Attract more students with smarter Social Media — register for our live higher ed webinar on February 19th.

Canegie Mellon logo 250x250
How a top US university
enhanced its diversity and
increased student applications


Carnegie Mellon University (USA)
Department of Biological Sciences

0
Students admitted to Carnegie Mellon University
0
Applications submitted through "Keystone Apply"
0
Average leads generated per month
Download PDF version
carnegie-mellon-university-logo-22C9763CEA-seeklogo.com

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a world class institution ranked in the top thirty (30) of institutions globally*. Renowned for academic excellence, entry to the Department of Biological Sciences is a highly competitive process yet also one that must be maintained with a steady flow of applications each year. Within higher education, the global market for student talent has grown increasingly competitive in recent years, especially in a post-pandemic landscape. While some institutions have faced declining applications, the Department of Biological Sciences has taken a proactive approach to reduce the impact of any potential declines by strengthening their student marketing mix.

The Current State of Enrollment

In September 2021, CMU Department of Biological ’s Director of Graduate Operations, Ena Miceli established a partnership with the Keystone Education Group (Keystone) to boost the Department of Biological Sciences‘ brand awareness and visibility within the domestic and global student markets.

The partnership began with a clear goal to help boost lead and application generation from qualified applicants from a diverse background. After only seven months, it was evident that the partnership was generating strong results for the Departmentof Biological Sciences’ admissions.

Student Lead Generation & Referral
Traffic

During this period between September 2021 and April 2022, the Department of Biological Sciences received an average of 90 qualified student leads from Keystone’s network of student websites per month, as well as through referral traffic from Keystone websites to CMU’s own website. The Department of Biological Sciences also made use of Keystone’s Apply inquiry management and lead nurturing service with excellent results. 

Highly Qualified Applicants from Diverse Backgrounds

Keystone was able to help generate twenty-four (24) applications from countries such as India, China, Hong Kong, Croatia, Sweden, Namibia, and Nigeria in less than seven months. The students applied to the MS in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, MS in Computational Biology, MS in Quantitative Biology and Bioinformatics, and PhD in Biological Sciences programs.

Of the applicants, 15 students had been already admitted with more progressing towards matriculation. In addition, CMU experienced an 862.5% increase in non-lead applications in the months after beginning the cooperation with Keystone. 

More Than Just Results, A True Partnership

In addition to recruitment success, Miceli also believes the strong working relationship between CMU and Keystone has been integral to the success of the partnership. She considers Keystone staff as part of her own team, or “people you can trust and work together with to find the right solutions. They [Keystone] offer a good business model because they incorporate your ideas and decisions in a truly collaborative and effective manner,” said Miceli. 

Group 48096383-1

“Our goal was to increase diversity from other regions such as Europe or Africa. With Keystone, we have been able to do this, and expand our reach to a range of different countries.”

“We saw a major increase, almost ten-fold, in stealth applications** from regions such as Africa and Asia since starting our partnership with Keystone. This has enabled us to diversify our applicant pool, and is exactly why we began this partnership."

** Students that go directly to CMU’s Biological Science websites and apply after researching the programs on Keystone’s websites

Group 48096383 (1)