The NAGAP Report

In the second episode of our two-part chapters mini-series, we talk with NYGAP Chapter president Jaclyn Napoleon and TXGAP Chapter president Victor Lopez. Jaclyn and Victor tell us about the benefits of being part of a regional chapter and how to get involved. We also talk about all the existing regional chapters, so if you aren’t already part of one, this is your chance to learn more! About the g...

In the first episode of our two-part chapters mini-series, we highlight the two NAGAP Special Interest Chapters: BioGAP and JGAP. Chapter presidents Brandy Wood and Colleen Sommerfeld discuss the opportunities these chapters present, how to get involved, and even how to form your own special interest chapter. About the guests: Brandy Wood serves as president of BioGAP and currently leads all aspec...

Join The NAGAP Report  hosts Lauren McGowan, Marcus Hanscom, and Aaron Berger as they're off to the races discussing the upcoming 2024 GEM Summit in Louisville, KY.  Find out what makes attending Summit so powerful for your own professional development, whether you’re attending as a first timer or you’ve been knocking it out of the park for some time in GEM. You'll learn more about how t...

Enrollment managers are often forced to confront difficult student situations and make tough decisions regarding how to enforce or apply a policy (or not). How do we make fair and defensible decisions when students ask to be the exception to the rule? In this episode, The NAGAP Report co-host Lauren McGowan interviews Josie LaLonde, Director of Student Experience at the Ontario Institute for Studi...

Are you looking to expand your international graduate student recruitment efforts in South America? Listen in as The NAGAP Report co-host Marcus Hanscom has a conversation with Ana Villavicencio and Rita Moriconi, both Regional Educational Advising Coordinators (REACs) for Education USA in South America. The conversation covers South American student mobility, study abroad motivations, financial c...

We are always looking for better ways to reach our students, right? This podcast episode of The NAGAP Report is about the benefits of podcasting in graduate enrollment. Join co-host Dr. Aaron Berger and Dr. Christopher Lewis, Director of Graduate Programs at the University of Michigan-Flint, and Zach Busekrus, founder of Enrollify, for a conversation about the benefits of starting a podcast and so...

As institutions look to grow and diversify programs and revenue ahead of the projected enrollment cliff, online education has become even more critical to the enrollment arsenal. But for many campuses, scaling online education efficiently - and quickly - can be a substantial undertaking with significant cost and resource implications. One solution? Work with an online program management (OPM) comp...

Join The NAGAP Report co-hosts Lauren McGowan, Aaron Berger, and Marcus Hanscom as they debrief after an exciting few days at the 2023 NAGAP Graduate Enrollment Management Summit. This year's annual conference was held at the Marriott Marquis in the heart of Times Square in New York City. Approximately 900 graduate enrollment professionals from around the globe converged to discuss the latest...

Student workers and graduate assistants are an important part of our recruitment and admissions teams. But how can we ensure that we are hiring the right people, and supervising them effectively? How can we set reasonable expectations that allow for flexibility while also making sure the work gets done? In this episode of The NAGAP Report , two experienced student supervisors, Danielle Geraci Thom...

The Institute for International Education released its most recent Open Doors report in November and the news was positive: the total number of international students in the U.S. grew by four percent in 2021-2022 over the prior year, bolstered by an 80% increase in newly enrolled international students. And on the graduate side, International student enrollment was up by 17 percent.  As our instit...

This episode explores the difficult decision many GEM professionals are facing – staying in your role, transitioning to another role in GEM, shifting to other roles in higher education, or leaving the field entirely. The conversation delves into the different job transitions of three prominent women in our field and explores advice for our own career decisions and strategies for retaining our staf...

Content marketing is the future, but what does it actually look like in practice? Hear from Stevie Otto, Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Southern Methodist University’s Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, as she describes their strategy for using premium content to reach and attract prospective students. This episode of The NAGAP Report was hosted, produced, and edited by Laur...

