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, career choices and answer the detailed questions that prospects have. Faculty are the most trusted and believable recruiters for their graduate programs.

The first phase of recruiting typically starts at UCF in early September with the Graduate Fair and the Career Fair for graduate students. We recommend that faculty call colleagues at peer institutions to inquire about potential applicants and then prepare direct e-mails to send to these prospects.

Please remember that often students will accept the first offer that they receive (particularly international students) and certainly the best offer they receive. It is really important for faculty who examine admissions files for potential graduate assistants to not delay in identifying promising students and to let their program director know of potential students who will receive financial support by early March, at the latest, for upcoming Fall admissions.

Best Practices in Recruiting

It would be very helpful for the following best practices to be discussed in graduate program committees in terms of what your program would like to do to recruit students:

• 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.
• Enter information that you have obtained about prospects from various meetings, phone calls, graduate fairs, and other activities into the Request Info on Graduate Programs so that these prospects will be entered into the database, appear on your weekly prospect report and receive e-mail communications from the College of Graduate Studies. People that 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.
• 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 Barbara Rodriguez at barbara@mail.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.

Communications and Advertising

The most important information that you can put on a program website besides the application process is about the research interests and experiences of the faculty. Most graduate students are looking for faculty to mentor them and prepare them for their careers and professional activities. Focus your efforts on online advertising, e-mail 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.

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, 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.
• Please enter your seminars and other activities into the Graduate Students website events calendar.