An educational recruiter is a professional responsible for recruiting students for an educational institution. Such recruiters often work for either public or private colleges, but may also work for private schools at any level. Job duties generally vary, but most such positions are responsible for attending recruiting events and education fairs, and may also talk with prospective students and their families privately. Recruiters also often provide information to school counselors and may perform a variety of tracking and reporting duties as well.
In a higher education setting, an educational recruiter is responsible for convincing high school students to attend a specific college or university. This might be a private or public institution, or it could be a technical or academic college. These recruiters often spend a significant amount of time attending college fairs at high schools, government facilities, malls and other locations. They set up tables or booths at the fairs, hand out information about the college and answer questions from prospective students and their families.
College recruiters may also be asked to make special presentations to high school classes or small groups of students. These educational recruiters are often responsible for forming relationships with high school counselors and principals as well, and for ensuring that these important officials are familiar with the university. They may also visit with individual students, either at home or at the high school.
In this way, college recruiters are like other educational recruiters, who frequently visit prospective students personally. Any type of educational recruiter might also conduct information sessions at the school for which they are recruiting, or they may host special events or campus tours. They often provide feedback to the marketing departments in regard to advertising and collateral materials as well.
Often, the educational recruiter is responsible for responding to potential student inquiries. These inquiries may come in person, through the mail, on the phone or via email. Recruiters can respond through any of these methods as well.
Tracking and reporting are frequent educational recruiter duties. Most must maintain visit logs of schools and families visited, and track and report expenses and mileage. They may also maintain contact databases of potential students; inquiries; and key influencers, such as counselors. In addition, they might keep track of the number of applications and acceptances, sorted either by geographic area or by high school. When this type of data is tracked, the educational recruiter might be responsible for analyzing year-over-year data to identify areas of growth or attrition.
