How you can help recruit the next generation of Wildcats
By Ashley Pauls
K-State Alumni Association
It’s a story that Patrick Winter has heard many times about Kansas State University.
A prospective student who is thinking about attending K-State decides to pay a visit
to campus…and then they discover that they can’t imagine themselves going anywhere
else.
“I think if you were to stop a lot of students around this campus and say, ‘How did
you end up here?’ the story that we hear frequently is, I came and visited, and it
absolutely changed everything, and it made me realize this is the place I want to
be,” said Winter, who serves as the university’s associate vice provost and executive
director, recruitment and admissions. “So if we can get them here, we really feel
like that's a huge step towards getting them to consider K-State and to enroll here.”
However, before a student decides to tour K-State, they first have to hear about the
university. Winter is excited to share K-State’s new Refer a Wildcat program: a quick and easy way that alumni and friends can recommend a high school student
who would make a great Wildcat.
“Very few students end up here by accident,” Winter said. “Usually it's because someone
has told them about this place, whether that's a family member, or a teacher, or a
coach — someone pointed them in this direction, and hopefully this allows us to establish
a relationship with the student earlier.”
How it works
The Refer a Wildcat form is simple to fill out. Key information to include, if possible, is name, address
and email — points of contact that will allow the university to reach out and connect
with the student individually.
“The more information that they can provide, obviously the better,” Winter said. “We
then cross reference that with our database of prospective students to make sure that
the information that we're getting is accurate and current. And if it's someone that
we are not already recruiting, we want to make sure that they're getting into our
flow of communication.”
Refer a Wildcat also makes sure the university is reaching as many potential students
as possible.
“If we've got alumni that are around the country and places that we don't traditionally
recruit or get the opportunity to actually have boots on the ground, but there's a
student there that they know about that they think would be a really great fit, we
want to at least make sure that student has heard from us one way or another,” Winter
said.
Winter adds that once students are interested, there are many ways they can experience
campus and sign up for a tour. In addition to scheduling traditional campus visits
on a weekday, at least once a month the university hosts Saturday visits. They also
recently launched a series of evening visits called “Twilight Tours” that have proved
to be popular.
“We know that K-State alumni are engaged with the university and want to see K-State
be successful,” Winter said. “We hear a lot from our alums that want to make sure
that either their children or family members or neighbors or just great students that
they know about are hearing and being made aware of the kind of experience they could
have here at K-State. That's why we created this, to capture some information and
to be able to follow up with the student and let them know that someone thinks really
highly of them and thinks that K-State might be a good fit.”