Lessons learned from moving a semi-decentralized graduate admission function from Academic affairs to Enrollment management. We will discuss how we assembled a team and created an office of graduate admissions and our program-specific model of admissions processing. Presenters Mary Pascarella Director of Graduate Admissions Sam Houston State University Diane McCormick Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management Sam Houston State University

1. GRADUATE ADMISSIONS
SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY
Diane McCormick
Assistant VP Enrollment Management
Mary Pascarella
Director of Graduate Admissions

2. Moving Graduate Admissions from
Academic Affairs to Enrollment Management

3. Who We Are
• Established in 1879 as a teachers college
• Over 19,200 students enrolled
• 7 Academic Colleges
• Over 80 bachelor degrees, 62 master degrees,
and 6 doctoral programs
• Two satellite campuses – The Woodlands Center
and Northwest Houston University Park
• 25 fully online programs

4. Changes in Culture
• Go-live with Banner in 2010 – change in
processing applications and technical needs
• Slow increase graduate enrollment
• Need to market online and graduate programs
effectively
• Need to identify enrollment barriers especially
for students who could not physically come to
campus during normal office hours.

5. Enrollment Audit
• Selected a third party consulting firm
• Audit consisted of the following departments
⁻ Undergraduate Admissions
⁻ Graduate Studies
⁻ Registrar’s Office
⁻ Financial Aid
⁻ Bursar’s Office
⁻ SAM Center (advising)
⁻ Institutional Technology

6. Findings
• Foundation of application processing and prospect
student database system were housed in Enrollment
Management not Academic Affairs
• Paper based application process system
• Lack of communication to prospects and applicants
• Basic marketing efforts existing but needed to be
expanded
• Minimal web presence or search engine optimization at
the graduate level
• Graduate advisors were the main point of contact for
prospects and applicants was mainly

7. Audit Findings
From Academic
Affairs
To Enrollment
Management
Move Graduate Admissions

8. Web Optimization Team
•Refresh SHSU homepage to focus on
prospective student audience, not our
internal users
•Improve search engine optimization for
program pages
•Update program landing pages
•Campus awareness and buy-in

9. Digital Marketing
•Partnership with Hobsons Solutions
•Focus on graduate and online programs
•Online advertising with key words for search
engine optimization
•Relationship building with program advisors
•Email communication to prospects and
applicants

10. Campaign Creative

11. Prospect Management
• Prospects click our advertising and are sent to a Microsite
that advertises “Featured Programs”
• Prospects do one of two things:
• Complete a form that triggers a communication plan (direct
response)
• Leave the microsite, but visit the University website directly
(indirect response)
• Direct response leads are added to a communication plan
• Communication plans include:
• Automated series of email messages (number and content of messages
varies depending on area of interest).
• Telephone calls to establish personal connections with students

12. Campaign Response
• Two distinct kinds of response to the Online
Marketing Campaign.
• Direct campaign response – Prospects complete an
interest form and the leads drop into Hobson’s
communication plans
• Indirect response – Prospects back out of the microsite
and use a search engine to locate the university’s .edu
website.
• Results in increased referral traffic
• Lead’s generated via regular Hobson’s Interest Pages or
applications directly from the website.

13. Direct Campaign Response

14. Direct Campaign Response
*Through March 24, 2014

15. Marketing Comparison
Prospect
*
11,830
Prospect
*
835
Applied
153—
1.3%
Enrolled
5—0.04%
* From June 2013-March 2014
Applied
151—17.7%
Enrolled
14—1.7%
Reply Cards Digital Marketing

16. Application Conversion Rates - Comparison
For general population, applications opened August 2012. Digital Marketing
efforts started in June 2013.

17. Direct Campaign Response
• Please note – Summer and Fall 2014 Registration
has not yet opened. Digital Marketing was set to
impact Fall 2014.
• 91 Apps on file for summer/fall 2014

18. Indirect Campaign Response

19. THE NEW ORDER OF
BUSINESS
Systems and Roles

20. Infrastructure
• BANNER with BANNER document imaging and
ApplyTexas
• For 2013 we processed:
• 1,141 Spring
• 1,051 Summer
• 2,265 Fall
• Supplemental materials such as references,
resumes, and transcripts are sent by mail or
email
• CRM is Hobson’s Connect

21. How We Structured the New Department
•Our Recruiter – VIP of many hats!
• Recruitment – minimal fairs. On-campus events and
programs professional associations.
• Serves as liaison with application processors and
other constituencies
• Office Manager
•2 Application Processing Analysts
•2 Marketing Professionals

22. Decentralized Centralization
•Admission decision remains with academic
program
• We do not interfere with the program
advisor/student relationship
• We assist with the process of applying
•We admit all 3 terms
•Deadlines and supplemental materials vary
by program

23. How We Communicate with Prospects
shsu.edu/programs/master-of-science-
in-accounting/

24. Initial First Steps
Embrace program
specificity – no one
size fits all
Leverage CRM for
communication to
prospects

25. Application Processing and Review
Transparency
App collection and review
largely a paper-based and
manual process
Solutions:
• Scheduled weekly per-
applicant status reports for
advisors
• Summary reports to Deans
Two App Analysts
The “front line of Graduate
Admissions” for prospects
and grad programs
• Analysts assigned to colleges
to improve customer
experience
• Field 2,000+ calls/month
and even more emails

26. We Took Our Show on the Road
• Met with programs
• Learned pain points
and goals
• Mostly,
we listened

27. Lessons Learned
•Gain credibility through reports and data
•We have a paper-based application system
•Program Advisors change like the wind
•Graduate catalog is not a business process
manual
•Transparent processes

28. Diane McCormick
dgm006
@shsu.edu
Mary Pascarella
marypascarella
@shsu.edu