Assistant Director, Recruitment and Admissions

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard Work Schedule:
• Building:
• Salary Range: $78,000 - $88,000

Position Summary

The Assistant Director, Recruitment and Admissions reports to the Director, Recruitment. The Assistant Director works with other members of the admissions team to develop actionable goals and execute strategies to drive application growth and support efforts to yield the most highly qualified students. Provides exemplary support throughout the application and enrollment process to the students for the School's diverse portfolio of Master's Degree programs. While the Admissions team supports all SPS programs, the Assistant Director specializes in specific programs, providing backup support for others as needed. The Assistant Director also serves on the Committee for Admissions for the programs they support, evaluating applications for admissions consideration.

Responsibilities

Recruitment

• Research and make recommendations for program-specific and School-wide recruitment opportunities to increase the number of highly qualified applications to assigned portfolio of programs
• Manage and execute the recruitment plan for assigned programs
• Recruit for and represent SPS by attending local, regional, and national graduate and career fairs, disciplinary conferences, campus events, face-to-face and online informational sessions, and participate at other web and program specific recruitment related outreach activities
• Develop information session schedule for assigned portfolio of programs and execute information sessions, including slide deck creation, coordination of session speakers, hosting session, presenting on application and other relevant details during session, following up with session participants, and conducting and after action analysis of the session to identify points of relevant information and opportunities
• Create communication plans for each recruitment event, develop the communication content and deploy the communications
• Conduct proactive (initiating contact with individuals who express interest) and reactive prospect management (respond to incoming inquiries), works to convert prospects to applicants, and admitted applicants to matriculated student
• Facilitate frequent and productive interactions between prospects/students and school representatives when necessary including financial aid advisors and the ISSO
• Make recommendations for high level communication strategies for prospects and ensures that recruitment communications align with those initiated by the marketing team
• Enter interactions with prospects and applicants into the CRM, grading and tracking level of interest, and continue frequent and productive interactions with prospects through the decision-making and initial enrollment processes
• Lead in maintaining data collection on all assigned prospects, reporting weekly on status of the prospect pool, collaborating with other staff to report on trends, and developing action steps needed to meet admissions and enrollment targets
• Maintain a close collaborative relationship with academic and marketing team members to ensure that recruiting, admissions, and communications initiatives align with program, department and School goals
• Track and provide feedback regarding the effectiveness of recruitment and marketing efforts in attracting high quality prospective students and applicants, and the overall quality of the prospect and applicant pools to relevant admissions, marketing and academic team stakeholders
• Ensure prospect-facing content for the assigned programs is clear and drives the desired action; proactively recommend content changes to the website, communications, and collateral based on the synthesis and analysis of prospect and applicant questions and feedback
• Create effective yield management plans for assigned programs, and assist in coordinating and participating in yield events
• Serve as the primary point of contact for admitted students through commitment and deposit submission and for committed students through the handoff to the advising team
• Play a lead role in the annual recruitment assessment process including synthesizing feedback from across the admissions counselors and making personal recommendations, synthesizing data and making recommendations based on outcomes, assisting with the creation of action plans, and implementing changes
• Leads on supporting school-wide initiatives and recruitment related systems and data needs

Admissions

• Serve as a member of the Admissions Committee through the entire admissions cycle for assigned programs
• Ensure applications are complete with all materials and ready for evaluation. Conduct the initial application review to determine the admissibility of the applicant following the program's application metrics
• Reconcile recommended decisions from committee members
• Communicate with applicants throughout the admissions process regarding missing application materials and other application-related topics
• Communicate with relevant team members to ensure that all applications are reviewed and decisions are rendered within the time-frames communicated to applicants
• Lead regular admissions pipeline meetings and provide feedback on applicant quality and relevant insights gathered during the application review process
• Create regular application pipeline reporting and distributes as needed to relevant parties including admissions and advising team members, program staff, and departmental leadership
• Communicate frequently with Program Directors regarding the quality of applicants and the progress of applications through the processing stages
• Identify potential ways to improve the application process and streamline workflows where appropriate
• Suggest improvements to application review rubrics based on the tracking of acceptance rates, applicant quality data, and other insights
• May be responsible for supervising the work of one (1) or more employees

PERFORMS OTHER DUTIES AS ASSIGNED OR REQUESTED

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and/or equivalent related experience required
• 3 years related experience
• A resume and cover letter with salary requirements must be submitted to be considered for the position

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in admissions, recruitment or academic advising
• Familiarity with SPS program offerings

Other Requirements

• Strong communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills (verbal and written), and experience presenting in small group and large group settings, and to a variety of audiences, including individuals in positions of influence
• High energy and passion for recruiting
• Proficiency with Windows, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel required
• Ability to work mornings, evening, and weekends, as needed
• Ability to travel up to 25%
• Exceptional attention to detail, strong organization and time management skills, and the ability to perform non-routine work with changing priorities
• Ability to handle confidential information in a mature, professional manner
• Must be able to work with a diverse student body, faculty and administrators
• Experience in a fast-paced student or client service-oriented environment
• Ability to work independently as well as in teams in a highly-matrixed environment, receiving direction from and providing support to multiple sources
• Sound problem-solving and decision-making abilities, both as an independent entity, and as part of a team

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.