So much institutional knowledge lives in the minds of individual staff and faculty, creating a reliance on them from others for information. In addition to creating inefficiencies, this practice is problematic as institutional knowledge walked out the door as our colleagues departed throughout the "Great Resignation."  In this conversation, we sit down with Will Fenton to explore the imp...

As graduate enrollment professionals constantly seek to learn more about their potential student populations, the University of Notre Dame has spent the past 10 years asking their applicants to provide insight into their admission journey. Hear from Dr. Nyrée McDonald and Dr. Julaine Zenkelberger about what their students are telling them are essential factors in their decision to attend the Unive...

As graduate enrollment professionals feel increased pressure to enroll more students, one critical, low-hanging fruit hangs right under our own eyes - our own undergraduates. Hear from Lauren Kicak, Associate Director of Graduate Admission at Canisius College, about how Canisius created some smart tactics to clear the way for their own undergraduates to consider staying under their own roof for gr...

The second of our two-part series on video in graduate student recruitment, this episode features an interview with Lauren McGowan, Director of Recruitment and Admissions for the University of Buffalo School of Social Work. Lauren presented a popular session at the 2022 NAGAP Summit on DIY video, covering all of the important topics of creating impactful, high quality videos that drive student eng...

Join Aaron Berger for his first episode hosting The NAGAP Report as he welcomes Gabe Ruttner, Co-Founder and CTO at Clearmix, to the podcast to discuss using video in graduate student recruitment. Listen in as they discuss best practices for using video as part of your graduate recruitment strategy, how to create compelling video content, when to produce video in-house versus engaging a vendor, an...

Launched in 2019, the NAGAP Leadership Academy provides an expansive, year-long professional development opportunity for higher education professionals. The Academy combines formal leadership training from professional development leader Management Concepts with critical graduate enrollment management exploration and training from leading experts in our field. Join The NAGAP Report host Marcus Han...

Most graduate enrollment professionals are scratching their heads on what the fall graduate recruitment cycle looks like as we emerge from the deepest impacts of the pandemic. As schools more heavily revert back to on-campus graduate fairs, many of us continue to question the efficacy of these events while simultaneously seeing declines in virtual event participation as prospective students are &q...

As we wrapped up Women's History Month for 2022, we had the opportunity to sit down with our incoming NAGAP President, Kristen Sterba; Vice President, Naronda Wright; and Publications Chair, Melissa Sersland. Listen in to hear about their careers, pathways to leadership, thoughts on the state and future of NAGAP, and advice for new professionals in graduate enrollment management.  This episod...

We celebrate International Women's Day with this special conversation with Holly Wilbanks of The Wilbanks Consulting Group. Once a card-carrying member of the NAGAP community, Holly embarked on a soul-searching journey that led her to found her own business helping others find and pursue fulfilling careers. Listen to this conversation to hear about her professional journey both in and outside...

Lauren McGowan takes the reigns for her first podcast episode as cohost of The NAGAP Report . Join Lauren as she talks about innovation in graduate student orientation with two student affairs colleagues from the University of Buffalo School of Social Work, Dana Horne, Assistant Dean for Student and Academic Affairs and Director of Student Services, and Joshua Hine, Director of Academic Success In...

Join us for part two of our first conversation with our new The NAGAP Report cohost, Lauren McGowan. After discussing the importance of altruistic marketing in graduate enrollment, we take a deeper dive into what it takes to develop valuable content for prospective graduate students, deploy it in a multichannel strategy, and leverage inbound marketing tactics and SEO to maximize awareness and enga...

The idea of altruistic marketing certainly isn't new, but it plays a critical role in graduate student recruitment. Our prospective graduate student "consumers" are seeking right-fit institutions that not only offer their intended program of study, but also demonstrate how they understand and support each individual student's needs. Graduate enrollment managers need to more ful...

This episode of The NAGAP Report features the audio from our April 20, 2021, virtual panel as part of the “Leadership Edition” of The Exchange Live , the NAGAP webinar series. This is the second of a two-part conversation on strategic planning and enrollment modeling with Joe Paris, Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Temple University College of Education and Human Development; Keith R...