recruiting and advising research focused graduate students: lessons from the field
TRANSCRIPT
Gabe Ignatow, PhDAssociate Professor of Sociology
University of North TexasGradTrek
Recruiting and Advising Research-focused Graduate Students:
Lessons from the Field
Medium- and long-term strategies for recruiting research-oriented masters and
doctoral students
● Research-focused masters and doctoral students play a key role in the recruitment of new generations of graduate students.
○ As instructors and TAs○ As alumni
■ faculty■ professionals
Who cares?
● On the sociology faculty at the University of North Texas since 2007
● Co-founded GradTrek.com in 2013● Taught in Israel 2005-2007● Taught in Turkey 2003-2005● Doctoral student at Stanford 1998-2003
I. Who am I and why am I here?
I had great advisors
I have tried to “pay it forward.”
● Co-director of our graduate programo Recruitment and admissions
● Extensive admissions committee work
Within my department
I also blog and answer graduate program applicants’ questions.
● TheGradCafe● Reddit● Quora● GradTrek
II. Mentorship, Fit, and Enrollment Management
● Research-focused masters and doctoral students play a key role in the recruitment of new generations of graduate students.
● While studying for their graduate degrees they often serve as instructors and TAs and even mentors, and as alumni they can boost recruitment to their graduate alma maters.
● They are low-hanging fruit.● It’s easy to develop an effective recruitment
plan.● But they’re savvy. And you’ll have to deal with
faculty!
How to recruit research-oriented graduate students
It is difficult to coordinate the actions of faculty, administrators, and applicants:
● Goal alignment● Incentive structures● Experience● Skills● Culture
Universities are complex organizations with many moving parts.
Graduate schools and other administrative units work on recruitment of graduate students, but what happens within departments is often a black box.
Faculty and students:mentorship and fit
Enrollment management:leads and yield
Applicants:safety schools and tiers
Administrators and faculty speak different languages.
The language, goals, and incentives of faculty and administrators are often misaligned.
● Graduate research program applicants are looking for fit and mentorship.
● How best to connect applicants with faculty to optimize student-program fit?
Medium- and long-term strategies for recruiting research-oriented masters and doctoral students
The key is to put potential applicants in touch with the right faculty.
This is easier said than done!
● Faculty may not be interested.● Advising burden may be inequitably distributed among faculty.● No concrete incentives.● Faculty were trained at "if you build it they will come" universities.● Faculty may see recruitment as beneath them or someone else's job.● Applicants are intimidated and poorly informed.
● Fixing this should be possible for graduate admissions professionals.
● Everyone's long-term interests are aligned.
Recommendations
Not much graduate admissions professionals can do about this.
Deans would insist departments directly incentivize graduate advising in merit evaluations.
o This is the critical change that must be made IMHO.o It should not be OK for faculty in departments with graduate programs
to not advise graduate students.o Faculty should understand this expectation when they apply for
positions.
Recommendations
● More relevant information should be available to applicants in convenient formats.
● Advising offices and graduate schools would link to TheGradCafe, Quora, Reddit subreddits and GradTrek and the GradTrek blog.
1. Request provosts and deans create many small nominal faculty awards for successful graduate student advising.
2. Have someone take photos of advisors and their graduate students.3. Request that all departmental websites include sections that appeal to
graduate applicants:a. > 5 smiling faces on the homepageb. > 3 should be graduate studentsc. A “Jill Smith defended her dissertation/thesis on XYZ under the guidance
of Professor Jones” section with a photo of Jill Smithd. A “Students on the Market” sectione. A “Jill Smith is starting a job at XYZ this fall. She defended her
dissertation in 2015 under the guidance of Professor Jones” section4. Try GradTrek yourself and have advising offices try out GradTrek-Counselor.
Action Items for Graduate Admissions Professionals
What to do
Is this “if you build it they will come?”
No!
What to do
What to do
Go Gators!
Go Gators!
Go Gators!
Boo Seminoles!(It’s nothing personal)
Smiling faces = 0Graduate students = 0Names = Chair only
A classic “if you build it they will come” site
What not to do No faces, generic text blocks, chair name only, ca. 2014 information
1. Request provosts and deans create many small nominal faculty awards for successful graduate student advising.
2. Have someone take photos of advisors and their graduate students.3. Request that all departmental websites include sections that appeal to
graduate applicants:a. > 5 smiling faces on the homepageb. > 3 should be graduate studentsc. A “Jill Smith defended her dissertation/thesis on XYZ under the
guidance of Professor Jones” section with a photo of Jill Smithd. A “Students on the Market” sectione. A “Jill Smith is starting a job at XYZ this fall. She defended her
dissertation in 2015 under the guidance of Professor Jones” section4. Try GradTrek and have advising offices try out GradTrek-Counselor.
Action Items for Graduate Admissions Professionals
So what is GradTrek?
● Like Yelp! or eHarmony for graduate degrees in the US
● Doctoral, masters-level, and certificates● Unbiased results● Levels the playing field:
o Students versus universitieso Students from elite versus less elite
universities● Free for users, easy sign in via FB and Google
GradTrek-Counselor
● A version of GradTrek for use in career centers and advising offices
● Counselors and students can search programs and chat together.
● Provides partner universities with a major recruiting advantage.
● Fixes the “leaky pipeline” between graduate and undergraduate programs.
Action Items for Graduate Admissions Professionals
1. Request provosts and deans create many small nominal faculty awards for successful graduate student advising.
2. Have someone take photos of advisors and their graduate students.3. Request that all departmental websites include sections that appeal to
graduate applicants: photos, on the market, PhDs granted, smiles4. Try out GradTrek yourself.5. Have advising offices contact us to try out GradTrek-Counselor.
[email protected]@gradtrek.com