Design of a Recruiter-Student Connection System Using Social Networking

 Low Cost - Public universities typically have tuition that is considerably lower than private universities, especially for in-state students..  Commuter and Part-time Students - Publi

Design of a Recruiter-Student Connection System Using

Social Networking Final Report

Mary Barthelson Issam Boumlic Souheil El-Hage Hammoud Ummer Shamma

Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research

George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

Final Report

Table of Contents

1.0 Context Analysis 4

1.1 Private vs Public Universities 4

1.1.1 Private Universities 4

1.1.2 Public Universities 4

1.1.3 Private vs Public Universities: Cost 5

1.1.4 Private vs Public Universities: Academic Quality 5

1.2 Recruitment Process 6

1.2.1 High School Recruitment Process 6

1.2.2 Undergraduate Recruitment Process 6

1.3 Social Networking 7

1.3.1 Social Networking and Universities Interaction 7

1.3.2 Social Networking Websites 8

1.3.3 Universities Recruiting Tools 8

1.3.4 Social Network tools currently used 9

2.0 Stakeholder Analysis 11

2.1 Primary Stakeholders/Goals: 11

2.2 Secondary Stakeholders/Goals 12

2.3 Stakeholder Tension Analysis 12

3.0 Scope 14

4.0 Gap Analysis 15

Figure 4.1 Gap Diagrams 15

5.0 Problem Statement 16

6.0 Win-Win 17

7.0 Need Statement 18

8.0 System Requirements 19

9.0 Proposed Solutions 20

10.0 Methodology of Analysis 21

11.0 Design of Experiment 22

11.1 Student Surveys 22

11.2 Interview/Survey of Admissions Employees 22

11.3 Queuing model in Arena 22

12.0 Simulation Design 23

12.1 Preliminary Simulation Overview (Current System) 23

12.2 Input Data 25

12.2.1 Entities 25

12.2.2 Attributes 25

12.2.3 Processes 29

12.2.4 Decision Blocks 29

12.2.5 Resources 30

12.3 Output Data 31

12.4 Assumptions 31

13.0 Value Hierarchy 32

14.0 Project Management 33

14.1 Work Breakdown Structure 33

14.2 Budget 34

14.3 Project Schedule 35

14.4 Milestones 39

14.6 Risk/Mitigation 40

References 41

1.0 Context Analysis

1.1 Private vs Public Universities

1.1.1 Private Universities

Many universities and colleges are private, operated as educational and research

nonprofit organizations The term "university" is primarily used to designate graduate education and research institutions

1.1.2 Public Universities

In the US, most public institutions are state universities founded and operated by state

governments Every state has at least one public university This is partially due to the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Acts, which gave each eligible state 30,000 acres of federal land to sell to finance public institutions offering study for practical fields in addition to the liberal arts Many public universities began as teacher training schools and eventually were expanded into

comprehensive universities A public university has a few features that distinguish it from privateuniversities:

 Size - The size of public universities varies widely The largest universities in the countryare all public (for example, UT Austin and OSU)

 Division I Athletics - The great majority of Division I athletic teams are fielded by publicuniversities

 Low Cost - Public universities typically have tuition that is considerably lower than private universities, especially for in-state students

 Commuter and Part-time Students - Public universities tend to have more commuter and part-time students than private colleges and universities

 The Downside - Read the profiles of universities carefully In many cases, public

universities have lower graduation rates, higher student / faculty ratios and more loan aid (thus, more student debt) than private universities

Public universities share many features with private universities:

 Undergraduate and graduate student focus - large public universities have significant masters and doctoral programs

 Graduate degrees - at large public universities, advanced degree offerings such as an M.A., M.F.A., M.B.A., J.D., Ph.D., and M.D are common

 Broad academic offerings - students can often choose courses in the liberal arts, sciences, engineering, business, health and fine arts

 Faculty focus on research - At big-name public universities, professors is often evaluated for their research and publishing first, and teaching second Teaching may take priority atbranch campuses and regional public universities

1.1.3 Private vs Public Universities: Cost

It is general knowledge that public university tuition is less expensive for in-state

students than out-of-state students Public tuition, even for out-of-state students, is far less expensive than tuition for students at private institutions For example, the 2010-11 tuition & fees for an in-state student at State University of New York Binghamton is $4,970 per year and for an out-of-state student $13,380 (Kiplinger’s ranks Binghamton as the top US out-of-state public school value) With room & board of $11,886, the annual attendance cost for an in-state student is $18,825 SUNY's smart marketers compare these costs to a private university, with tuition & fees at $39,150, room & board $12,000 and an annual cost of attendance $51,150

