Recruiting students can be a complicated, time-consuming, and even overwhelming process that takes attention, organization, and preparation. Recruitment is just the first step in a holistic approach to bringing talent to our graduate programs.
Anytime is a great time to start laying the foundation needed to identify students for your academic program. Our hope is this toolkit will provide you with invaluable information about identifying, recruiting, enrolling, and ultimately mentoring students.
This toolkit contains:
Recruitment Continuum
This web page will assist programs and departments in recruiting students from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Recruitment starts before you meet applicants; it begins when you develop an enrollment management plan that promotes inclusive excellence, as defined in the University’ Strategic Plan, in your student body and among your faculty.
The first step is to look at your existing strategy:
a) Assess the current needs of your program. Assess your current practices through the lens of creating a welcoming program for all students.
b) Assess the opportunities for your students, faculty, and staff to access professional development opportunities. Create a culture that encourages and supports students, faculty, and staff to attend those events.
c) Assess your program/department engagement with COMO’s community leaders and population that empower and create access to an environment that supports students from all backgrounds.
As you create the foundation for your strategy, consider the five phases of the recruitment continuum:
- Potential graduate students: undergraduate students, recently graduated students, individuals with master’s degrees or specialist degrees. These are individuals you have not yet interacted with.
- Be prepared to convey: why pursue a graduate degree, what you can offer, who you are looking for, and potential career outcomes.
- Plan for recruitment outreach at a variety of institutions to ensure you reach students of all backgrounds. In addition to larger universities, some other institutions to consider outreach for are colleges serving rural populations, Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and institutions serving students with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Prospective graduate students: these are potential graduate students with whom you have made contact during recruitment engagements, faculty visits to other institutions, faculty, and staff interactions that led to a discussion about graduate education. They may have experiences that are not common in your field or are first-generation college students who are unsure of or started to explore graduate education.
- Be prepared to convey: why pursue a graduate degree, how to apply for a graduate degree at Mizzou, what you are looking for in a student, and funding options.
- Identify some key people and information that show what you can offer — specifics on the program, current students in your program, program outcomes, etc.
- Applicants: these are prospective graduate students who expressed a solid interest in your graduate program and have started an application. They may not have been exposed to the graduate school application process before or the resources needed to smoothly navigate the application process.
- Be prepared to convey: information on how to use our application system, information about the city of Columbia pertinent to their interests, information about opportunities for family members to study, work, or live in Columbia, and information relevant to their family situation like childcare.
- Connect them with resources on campus including current graduate students, provide clear information on funding options, and be transparent about the admissions process.
- Admitted students: these are students whom you’ve admitted but have not yet committed to coming.
- Be prepared to provide them with information about campus resources – professional development, graduate student groups and governance, housing, etc.; consider identifying a peer-mentor for their first year in the program.
- Connect them with information on job opportunities for family members and the Graduate School’s Center for Inclusive Excellence in Graduate Education.
- Enrolled graduate students: these are students who decide to enroll in your program. All admitted students face different challenges and struggles when transitioning to graduate school. Recruitment is connected with retention; therefore, you must:
- Be prepared to provide appropriate mentoring, information about resources supporting well-being, self-efficacy, community-building, and different types of scholarship.
Recruitment Conferences
This section will provide information on inclusion-focused recruitment conferences. However, we would like to encourage you to consider that every interaction with an individual who has not yet earned an advanced degree is an opportunity for recruitment. Faculty should always bring prospective students information to any professional activity that puts them in contact with potential graduate students.
The following list is of suggested conferences during the calendar year.
- 2025 conference information coming soon.
In addition to conferences, consider developing a relationship with Minority Serving Institutions (MSI), institutions that serve rural populations, and institutions that serve students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.
Recruitment Databases
We have access to a few databases to help support recruitment. Those are the National Name Exchange and the McNair Scholars Directory. Access to these lists are available to Directors of graduate Studies and departmental contacts through SharePoint.
Read more about the databases in the Inclusion & Recruitment Resources.
Resources for Recruitment and Retention
CIE has curated resources from other institutions that can be shared, best practices in graduate recruitment and retention.
Recruitment
Best Practices in Graduate Student Recruiting and Marketing (Hanover Research Report)
Best Practices for Program Websites (Rackham Graduate School – University of Michigan)
North Dakota State University Recruitment Toolkit (Includes a Program PowerPoint Presentation Template at the bottom of the page)
Pathways to Science Resource Library (Resources for students applying to graduate school and for faculty interested in diversifying their student body)