Senior Admissions Counselor

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard Work Schedule:
• Building:
• Salary Range: $70,000 - $75,500

Position Summary

The Senior Admissions Counselor works closely with the Assistant Director of Recruitment and Admissions and other members of the admissions team to develop actionable goals and execute strategies that drive application growth and support the goal of yielding the most highly qualified students and providing exemplary support throughout the enrollment process to the students for the School's diverse portfolio of programs. These offerings currently include cross-disciplinary Master's Degree Programs, Pre-Graduate and Graduate Certificate Programs Certifications of Professional Achievement, Post Baccalaureate courses and visiting student- programs, High School Programs, and the American Language Programs.

While the Admissions team will support all SPS programs, each Senior Admissions Counselor specializes in a few programs, providing backup support for others as needed. Senior Admissions Counselors also serve on the Committee for Admissions for the programs they support, evaluating applications for admissions consideration. In addition, the Senior Admissions Counselor oversees the annual recruitment team assessment, leads on supporting school-wide initiatives, and oversees the onboarding of new team members.

Responsibilities

• 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. International travel may also be required.
• 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 post-session analysis 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 by offering individual meetings and small group sessions.
• 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 recruitment team goals.
• Enter interactions with prospects and applicants into Slate, noting 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
• Serve as member of the Admissions Committee for assigned programs, reading applications and making admissions decision recommendations to the academic directors for the programs in their portfolio, and back-up programs (as needed)
• Partner with assigned programs to create effective yield management plans, and assist in coordinating and participating in yield events
• 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 school-wide initiatives such as annual open house and admitted student events
• Oversee the onboarding on new team members in collaboration with the Associate Director of Recruitment and Admissions, including the creation of new employee training schedules, arranging meetings with relevant stakeholders in advance and making introductions, monitoring the completion of training activities, and making recommendations for additional training as needed
• Volunteer to assist with student events such as orientation and graduation.

Performs other duties and projects as assigned or requested.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and/or equivalent related experience required
• 2 years related experience
• A resume and cover letter with salary requirements must be submitted for this position.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in admissions, recruitment or academic advising
• Experience with reviewing applications
• Familiarity with SPS program offerings
• Familiarity with Slate.

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
• Intellectual curiosity, sound problem-solving and decision-making abilities, and strength in creative and innovative thinking
• High energy and passion for recruiting
• Proficiency with Windows, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel required
• Ability to work mornings, evenings, 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
• Proficient in MS Office/systems (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Strong working knowledge of all SPS programs and evidence of commitment to support School-wide and divisional goals
• Proven commitment to excellence and has evidenced a high-quality work output
• Must have strong recommendations from Academic Directors and administrative leaders.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

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