What Is off Campus Recruitment?

Off campus recruitment is when college and university representatives attend events outside of the college campus to recruit new students. This type of recruitment is a proactive form of marketing and promoting the college or university uses to get students interested in attending their school.

Recruiting can take place in several different environments and in several different formats. One way to conduct off campus recruiting is for college recruiters to attend college tradeshows that are typically set up and hosted by one or more high schools in an area. The college recruiters typically travel around to these different tradeshows. They set up a table, hand out information about the college, talk about the benefits of the college with the students and answer any questions that the students who come by their table may have.

Some off campus recruitment is conducted more like an information session. The recruiter may rent a meeting room at a local hotel or conduct the session in the library of the high school. Students and parents are invited to come to the information session. The recruiter will talk about the college to the group and offer informational packets. The recruiters may even set up one-on-one visits and tours of the campus. At the end or during these sessions, the recruiters will also take questions from the audience.

Some off campus recruitment is one-on-one. A college or university may have their sights set on a particular student because of their high school academic record or their athletic abilities. In this case, the college or university may conduct off campus recruitment by sending a recruiter to talk specifically with that student and their parents.

In short, off campus recruitment is any action a recruiter takes to proactively make a potential student aware of the college. Once the student is aware of the college, the off campus recruiter is then responsible for selling the benefits of the college or university to the students as a way to entice them to apply to come to the school. Some off campus recruitment even involves the steps the student must go through to apply.

Recruiters may provide tips and advice how to best complete the admissions application. They may make suggestions on how to complete the essay or other ways to increase a student's chances of getting in.