Your recruitment letter may be one of many that a student receives.
Your graduate school recruiting letter is your chance to get the attention of students and convince them that your program will help them succeed in future careers. A recruiting letter is sent by colleges to increase program awareness and encourage students to apply. You can increase the effectiveness of your recruiting letters by focusing on the benefits of your program that every student is interested in, while providing special testimonials from current and former students, giving applicants a chance to see what you have to offer.
Instructions
1. Make a list of the things that are most important to your students, such as their ability to find work after college, student support services, study abroad opportunities and openings in your graduate assistant programs. Look for benefits that affect numerous students first. For instance, your classical literature department may attract a few students to your school, but advertising your 90 percent first year employment record will attract many more.
2. Lead with your most important information. This includes newspaper articles about your program's success, percentage of students who graduated and moved directly into a career and any impressive guest speakers who spoke at your school. Include this information in your introduction. For example, you may introduce your letter by saying, "Our university has a recent straight to employment record of 90 percent for former graduate students, and has even drawn the attention of important speakers." Show your pride in your program and university's record of success.
3. Collect testimonials from former students who graduated and found an exciting career opportunity. Ask your students to compose a short biography, 200 to 400 words, describing their experience in your program. Once collected, look through your responses and select passages that contain interesting and useful information for incoming students. For instance, you may select a quote that describes a professor going the extra mile to help a student succeed. Use this information to give prospects a small vision of what it is like to go to school in your program.
4. Give your prospects the choice to read information that is important to them by sectioning off other useful, but less exciting, information. Include information about your student support services or unique classes you offer. For instance, you can include a separate section for each program option you offer, giving your students the choice to read the sections that are most important to them.
Tags: your program, most important, your students, about your, choice read, employment record