Head of Graduate Recruitment & Admissions Strategy

Montana State University; Bozeman (MT); Hybrid; USD 70,000 - 86,000; Full time

Job summary

Montana State University’s Graduate School seeks a Director of Graduate Recruitment and Admissions to lead the strategy from prospect to enrollment, guiding centralized processing, evaluation, and decision-making while enhancing the graduate experience through orientation programs.

The role partners with academic departments to attract top talent, develop recruitment marketing, and oversee staff and systems, including CollegeNET and Banner, ensuring compliant, efficient admissions operations and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in higher education administration, student services, communications, marketing, or a related field.
• Progressively responsible experience in graduate admissions, student recruitment, enrollment management, higher education administration, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing student recruitment, admissions, or enrollment strategies and initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to interpret and apply complex requirements across varying scenarios and records, including international documents.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and complex processes with minimal supervision.
• Demonstrated experience supervising employees, including training, assigning work, providing feedback, and managing performance.

Responsibilities

• Oversees all operations involving graduate student application processing, including decisions (admissions/denials) and review of residency requirement in accordance with BOR policies and procedures; serves as contact for BOR residency audits.
• Collaborates with department graduate coordinators, faculty, and administrative staff regarding recruitment practices, admission policies and procedures, and application processing, including providing guidance on student funding requirements as well as promoting process improvement and compliance.
• Develops and implements effective goals, strategies, and initiatives to facilitate the recruitment of high-quality graduate students to MSU, including management of prospects at all stages.
• Oversees the creation and dissemination of the Graduate School’s short-and long-term marketing strategies and communication plans in collaboration with University Communications.
• Develops and executes professional, high-quality in-person and online recruiting events, including hosting recruitment events for MSU undergraduates to encourage continued education on the MSU campus, as well as staff and faculty to utilize their tuition benefits.
• Directly supervises recruitment and admissions coordinators, and several graduate student assistants and/or student workers, providing effective leadership and performance management.
• Engages with CollegeNET, the application and recruitment software company, to maintain and update accurate application information and regularly update CRM recruitment plans.
• Independently develops and continuously conducts end-user training programs across the MSU campus for faculty and staff. Concurrently, provides updated training videos on utilizing the software system.
• Oversees the development of reports for accurate data compilation and reporting of enrollment statistics.
• Creates and updates online orientation for new graduate students using the Canvas system for each term, while having a parallel website containing the same information for existing students.

Skills

Excellent written communication

Verbal communication

Interpersonal skills

Organizational skills

Supervising employees

Multitasking

Education

Bachelor’s degree in higher education administration

Master’s degree (preferred)

Tools

CollegeNET

Banner

CRM systems

Data reporting tools

Job description

Montana State University’s Graduate School seeks a Director of Graduate Recruitment and Admissions to lead the strategy from prospect to enrollment, guiding centralized processing, evaluation, and decision-making while enhancing the graduate experience through orientation programs.

The role partners with academic departments to attract top talent, develop recruitment marketing, and oversee staff and systems, including CollegeNET and Banner, ensuring compliant, efficient admissions operations and