Due to the limits on in-person interactions during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, graduate schools have transformed their recruitment strategies, especially for international students.
According to Open Doors research, international students make up 5.5% of the student
population at higher education institutions in the United States. During the 2018-19 school year, over one million international students were in the United States, with half of the students coming from China and India.
“Our graduate international recruiters are not able to travel abroad,” says Patricia Gamboa, director of graduate and international recruitment and admissions at the University of Arkansas (UARK). “So, we have been going into more virtual spaces and this allows us to cross cities and time zones. That has allowed us to really scale up our message.”
UARK has partnered with different vendors and worked with the Arkansas Alumni Association to create virtual events, country-specific events and webinars.
Recruitment strategies at other institutions include fast-track admissions, in which schools recruit their own undergraduate students for graduate school.
In terms of the graduate student international application process, UARK has moved toward a more “holistic review,” according to Gamboa. There will be greater testing flexibility. For example, the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) will be optional for the 2021 application.
