Recruitment Toolbox
Build Your Recruitment Strategy
Identify Prospects
Request for Information
When a prospective student fills out the WSU Graduate School Request for Information Form, it begins a workflow that sends a notification to the department and Graduate School. We highly encourage departments to respond promptly when they receive these requests.
The Graduate School Communication Team has a CRM (customer relations management) system in place that send html emails to prospective students as part of a marketing campaign who used the Request for Information form. These emails describe WSU and its statewide presence, financial aid and other funding opportunities, graduate education in general, and the academic journey.
Please note: The Graduate School Communications Team invites programs to contact us if you’d like to collaborate on your recruitment efforts.
The Request for Changes to Fact Sheets Form and/or the CollegeNet Application may be found here.
Graduate Fairs and Conferences
At graduate fairs, when a student fills out the Request for Information form on a tablet, those requests follow the same workflow described above. For example, departments will receive these data from students who attend the University of Idaho Career Fair, SACNAS, Murdock, and McNair conferences.
Name Lists and Searches
Every year, the Graduate School is happy to share the name lists from McNair Scholars Director and National Name Exchange. These resources are meant to help with your recruitment efforts. Not all students include their intended field of study.
Please note: you will need to sign in with your network ID to download. Note: some students have not included their intended field of study.
Slate: the Graduate School CRM
As mentioned above, the Graduate School uses a customer relations module (CRM) system, and we are happy to collaborate with departments/ programs to create their own email campaigns. The Graduate School can also provide analytics on the success of your email campaigns. For help, please email Cindy Hollenbeck.
Plan your email campaign
What should recruitment letters include?
- WSU’s friendly campuses and student support
- Funding opportunities
- Department/program highlights
- Student and/or alumni testimonials, their challenges and successes
- Each campus location’s highlights, i.e., the beauty of the Pacific Northwest
- Employment statistics post graduation
- Faculty and research news
- Housing, child care, health care, public schools
Connect with Prospective Students
In collaboration with University Communications, the WSU Graduate School Communications Team has created marketing materials available to departments and programs. Feel free to download these flyers and distribute them as your see fit.
- Thinking About Graduate School? (PDF)
- Preparing for Graduate School (PDF)
- Preparing for Graduate School webpage
- Cost of Living Comparison (Updated 9/27/22)
WELCOME BROCHURE
Keep in Touch with Admitted Students
To make it easier for departments and programs to keep in touch with admitted not yet enrolled students, the Graduate School has provided downloadable templates of letters to use in email campaigns.
Data have shown it is crucial to communicate with prospective students after they have been admitted to WSU and before they enroll. Remember, this is when they are deciding where to attend graduate school. These letters, which will be sent via email through Slate, are reminders to prospective students about why WSU is an excellent choice for them. Feel free to download these template letters and input your program information.
From the Vice Provost Your Research Matters
Finances – Grad School What to Expect
Deadline Approaching
Improve Your Strategy
Track and analyze your email contacts
- Maintain a log of your recruitment process with each prospect and/or name list.
- Using our Customer Relationship Management program (CRM) Slate for sending out communications will enable you to track open rates and try different subject lines. Contact the Graduate School if you would like assistance in using Slate.
Ways to improve your recruitment strategy
- Plan ahead and collaborate with all the relative players.
- Respond promptly to prospective students.
- Maintain good relations; it makes all the difference.
- Be service-oriented.
- Be attentive.
- Identify needs.
- Communicate frequently–marketing suggests at least 7 touches to make a true connection.
- Designate a faculty liaison–many students apply to a school for a specific faculty member.
- Designate a grad student liaison–peer to peer connections can be very effective.
Tap Into Resources
Council of Graduate School’s Reports
Graduate Program Review and Assessment
2022 WSU Graduate School Annual Recruitment Summit
If you were unable to attend the 2022 Annual Recruitment Summit, access the Zoom link.
Admitted not Enrolled Survey Results
The Graduate School conducted a survey in Qualtrics for students who were admitted to WSU but decided not to enroll (between 400-500 prospects). Following this survey, we created an email campaign to newly admitted students to address some of the concerns expressed in the survey. The survey was administered again in 2017 and 2018. Feel free to download and read these results.