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StudentProspector Case Study

Click below to listen to an interview with Craig Johnson of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute given by Drew Olanoff

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Background:

The Roswell Park Cancer Institute at the University at Buffalo currently has 100 Ph.D. students and 80 Master's of Sciences students. They are University at Buffalo students but are enrolled in a comprehensive cancer center program. Craig Johnson is the center's Director of Graduate Admissions and Summer Research Programs. StudentProspector's Senior Web Developer, Drew Olanoff, sat down with Craig for a brief interview on online student recruiting. The results follow.

Objective:

"With departments like ours with a limited budget, [print materials and mailings] extended our cost - and went a little overboard - so I think when the chance came to go more into Web based information delivery as opposed to personal visits, travel, and huge printing budgets…"

The Roswell Park Cancer Institute at the University at Buffalo needed to increase their admissions without increasing their already low budget. They decided to incorporate the Internet into their recruiting efforts.

Solution:

"… we found that StudentProspector was a great, great asset."

The Roswell Park Cancer Institute got the chance to sample StudentProspector, the innovative recruiting tool that lets schools search for specific types of students and reach out to them electronically, without the need of expensive print materials. They found the sample extremely effective, and after purchasing the tool noticed an immediate response: not only were students responding to their StudentProspector e-mail blasts, but a large percentage of students who were filling out applications were writing StudentProspector under the section marked "Where did you hear from us?"

According to Craig, there is an unparalleled advantage to being capable of conducting a filtered search of students. They were able to search for particular students interested in particular sciences, which meshed perfectly with their targeted programs.

Result:

"With our limited budget we wouldn't stay with a program unless we saw steady growth."

Since using StudentProspector, The Roswell Park Cancer Institute at the University at Buffalo has seen a steady growth in interest and enrollments. Craig works in a small office and does most of the work himself, but with StudentProspector he is able to share biographical sketches, interests, and contact information with the director of graduate students. This way, they can effectively send information on specific students with specific interests to the appropriate department.

Drew - How would you rate the quality of the leads? Were they what you were looking for?

Craig - They really were. In this business, the more leads the better. We need as many quality leads at the top as we can. It's a competitive world we're living in for top-notch students looking to enter bio-medical research or who want to go into cancer research as a subspecialty. It is very important to have a large group of students at the top of that funnel so we can have a real nice group of students coming in as our first year Ph.D. students. That would be anywhere between 20 and 25 students we are looking for out of an application pool of 300-400.

Drew - You do have a limited number of spots you need to fill, so you have to find the best possible candidates out there?

Craig - Exactly. And every cancer center in the country that would have this type of program would be doing the same thing.

Drew - Have you enrolled students who found you or who you found through StudentProspector?

Craig - There is absolutely no doubt about it.

Drew - What would you say to a student who is looking to be found?

Craig - Go immediately to your computer and get on board with StudentProspector. What a great resource for an up and coming student: To learn about graduate programs all over the country and all over the word. And having individuals from schools that meet their requirements contacting them with information -- THAT'S a service.

Support:

"I'm not the most technical person in the world, but I've found the support staff to be wonderful."

Drew - Is there anything you would like to see StudentProspector add or do differently?

Craig - You have made updates over the last 2 to 3 years that covered a number of the issues or suggestions we may have had. I appreciate that. When the staff gets suggestions, they take the ball and run with it. You have done it very well.

He also noted that the StudentProspector staff respects his questions, even when they are "stupid." And really, that, plus increasing your admissions without increasing your budget, is what StudentProspector is here for.