Student recruitment strategies bring prospective students to your institution and move them from first interest to a submitted application. The ones that work go after students who look like the ones who enroll and succeed, reach them where they’re already looking, and judge every source by how many of its students apply and enroll.
The pool of traditional-age students is getting smaller. WICHE projects that the number of U.S. high school graduates peaks in 2025 and falls 13% by 2041. Every institution will compete harder for the same students, and adult learners, transfer students and dual-enrollment students matter more each year.
Recruitment also stalls at specific steps. We mapped 5 target actions between a started application and a submitted one: sending transcripts, getting a recommendation letter, writing the essay, meeting with admissions and applying for scholarships. A student can stop at any of them.
This guide covers ten strategies, from the first impression to the submitted application, and how to measure them. For the full funnel through deposit and enrollment, see our guide to college enrollment marketing. To have us bring in inquiries for you, see our RFI generation and awareness solutions.
10 student recruitment strategies
1. Decide who you’re recruiting, program by program
Start with the seats you need to fill: enrollment overall, specific programs, master’s programs, dual enrollment. Then look at the students who enrolled in those programs and did well, and recruit more students like them. A program with open seats and a program with a waitlist need different plans.
- List each program’s open seats and its enrollment goal for the next start term.
- Pull the students who enrolled in each program over the last two years and stayed, and note where they came from.
- Put recruitment money behind the programs with room to grow.
2. Build awareness where enrollment can move
Spend awareness money in the places most likely to send you students, and on the people who help decide. Streaming TV reaches parents and adult learners on the biggest screen in the house. Social video and display keep you in front of the same households. Awareness also builds the pool you remarket to later. More on awareness campaigns.
3. Meet searchers with search
Students looking for a program type it into Google. Paid search on the terms that bring in applicants, and program pages that answer the questions students ask, catch them at that moment. More in higher education lead generation.
4. Build social audiences from your best students
Social platforms can find new people who look like the students who enrolled and stayed. In Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey, roughly nine in ten U.S. teens said they use YouTube, and about six in ten use TikTok and Instagram. Adult learners and parents are on Facebook and Instagram. Pick the platforms your students use, and build audiences from your enrolled students, not from everyone who clicked.
5. Remarket to people who showed interest
Most people who visit a program page or watch an awareness spot don’t fill out a form the first time. Remarketing brings them back with a message about the program they looked at and a short way to ask for information.
6. Make the inquiry form short and the follow-up fast
Ask only for what you need to follow up: name, contact information, program of interest and start term. Send the next step the same day, from a real person or office, and tell the student exactly what happens next.
- Confirm the inquiry with the program name and the start term the student picked.
- Send one next step: book a call, attend an info session or start the application.
- Route program questions to someone who can answer them.
7. Partner with high schools and community colleges
Counselors, dual-enrollment programs and transfer agreements put your institution in front of students before they start searching. Give counselors materials they can hand out, and make transfer credit easy to see. For community colleges, the plan starts close to home: local high schools, adults in the service area who need a credential, and employers who will pay for training. More in transfer pathways.
8. Recruit adults, transfer and graduate students on purpose
These students don’t follow the high school calendar, and they ask different questions: how long it takes, what it costs, whether it fits around a job and how many credits transfer. Give them their own pages, their own messages and start dates through the year. More in online degree enrollment strategies and online master’s degree marketing.
9. Put cost and aid up front
Families decide on cost, often before they apply. Show the net price, the scholarships a student can get and how to file the FAFSA, on the program page and in the first messages after an inquiry. More in FAFSA outreach.
10. Move inquiries to a submitted application
An inquiry is only worth what it turns into. Send each student a message for the step they’re on, from the office that owns it.
Picture a student who started her application in October and hasn’t written the essay. A text from Admissions reads: “Write three sentences tonight about why you want to study nursing. That’s the start of your essay.” It shrinks the task to one step she can take today. That’s self-efficacy, one of the motivational principles behind every GuidePost we build, paired with tiny habits.
Every student on a list can be reached across five channels: social media, streaming TV, email, SMS and direct mail, each timed to the step they’re on.
What this looks like in practice
At a top-300 four-year institution, the university split its existing leads in half. Half received a sequenced social campaign built to get started applications submitted; the other half received nothing from us. Leads in the campaign group submitted 350% more applications than the holdout, a result significant at 95%.
Across our enrollment campaigns, the average conversion rate is 4.5%, from our results.
Want to see what this does on your own list? Start a pilot with one list of inquiries or started applications and one goal: submitted applications.
How to measure student recruitment
- Judge each source by what it turns into. Track inquiry-to-application and application-to-enrollment rates by source, not just the number of inquiries.
- Track cost per enrolled student by source. A cheap inquiry that never applies costs more than an expensive one that enrolls.
- Watch the steps after the inquiry. Started applications, submitted applications and missing items show where students stall.
- Compare against a holdout. Keep a group of students out of a campaign, the same students the whole time. The gap between the groups is what the campaign changed. New Motimatic campaigns hold out a random 5% of the list. More on how we measure.
Common questions about student recruitment
What’s the difference between student recruitment and enrollment marketing? Recruitment brings in prospective students and gets them to apply. Enrollment marketing covers the whole path, through the deposit and the first day of class.
What is an RFI? A request for information: a prospective student’s inquiry, usually a form on a program page or a social ad. It’s the first record of a student in your CRM.
How many inquiries do we need? Work backward from your enrollment goal using your own conversion rates from the last two cycles: enrolled students, then admits, applications and inquiries.
Where should a small recruitment team start? With the programs that have the most open seats and the students already on your list. Getting started applications submitted usually costs less than finding new inquiries.
Should community colleges recruit differently? Yes. Open admission and a local service area put the focus on high school partnerships, dual enrollment, adults who need a credential and getting registered students to the first day.
Keep reading on student recruitment
- College enrollment marketing: a stage-by-stage guide
- 8 strategies for higher education lead generation
- 8 high-impact student acquisition strategies
- The enrollment cliff: why quality is the new KPI
- Transfer pathways
- The 2027 enrollment squeeze, our white paper
- Everything on recruitment and RFIs
