A better enrollment experience for students. A lighter workload for GSU.

The Results: 52% of applicants used Unibuddy to inform their decision

The Strategy

Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business hosts a graduate population of roughly 1,700 students coming to the university from over 70 different countries. The institution values the diversity of its student population, so recruiting students from not only across the country, but across the globe is a key part of the college’s enrollment strategy.

In order to maintain that diversity while boosting yield, the recruitment and admissions team at Robinson College sought to deliver an informative, engaging, and supportive enrollment experience that spoke to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. “Because of our diversity, it’s crucial for us to capture both the domestic and international student perspectives in order to enhance awareness and improve engagement,” says Richard James, Associate Director of Graduate Recruiting. James’ team firmly believed that one of the most effective strategies they could deploy in converting a prospective student from lead to applicant or applicant to enrolled was to connect them with a current student who could help to answer the question: What is it like to be a graduate student at GSU’s Robinson College of Business?

The Challenge

Enabling current students to share their first-hand experiences about life as a graduate student at Robinson College, answer prospective students’ questions, and explain why they ultimately decided to attend GSU themselves was one of the most powerful tools in the team’s recruiting tool belt; however, the process of connecting prospective students with current students was a highly manual and tedious. As a result, there were often delays in connecting leads with current students and the personalized experience the team was working so hard to achieve was ultimately weakened. They needed a more streamlined way of providing opportunities for students to connect authentically at multiple stages throughout the enrollment journey.

Unibuddy’s Impact

James was referred to Unibuddy by a colleague who was impressed with the results they were experiencing with Unibuddy at their own institution. After exploring the platform, the long-term benefits of implementing Unibuddy were clear as was the anticipated return on their investment. “The leadership team, including our associate dean, immediately recognized Unibuddy’s commitment to innovation and student success,” James shared. Additionally, the time-saving impact that Unibuddy would have on the team was obvious. “In my role, I’m always looking for ways to lighten the load and enhance the prospective student experience”, said James. Unibuddy would help James achieve both of these goals simultaneously. 

The implementation process was quick and seamless. “It was a straightforward process and we had resources and support along the way,” noted James. “Their Customer Success team was very helpful and took the time to understand our needs so we’d be best set up for success”, he added. What’s more, integration with GSU’s CRM enabled the recruitment and admissions team to bring real-time engagement data into their system and fill in their gaps in their 360 degree view of prospective students as they moved along the funnel. 

The team at Robinson College integrated Unibuddy across all program landing pages, capturing students’ attention while they were in the process of researching the program and enabling them to easily engage with current students to gain more perspective. The marketing team began utilizing Unibuddy in their recruitment campaigns, fostering student-to-student connection right from the start. Unibuddy links were embedded in admitted students’ welcome emails, spotlighting current students who would soon be graduating from their same degree program and making it possible to hear directly from these senior student how they felt about their GSU experience and the opportunities a degree from Robinson College was opening up to them upon graduation. After experiencing a successful first year with Unibuddy, the college was excited to begin including alumni as a resource for prospective students engaging on Unibuddy as well.

Liz Rivera, Graduate Recruitment Manager, shared, “Unibuddy has alleviated some of my workload by addressing questions that I, as a recruiter, may not be able to answer directly. It offers prospective students more resources and connects them with current students who have firsthand experience. For me, it’s a valuable tool and a strong selling point—I can confidently say, ‘If you don’t believe me, reach out to a student who will share their own experiences.”

After implementing Unibuddy, the college saw a substantial increase in student interest and engagement. “Whether it was connecting with one of our ambassadors, interacting with a blog post, or getting their questions answered by staff, over 52% of our applicant pool used Unibuddy to help them make a decision,” shared James. “That’s a significant percentage to us”, he added. And, with Unibuddy’s unique analytics, James’ team gained real-time insight into things like students’ enrollment confidence, the topics they cared most about, and their questions and concerns, as well as enabled them to catch and clear up any potential confusion before it was too late. With Unibuddy, the enrollment team at GSU’s Robinson College of Business was in a better position to more accurately predict conversions and strategically improve upon their recruitment efforts to drive improvements in yield while maintaining their highly valued diversity.