Happy Wednesday to all my connections!
In this edition, we’re diving into the heart of study abroad advising: how to guide students from the initial spark of interest to the final application submission. It’s one thing to get a student to a ticket booth or a fair, but it sure is another story to ensure they complete the journey.
Last week, I introduced the “Catch ‘Em All” initiative, focusing on leveraging returnee stories, which we will come back to again with more details in this newsletter. This week, we look at the logistics of “catching” and “securing”, the tactical ways to keep students from falling through the cracks. Here are 6 tips I thought of below after various conversations with leaders and my own ideas below.
1. Promote Early & Encourage Discovery & Inspiration
While quarter/semester based fairs are essential for predicting interest, they shouldn’t be your only touchpoint. To truly convert interest into enrollment, you may want to consider the below to get ready promoting and also get the conversation rolling early:
- Freshman Orientation: Introduce the concept of studying abroad before the first semester even begins. Planting the seed in August (or September, or when your campus soon begins class in the fall) ensures it’s part of their four-year academic plan from day one.
- The Power of Peers: Bring returnees into your info sessions. Based on our Abroad 101 stories, we’ve seen that hearing from someone who just returned from Seoul, Madrid, or Buenos Aires is often the final push a hesitant student needs.
- Being transparent & tactful: Tackle the “big three” early: financial aid/scholarships, academic credit transfers, and career benefits. When students see a clear path to graduation and a funded flight, the “dream” becomes a “plan.”
2. Personalize the First Advising Session
By the time a student sits across from you, they usually fall into three camps: the Decided, the Undecided, and the Overwhelmed. Your job is to be the expert navigator.
- Know the Nuance: Be ready to discuss the pros and cons of specific regions. For a budget-conscious student, highlight the cost-of-living advantages in Asia, and while Europe is a attractive site, cost-of-living in some aspects could be higher or lower there due to the current US-Euro exchange rate. For example, explain how currency exchange rates or affordable on-campus dining in South Korea can make a semester there more accessible than staying domestic.
- Academic Alignment: Learn the ropeways of pivoting while ensuring the student is supported throughout the process. is worried about credits, offer precise solutions. For example, if a STEM major student is interested in studying at Korea, mentioning specialized institutions like KAIST shows you understand their rigor, while offering a Seoul-based alternative courses to fulfill credit and guarantee credit transfer. This provides the cultural balance they might crave.
- Build Trust: The more you demonstrate deep, first-hand knowledge of these locations, and most importantly the more you are willing to know the students what they want, the more a student will trust your guidance through the paperwork. Both your expertise and interpersonal and emotional intelligence with strategic, timely outreach will allow students to trust and cooperate with you throughout the process.
3. Elevate Your Marketing Initiatives
Fairs are the “Met Gala, or the Grammys” of recruitment, but the follow-up is where the magic happens.
- Strategic Timing: Don’t let your email marketing go to waste. Data suggests that Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 3PM-9PM are peak times for student engagement. Use these days as reference to send reminders and “chase down” those who signed up at your booth. Be sure to do lots of trail and error process as sometimes certain days and other times work better depending on your source (for example, posting study abroad social media content on Instagram is generally ideal in the evening time where students usually will have finished class and check their socials.
- Social Creativity: Empower your study abroad mentors to lead your social media. Short-form video content, like an “interview reel” at a museum or a “day in the life” food vlog—resonates far better than a static flyer. Sometimes, a simple compilation of an onsite orientation dinner is all it takes to show the community waiting for them.
4. Catching the “Fall-Throughs”
Logistics gives us all headaches at some point: visas, paperwork, and payments are where most students “fall through the cracks.” If a student misses a payment or a deadline, prioritize them immediately. Whether it’s setting up an installment plan or sending an early warning, staying proactive prevents a small administrative hurdle from becoming a program-ending crisis. Sometimes no matter how many times you repeat the deadline, one or two students fall through; remember to emphasize, bold the deadline, and make ALL orientations and ALL emails mandatory to attend and respond. For students who have received scholarships and are waiting for that to possibly cover their program costs on top of their financial aid package, consider working with the budget, operations, or financial aid office team to streamline the scholarship package arrival or make an exemption for those students.
5. Evaluate, Evolve, & Enquire
Even with a successful season, there is always room for reflection. The post-COVID landscape has changed how students view the value of international education. Some may question if the tuition cost matches the reward.
Take a moment to re-evaluate:
- What strategies led to the highest conversion?
- Where did we lose the most students in the funnel?
- How can we better communicate that study abroad is an investment, not just an expense?
- What are the current trends of study abroad in terms of location, study, etc
- What are the student’s top priority when it comes to study abroad and what are ROI trends?
- Why do students give up or fail to make it to the actual study abroad program experience?
Once you find these answers, you should have an easier time drafting and completing your strategy to market and promote international education to achieve a better result next time.
6. Realizing the Experience is Worth it
Success in study abroad advising has different measurements in the moments between the ‘interest’ and the ‘departure.’ From freshmen orientations to the final visa check, every touchpoint matters. One common theme from other newsletter articles and interviews from former students and returnees was the life-changing, unforgettable, and pivoting memories the students make. As the common counter argument to study abroad is its expensive cost and ‘not practical in getting the experience’, perhaps focusing on the impact of study abroad as on students and students ability to gain real-time experiential learning skills – skills that students cannot gain from a classroom and it is something they learn on the go, on their own, and a way to discover their interests. Now, it does not necessarily mean they have to work in study abroad or international education to show correlation, but if it has influenced their career path or show their dedication to traveling, knowing more about other cultures and backgrounds, that is just as amazing.
If you found these marketing tips or advising hacks useful, be sure to subscribe and share this with your fellow international education colleagues!” For the final question: “What are your go-to strategies for “securing” a student’s commitment?”
Let’s discuss in the comments!
Best,
Mason
East & West