on an hourly rate. And so really that’s shaping their decision. And unfortunately, we’re hearing so much in the news negative about pursuing your education, that you may end up with high debt, not the opportunity to pay it back, is really the frame. And so it’s really important for institutions right now to reframe their thinking about aid, not just as a cost, but as I mentioned, that strategic growth lever for students, because that is going to be so key and important. And really thinking about that their degree is a smart investment. So if you’re talking about not just the return on education, but the opportunity cost of being in a longer program, and so having accelerated programs is also part of that discussion that institutions are having, but also really being thoughtful about the cost of delivery and can we then have a different pricing model to operate within for graduate students is going to be, I think, the reality of what institutions are facing right now.

0:17:20.5 Madeleine Rhyneer: What I love about that is it sounds like you’re in discussions with lots of places that are thinking about how to meet the market. ‘Cause not only is the market of consumers changing, but the employment market is changing, the financial credit markets are changing. So thinking about being strategic about how to continue to offer these great opportunities but make them either more accessible, more affordable, both hopefully.

0:17:43.4 Beth Donaldson: Definitely. And programs with stronger outcomes, right? I mean, we really want to have that strong return on education. And institutions are doing that by adding internships into the experience, really meeting all of the needs of students, and so pushing the envelope in terms of different experiential learning for students. Adding specialization to their programs, I think, is really key and important. And then strategically thinking and just doing the hard work of saying, “Let’s teach you the tools of financial management and how many courses you should take each semester in order to see that return,” I think is really going to be important.

0:18:27.9 Madeleine Rhyneer: Great. So let’s talk a little bit about marketing. So we talked about a lot of the things, the planning, the ideas, the ideation that’s going on and what is it that people in the market are really looking for both at the undergraduate and graduate level. But maybe you could talk a little bit about some great examples you’ve observed where institutions where they’re marketing to both audiences, how they’re able to do that with strong messages at the undergraduate and graduate level, professional also, but they’re complementary as opposed to sort of opposing forces out in that marketing universe. What are you seeing there, Beth?

0:19:05.4 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, I definitely think that using the tactics that you’re using with undergraduate is successful with the graduate. What I would say, though, is really being able to add to your messaging to meet the adult learner needs, concerns about whether this is the right time for me to do it and what clearly will be my return here. Because as you mentioned, they have a specific goal in mind and they want to know, “Will I be able to achieve that goal?” And so we really think of it as the golden triangle of affordability, having reduced credits within your program, that’s a selling point, how quickly a student can complete the program. If you allow for transfer credits even on the Master’s level, as we’ve historically done for transfer students on the undergraduate level, speed to completion, because if I can get through the program in 12 months, there’s definitely that opportunity cost of if I stay in the program for two years or three years. And really I would add flexibility. We’re gonna meet you where you need. So if you want to be here in person for on-ground education, we provide that at the institution, or if you’re an adult learner balancing life, work, family, you can fulfill all of your course requirements online. At the end of the day, though, there’s nothing stronger than the return on education. And so knowing the outcomes that your programs have for undergraduate students completing their Bachelor’s degree, your Master’s students, and if you offer doctoral students, definitely having that highlighted in the differences is really going to help you to be successful in recruiting students.

0:20:50.7 Madeleine Rhyneer: So I really love that. I’m actually in the undergraduate inquiry pool of an institution, but I think they figured out I’m not an undergraduate. So I am being fed on television some ads for graduate programs. And it’s very interesting because clearly this is still a face-to-face program, but I haven’t quite gotten far enough to figure out how many days a week we’re talking. But they talk about things that the flexibility that you were referring to. They provide free, “childcare” as part of the program. All of your textbooks are included in your tuition. So clearly they’ve identified for their target population what would be some of my barriers, the reason like, “No, I can’t possibly consider doing this now because I have a young family and who’s gonna take care of them at home?” And I love the kind of creative thinking that’s going on that brings people in as opposed to make them think, “Well, I have to wait till another point in my life because I can’t take on that right now.” But let’s turn our view internally just a bit and talk about teams. So kind of two questions conflated.

0:21:57.6 Madeleine Rhyneer: If a single person is leading both undergraduate and graduate recruitment, how do you manage those two different enrollment pipelines with a team, even though surely you have a team with some specialties, I’d imagine? And then what kind of staffing or team structures have you seen that have been really effective? How does this work for teams so they’re not overwhelmed or feel like I’m being pulled in multiple directions?

0:22:21.1 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, I think this is the biggest challenge, is having the right people in place and the right number of people to do the work. I think I would probably start with the responsibilities that you can centralize and the team can work on both, like developing the communication plan, being able to get the assets, the creative assets that you need, if that’s video, building out the content, because we do want to talk about outcomes both on the undergraduate and graduate level. Event planning. So creating and hosting the calendar of events, deciding on the information session versus the admitted student day can definitely be centralized into one area. And then I would say website development. A lot of times the VPM may not have oversight here, but having dedicated folks within your shop that can be focused on the enrollment marketing piece versus the brand piece for undergraduate and graduate programs is definitely successful.

