Learn How Schools Use the GMAC™ GradSelect Database

Did you know business schools actively look for students using GMAC™ GradSelect data?

GradSelect puts you directly in touch with over 560,000 candidates interested in GME. Within the database, you can customize filters to see candidates from targeted demographics, regions, and different stages of the recruitment funnel.

Our pool of candidates come from every corner of the world, making GradSelect a valuable tool for business schools looking to fill their business programs with students who match their ethos and culture.

Here’s exactly how schools are using the GradSelect database as part of their outreach efforts.

Matching with ideal GME students

Every business school wants the best students on their programs. GradSelect makes it easier to find talented students, nurture their interest in programs, and create a cohort that best matches your school’s interests.

Amanda Barth, director, MBA Admissions at the College of William & Mary's Mason School of Business used GradSelect to identify students who would be a good fit for their MBA program.

In fact, many of their current MBA students were first found on the GradSelect database and are now studying at the Mason School of Business.

“One of our students, Charlie, is a first-year MBA, and we were able to match with Charlie on GradSelect and send him detailed communications and info about the Mason School of Business,” Amanda explains.

From there, Charlie was invited to an interview, where they could confirm that he was a good fit for the MBA program at Mason. In particular, Charlie’s experience in the Peace Corps directly matched the kind of work experience Mason look for in their MBA students.

“It was a wonderful match, and another result from our GradSelect activity,” adds Amanda.

Similarly, Hult International School of Business used the GradSelect database to pivot their marketing efforts towards early prospects.

These leads make up a large proportion of the GradSelect candidate pool and represent students who may have accessed prep materials for the GMAT but have yet to apply to GME programs.

Hristo Gopin, Head of Business Intelligence at Hult, explains how GradSelect’s early prospect leads impacted their overall outreach strategy.

“Over the last four years, we’ve gradually increased the number of early prospects we’ve been buying. Last year we had 60,000 early prospects, but we’ve also managed to increase the number of leads from early prospects we’ve acquired from GradSelect fourfold.

“Now, early prospects represent about 40% of our overall GradSelect leads. They’re a well-established part of our overall purchases and comparable in their overall return on investment.”

Utilizing demographic filters in GradSelect for targeted recruitment communications

Demographic filters within the GradSelect portal also enable your institution to carefully select leads that match cohort targets, for example with regards to ethnicity, educational background, or GMAT score.

This tactic worked for Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, who segmented leads into specific lists and tailored communications accordingly.

“We’ll segment out domestic versus international candidates, our under-represented populations candidates domestically, and in the past we’ve also segmented out higher GMAT/GPA versus lower GMAT/GPA candidates just to ensure we’re nurturing those leads in the proper way,” explains Cameron Collins, senior marketing manager at Vanderbilt University.

“In the year we implemented a comprehensive GradSelect strategy, we tripled our number of submitted applications.”

Building a multicultural cohort

Business schools want their cohorts to be as diverse as possible. Such diversity enriches the student experience and ensures that students from under-represented regions like Africa and Asia are given opportunities to pursue GME.

At the College of William & Mary’s Mason School of Business, GradSelect data gave the admissions team a chance to specifically target students from Japan as part of their MBA recruitment strategy.

"We were able to utilize our GradSelect GMAT test-taker data to pull in candidates from Japan who fell into our level of work experience and our desired test score range,” Amanda Barth explains.

“We pulled the data in advance of our recruitment trip to Japan and communicated with the candidates via GradSelect, and we yielded a wonderful cohort of Japanese candidates into our MBA class the following year.”

Developing a targeted marketing plan for rare leads

Many schools who utilize the GradSelect portals do so as part of a larger marketing plan. In this way, GradSelect data can supplement other outreach efforts, allowing you to increase the number of students you approach and increase brand awareness more widely.

Leads from GradSelect can be supplied weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly, easily feeding into a larger outreach strategy. For example, CEIBS budgeted for monthly leads, and used the demographic filtering system to ensure each lead was high quality.

This enables schools to be far more systematic in their approach than with traditional outreach methods such as recruiting events – as James Kent, marketing manager at CEIBS, explains.

“Back in the day, we would go over to the UK and have a coffee chat or an event there, then reactively buy all the GradSelect leads, and it didn’t yield very good results,” he notes. “Now we have a much more systematic and proactive approach to have GradSelect as part of our monthly marketing spend.”

CEIBS’ location in China means that the admissions team find it harder to find quality leads, as only a small proportion of potential candidates are genuinely interested in relocating to Asia.

“Our logic is that somebody is not going to quit their job and move across the world if they’re not interested in studying and being in Asia,” says James. “This is a big filter for us and it screens out a lot of people but frankly, we’re okay with that – a big part of our MBA is they have to be excited and want to be working and studying in Asia.”

With GradSelect’s filtering options, CEIBS was able to remove students who haven’t said they’re interested in a degree in Asia, minimizing the work for the admissions team and increasing the quality of each lead.

Schools have access to GradSelect leads for up to 12 months, allowing marketing teams to develop a cohesive outreach plan over the long-term utilizing repeat e-mails and other points of communication.

“For someone that doesn’t know anything about CEIBS, we’re putting eight high-impact pieces of content in front of them to warm them up to the school and the brand,” James explains.

“As soon as somebody signs up for a one-to-one, we then have a hard deadline of within 24 hours that person is reached out to and a follow-up call is set up to talk about their MBA plans.”

Interested in enhancing your GME outreach? Sign up for GradSelect here.