1.1.4 Private vs Public Universities: Academic Quality

Public universities figure prominently in US News & World Report’s 2011 rankings of the top 50 national universities The public universities in the top 50 national universities

include: UC Berkeley, UCLA, U Virginia, U Michigan, UNC Chapel Hill, William & Mary, Georgia Tech, UC San Diego, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, U Washington, U Texas Austin, U Wisconsin Madison, Penn State, and U Illinois Urbana-Champaign However,

attending a public university may require trade-offs in the quality of the undergraduate

experience, such as larger class sizes Public institutions in the top 50 have a percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students ranging from 30% to 60% Whereas private institutions in thetop 50 have a percentage of classes with under 20 students ranging from 47% to 80%

1.2 Recruitment Process

1.2.1 High School Recruitment Process

This diagram shows High School student recruitment process The student is either approched or not When students are approched they are either interested or not If they are interested they become inquiries and they apply or they loose interest If they apply they either get accepted or rejected If they get accepted, they either enroll or refuse to enroll due to other reasons

1.2.2 Undergraduate Recruitment Process

The current undergraduate recruitment system is a “Drag-net” approach to recruiting, which universities attempt to mass-recruit by contacting as many students as possible, in hopes that most of the students will apply to the university With this approach, universities neglect to search for quality students; instead focusing on quantity

In order to fill their enrollment targets, universities typically market toward under-filled programs This means that if a certain program at a university has a low amount of students, theywill work on encouraging prospective students to enroll in that program at their school

Universities will also market towards sources of applicants in the past

In order to stay under budget, universities will focus of recruiting systems that produce a large number of results at the lowest cost A good example of this is sending emails to students,

as it does not cost universities anything to send someone an email They will also recruit state students, as costs for these students tend to be much higher as opposed to in-state students

out-of-To improve the quality of enrolled students, universities will increase the size of their applicant pool in hopes of recruiting as many high quality students as possible This approach helps to beat other universities who are also looking for the best students.

1.3 Social Networking

1.3.1 Social Networking and Universities Interaction

This figure shows how users create profiles through social network websites The processbegins with a student creating a profile At this point, the student is now a user of the website, which enables them to be noticed by universities Once the user is accepted into the university,

they enroll in the university After the student studies at the university, they exit the process as a skilled laborer who can contribute to the economy.

1.3.2 Social Networking Websites

Social networking websites are platforms that build social relations among people who share interests, activities, backgrounds, etc It consists of users, their social links, and other services Most are web-based and provide means for users to interact with each other, such as messaging, public chats, etc They enable individuals to self-organize into communities, which allow for swift communication They also break geographical and social barriers, which allow connections to be identified at the global level Some examples of social networking websites in the U.S include Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus

1.3.3 Universities Recruiting Tools

Universities use various tools in order to recruit prospective students to their schools Of these tools, 94% of universities use traditional college fairs, where colleges visit high schools and meet prospective students in person 82% of schools contact students by phone call 79% ofschools will send students either letters in the mail or emails that provide information about the school, including various majors offered, recreational activities, university achievements, etc 70% of universities will reach out to students via Facebook or various college search websites They use these two tools to connect students to online information about the university Some colleges, 25%, will reach out to students via Twitter, and send “tweets” encouraging students to look into and consider their university

1.3.4 Social Network tools currently used

CRM Tool: CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term

for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management,

salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access

information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth

According to one industry view, CRM consists of:

 Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns and generate quality leads for the sales team

 Assisting the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales management by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining existing

processes (for example, taking orders using mobile devices)

 Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers, with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits; identifying the most profitable customers and providing them the highest level of service

 Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their

customers understand and identify customer needs and effectively build relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners

College Board: an organization that prepares and administers standardized tests that are used in

college admission and placement In addition to managing tests for which it charges fees, the College Board works with programs that claim to increase achievement by poor and minority middle and high school students Funded by grants from various foundations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the College Board Schools operate autonomously within New York City public school buildings