0:23:26.9 Beth Donaldson: And I think lastly, just covering events. Every staff member should know all of the programs that you have, both on the undergraduate and graduate level. So even if it’s not their territory or they are not assigned to that area, they can speak broadly about all of the programs that you offer. But I would say in terms of the staffing structure, we definitely want to have undergraduate admissions counselors boots on the ground at high schools, at college fairs and college nights. And then the graduate recruiters are really focused on prospect management of prospective graduate students, but also having a dedicated person that can really focus on corporate and educational partnerships. That is really the difference here and where I think a lot of institutions have thought about doing but haven’t freed up the resources to do.

0:24:19.3 Beth Donaldson: Because we definitely want to build pipelines within the industry to feed into our graduate programs. And this is hard to put our arms around, and so using our faculty to give us which companies that we should focus in on. I do a little trick, Indeed. I put in which companies are offering tuition remission in the state that the institution is, and that gives you a good list. And then lastly, also thinking about which institutions are your top feeder, and they are four-year institutions that don’t offer graduate programs, really focused on that is really around the strategy of building a strong team. But at the end of the day, I think both teams should collaborate together because one side is probably having best practices that the other side really could actually deploy within their tactics. And so that collaboration, constant communication, and really collaborating with the academic department is really going to be helpful in building both the content knowledge and then having the outcomes and the proof points that you need to be successful in recruitment.

0:25:35.7 Madeleine Rhyneer: That’s extremely helpful. So are there any common mistakes or… Not necessarily mistakes, but gaps that you see when teams are responsible for both undergraduate and graduate recruitment? Are there any things you can tick off to say, “These are things to look for and try not to do these because it won’t help you”?

0:25:55.2 Beth Donaldson: Yeah, I would definitely say first and foremost is this can happen in a centralized but a lot of times decentralized model where you may have several individuals from the institution at a specific college fair and you don’t know that the College of Education is there versus the College of Business. And so being very thoughtful about assigning that and having knowledge of who is where. I also think that it may not be clear about the communication to even current students because they’re a good pipeline into graduate. And so how do we market to them? Are we visiting the classrooms? Are we getting faculty to refer students? I think that that’s key and important. And I also think that probably as a VPM we’re focused on certain pages of the website, but not realizing that the website is really the front door for adult learners. We know that over 90% of them are going to go to the website to get information. And if they can’t find the relevant information that they need and they’re looking for admission requirements, cost to attendance, scholarships, and outcomes, and they want to find that information in 30 seconds, if they can’t find that, then they’ve removed you from their list. And so understanding that the website is your best recruiter and putting the time there and the content and as few clicks as you can to get that information is really key.

0:27:31.3 Madeleine Rhyneer: To me, that sounds like a great landing page. Thinking about grad school. Here are the key questions you probably want to answer and then here are these links. But I think that’s great advice. So this has been amazing. But before we finish, I want to ask you. Let’s say you jump into an elevator. So we’re waiting for an elevator pitch, right?

0:27:42.5 Beth Donaldson: Yeah.

0:27:53.6 Madeleine Rhyneer: You jump into an elevator with a VPM. And maybe this is a person where they were responsible for undergraduate recruitment, but now they’re taking over graduate recruitment at the same time. And they say, “Oh wow, you’re an expert in graduate enrollment. What tips do you have to offer me? What will help me as we’re taking on this responsibility so that we can be successful moving forward?”

0:28:18.2 Beth Donaldson: Yeah. Oh my gosh. This is so hard for me to boil down to a short answer. You know this. But I would say it takes a village to recruit graduate students. And so connecting with program coordinators, faculty, and deans to help them understand how important their role is in the work that we do because they are creating the right academic programs that are industry aligned. They can connect us with the right industry leaders to build those pathways in. They are really the key in students getting the internship and job placement outcomes, right, based on the skill development there. And they are creating differentiation within their academic programs that we’re promoting in our com plan. So I think about one institution that wanted to enroll younger students within their public policy program. And the students were nervous that they didn’t have the right networks, they wouldn’t be able to go out in the market after graduating and find a job. And so the faculty actually built a network that they would meet with NGO individuals and leaders during the orientation period. Well, that’s so impactful and something that the VPM needs to know in their email and communication plan. So I think really connecting with the academic leaders at your institutions to the administrators that support students and offer academic support or a discount on childcare, as you mentioned. Or where the parking passes are. Every single person at the institution is working, should be working to help you recruit students.

0:30:10.6 Madeleine Rhyneer: I love that. And it is a bit of a fundamental difference because often you’re connecting with programs and colleges in undergraduate recruitment to make sure you really understand them well so that you’re doing the right job promoting them in your admission work. But this is a whole different layer of engagement with students and what they’re looking for and then also with the external community, which, I don’t know, sounds kind of exciting, really. It allows a VPM to expand his or her world, get a bit of a broader vision. Although many people would also say, “Oh, my goodness, my plate was already 100% full, and now it can just be a little bit more than 100% full.”

0:30:40.3 Beth Donaldson: Definitely.

0:30:51.8 Madeleine Rhyneer: Beth, these have been terrific insights. I think our listeners will really benefit from the experiences that you’ve had and what you’re seeing in the market right now. And I just want to thank you so much for being here today. As always, it’s a pleasure to work with you and to hear the exciting work that you’re doing with our partners and friends. So thank you.

0:31:12.2 Beth Donaldson: Oh, thank you, Madeleine. It’s been so great to have the opportunity to sit down with you, and I look forward to our future conversations on this.

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