Recruiter for a day: A first-person viewpoint

By Allison Swickard-Gorman, assistant director, University Relations

As the 2008/2009 freshmen class settles into its new role as college students, UCCS recruiters are on the road recruiting a new group of high school seniors.

This week Jeff Foster, multi-media marketing coordinator, University Relations, and I accompanied Rachel Gibson, a UCCS admissions staff member, on a trip to six Colorado high schools in Monument, Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch and Calhan. The marathon expedition, starting at 7 a.m. and ending at 7 p.m., was both a positive and eye-opening experience.

In the coming weeks, various UCCS administrators will hit the road with recruiters. To prepare them for their individual trips, Jeff and I created our own “Top five things to know about college recruiting” list.

1. Recruiting is hard work. It involves days on the road, nights away from home, and eating fast food. There are security checks at each high school, bags of recruiting materials to lug, and hours crammed into small, poorly lit high school rooms (I had forgotten about that weird high school smell – part gym socks, part teenager – eewww). So the next time you see a recruiter on campus, please tell him or her thank you.
   
   
2. High school students are saturated with college information – piles of it. As one student explained to us, “It’s great, each day I get tons of mail. But I only open the ones that look interesting, or the ones my mom tells me to.”
   
   
3. Attention spans are short. If you don’t seem cool and interesting, or can’t offer them something new, they are on to the next thing. You know that glazed over deer in the headlights look? That’s what recruiters are up against each day.
   
   
4. The internet is king. When asked, “Where do you get your information?” Students replied, “Online. That’s the first place I go. If I can’t find it, I move on.”
   
   
5. High school students are savvy, but they are still high school students. While they may know what they want, can outsmart most middle-aged individuals when it comes to technology, and aren’t afraid to look at adults like we are the “lamest” people in the world, we can’t forget, they are just high school kids.

If you too would like to experience a day as a recruiter, please call Chris Beiswanger, director, Student Recruitment, at 262-3088. It is an experience anyone who works in academia should have, is enjoyable, and is an education about the mind-set of an 18-year-old in the 21st century.

“The marathon expedition, starting at 7 a.m. and ending at 7 p.m., was both a positive and eye-opening experience.”