Cappex: aims to try give students some relief by helping students connect with colleges and

universities that are interested in recruiting them The site aims to help students, guidance

counselors and school administrators by connecting them all via the web Students simply fill out

a profile and schools can look for students through Cappex based on profile criteria Similar to LinkedIn, Cappex enables schools to attempt to connect with students but students can choose

which schools they are interested in connecting with School administrators can leverage Cappex

as a recruiting tool to search for prospective students Guidance counselors can also get involved with Cappex by registering to assist student throughout the school selection process

According to Cappex.com:

 47 percent of schools said college social media sites are important or critically important

 Nearly one third of colleges receive as many as 6 to 20 percent of their enrollments via college search social media sites

 39% of schools cited an increase in enrollments resulting from college search social media sites

 Nearly 50 percent of colleges said they will dedicate more resources to college search social media in 2011-2012

o Attend best colleges

o Stay under budget

 Universities/University Recruiters

o Fulfill enrollment targets for all schools and departments

o Stay under budget

o Improve quality of students that enroll

 Social Network Owners

o Make a profit

o Stay under budget and stay in business

o Maintain relevance to users

2.2 Secondary Stakeholders/Goals

 Governments

o Improve quality of life for citizens

o Improve the economy

o Enable innovation

o Increase size of labor pool

o Maintain funding for operation

o Keep website functional & secure

o Resolve STEM related member conflicts

 Web developers

o Build a website in accordance to the owners’ vision

2.3 Stakeholder Tension Analysis

Many of the stakeholders’ goals are mutually beneficial Students want to connect to universities, universities want to connect to students, and social networks want to enable these connections It is not a conflict of goals that cause tension and prevent the system from

changing Conflict occurs because stakeholders must prioritize their goals in order to work with their budget and constraints For example, while universities want to improve the quality of theirstudents, they first need to ensure they meet enrollment target rates and stay under budget Thesetwo goals have an immediate impact on funds for operation, while quality of students has a long-term impact on revenue A university could spend all of its resources recruiting ten of the

highest quality students in the world, but unless these students are able to pay millions of dollars for tuition, the university will not earn enough revenue to stay in operation for long As a result

of this, universities must look for systems that produce a high number of connections at a low cost Universities need to recruit out-of-state students in order to increase revenue, so there is an incentive to spend money for recruiters to travel – but only to events that will produce many possible connections for each recruiter sent, reducing the probability that high quality

connections will occur Social networks have many features that can be utilized to establish personal connections between recruiters and geographically dispersed students, but there is no incentive for the university to change the current system and take advantage of all of these features Universities are more likely to utilize only those features that produce a higher number

of connections per recruiter The constraint of resources and capital for university recruiting limits the ability for social networks to be better integrated into the recruitment process and lower the cost of recruiting geographically dispersed students This prevents social networks from making a profit and may impact their ability to stay in business With a high information cost, students do not receive the best visibility for the opportunities they desire These conflicts create a cycle, as the initial sacrifice of quality of connection impacts the university’s ability to win the highest quality students from competing universities

3.0 Scope

The process being designed will be based on the George Mason University (GMU)undergraduate recruitment process It will consider high school and university interactions.Transfers will not be considered Costs will include labor, travel/event expenses, and marketingmaterials The quality of students will be based on student GPA & SAT scores

4.0 Gap Analysis

Figure 4.1 Gap Diagrams

6.0 Win-Win

7.0 Need Statement

There is a need for an increase in the quality of students enrolled to be established under budget and in enough quantities to meet target enrollment rates

8.0 System Requirements

• The system shall produce between 2580 and 2690 enrollments

• The system shall maintain or reduce the cost of the undergraduate recruiting process compared to enrollment service revenue by at least 8%

• The system shall maintain or decrease the difference between the average GPA of accepted students and enrolled students to less than 2%

• The system shall maintain or decrease the difference between the average SAT of accepted students and enrolled students to less than 2%

• Freshman enrollment rates may continue to decrease

• Losses will still be seen in failed recruiting attempts for the top students

Add Social Networking Tool

• Pros

• Potential increase in enrollment rates

• Potential increase in student quality

• Potential decrease in cost

• Cons

• Potential risk to enrollment rates, budget or student quality will occur

Change Resource Allocation

• Pros

• Potential increase in enrollment rates

• Potential increase in student quality

• Potential decrease in cost

• Cons

• Potential risk to enrollment rates, budget or student quality will occur