Graduate pupil enrollment is more and more important to the general enrollment well being for universities. As demographic modifications make it more durable to develop conventional undergraduate enrollment, establishments will want graduate pupil inhabitants development to fill in these gaps.
The excellent news is that the graduate pupil market is rising. In accordance with Nationwide Pupil Clearinghouse information, graduate enrollment reached an all-time excessive of three.2 million in fall 2024, with a 3.3% enhance over the 12 months earlier than.
Nevertheless, in an effort to compete for these college students, you should perceive their motivations, influences, and issues in relation to their choice of a better instructional establishment. To dig into these points, RNL surveyed 1,400 potential and enrolled graduate college students on a variety of points that relate to their resolution to pursue graduate research. Listed here are among the key findings that enrollment managers must know.
What’s their main motivation to review?
It’s no shock that as we speak’s college students are career-oriented, however it’s clear that advancing their present profession is the highest driver, with 74% of our contributors itemizing that as their main motivation to review.
What does this imply for us as practitioners in larger schooling? It’s important to not solely spotlight career-related info, but additionally to be sure that info and outcomes are very straightforward to search out. In one other discovering from our report, 90% of respondents indicated that it’s essential for program pages to supply particular and easy-to-access info on careers associated to their area.
What influences graduate college students to contemplate graduate research?
As you may see right here, these choices are largely self-motivated even when the explanations to pursue grad research are career-oriented. I discover it attention-grabbing that these will not be extra employer-driven, particularly in relation to persevering with levels. Nevertheless, it nonetheless exhibits that almost all of graduate college students are self-motivated, intrinsic learners who see graduate research as a approach to enhance their lives.
What are crucial program options to potential graduate college students?
For our survey respondents, format flexibility was the function that was cited as most essential, adopted carefully by obtainable specializations. That is attention-grabbing, because the respondents cited modality, course format, and specializations, after which versatile scheduling. This could possibly be a mirrored image of the rising variety of Gen Z college students (these below 29) who make up 56% of the graduate pupil inhabitants in response to the autumn 2023 IPEDS snapshot. This transformation in pupil age demographic emphasizes the significance of providing and designing these applications for a number of supply sorts and actually assembly these college students the place they’re.
What are the principle issues of graduate college students?
I don’t assume anybody can be shocked that price is a priority for 60% of graduate college students. However half of our respondents additionally cited balancing obligations as a main concern. That is once more, not surprising contemplating the overwhelming majority of our contributors stated they labored full-time. Whereas fewer than 20% cited ROI uncertainty, that also represents 1 in 5 of our survey takers. The underside line is that establishments must instantly deal with these ache factors after they conduct outreach with college students. Mitigating a few of these issues instantly may also help college students really feel extra snug within the course of and be extra more likely to enroll in, and finally full their applications.
What’s going to inhibit a graduate pupil from making use of to a program?
Lastly, we requested our survey respondents which widespread necessities would probably dissuade them from making use of to a program.
As you may see, 1 in 3 college students cited letters of advice and essays/private statements. This isn’t to say that establishments ought to take away these necessities, however be conscious in case your program actually wants them within the analysis course of. Equally, for objects equivalent to transcripts, search for methods to make it simpler for transcripts to be submitted or gathered to take away the burden from college students—and a possible barrier from making use of to your program.
Learn the complete report for much more insights
These findings symbolize a fraction of what you can see within the 2025 Graduate Student Recruitment Report. It’s filled with findings on the channels graduate college students use to seek for colleges, how they use search engines like google and yahoo for analysis, which digital advertisements they click on on, and way more.
You can even watch our webinar Keys to Engaging and Enrolling Graduate Students to listen to my colleague Lori Cannistra and I focus on the findings and the way you need to use them to information your methods. And if you wish to focus on graduate advertising and marketing and recruitment methods, reach out to set up a consultation.
Discuss with our graduate and on-line enrollment consultants
Ask for a free session with us. We’ll show you how to assess your market and develop the optimum methods on your potential graduate college students and on-line learners.
