Do You Know How Students Really Feel About Applying to Grad School?
A Three-Part Webinar Series

Liaison's 2024 Amplifying Student Voices Project

Insights to Increase Access to Graduate Education
Graduate education needs to reduce the friction experienced by applicants
attempting to access your institution. You can't risk losing qualified and interested students to a frustrating application experience.
So how do you make sure this doesn't happen?
Liaison conducted focus groups with the group most suited to answer that question: current graduate students. We asked them how the process could be easier, less stressful, and more beneficial for applicants and institutions alike.
Their answers may surprise you.
In Students' Own Words: Video Clips From Our CAS Focus Groups
Watch these video clips to hear about the challenges graduate students face—and how CAS can remove obstacles. Each clip highlights key moments in the focus groups with responses to specific questions we asked. Topics discussed include:
- Their advice to GEM leaders.
- Their frustrations with inconsistent application requirements.
- Why it’s so hard to find the information they need on program websites.
- The trouble they have tracking the progress of multiple applications.
- Why Liaison’s CAS centralized application service would be “a big, big help” and allow them to apply to more programs.
Part 1
Tell Us About Your Experience
Applying to Graduate School
Part 2
What Are Your Thoughts
on GradCAS?
Part 3
What Advice Would You Give
to GEM Leaders?
Key Insights From Students
“Schools have so many different requirements that it's kind of hard to track all of them. Some schools want certain documents, and some schools want other things. It's pretty stressful keeping track of them all”
Focus Group Participant
[Applying to grad school] is a very intimidating and stressful process for the students. By making it easier in any way or just less complicated, I think you would definitely have more people applying to your programs.
Focus Group Participant
"If you streamline it, you're going to have more applicants across the board. And people are going to apply to more [schools] to get more opportuni[ties]."
Focus Group Participant

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Focus Group Participant
More About This Project
To better understand potential student barriers in the graduate school application process, Dr. Kent Games, director of graduate studies at Indiana State University, Dr. Art Munin, AVP for enrollment management solutions at Liaison, and Jillian Baer, Solutions Consultant at Liaison conducted two focus groups, gathering invaluable insights directly from current graduate students at four institutions between May and August 2024. The study included students pursuing various disciplines of study at three institutions of diverse types and sizes in the South and Midwest.
The facilitated discussions focused on the challenges students faced when applying to graduate school, how they decided which, and how many, programs to apply to, and their reaction to the prospect of a centralized application process, shedding light on what matters most to applicants. The team’s mission was to explore if, and how, a centralized application service can increase access to graduate education by simplifying the application process.
Multiple themes emerged through the discussions. Students reported that the graduate application process caused high levels of stress, particularly stemming from confusing instructions that vary per program and institution as well as the difficulty of finding accurate information on institution websites. Their reactions to a quick demo of the GradCAS platform revealed that they recommend a streamlined, singular application for the graduate education. Several participants explicitly stated that they would have applied to more programs if they had access to a centralized application service. When given the opportunity to share advice to GEM leaders, participants had an overwhelming message: streamline and communicate to make the process more accessible to students.
Future directions for this project will examine the experience of graduate students once they enroll. After all, matriculation is not the singular goal—the true goal is student success.
Research Team

Dr. Kent Games
Director of Graduate Studies and Professor or Applied Medicine and Rehabilitation
Indiana State University
Dr. Kent Games
Dr. Kent Games is the director of graduate studies and professor of applied medicine and rehabilitation at Indiana State University. He also currently serves as the interim director of graduate and international admissions. Since arriving at Indiana State in 2013, Kent has served in multiple program, college, and university level leadership positions centered on improving student enrollment, student success, and enhancing academic innovation with graduate, online, and adult learners.
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Dr. Art Munin
AVP for Enrollment
Management Solutions
Liaison
Dr. Art Munin
Dr. Art Munin currently works at Liaison as an AVP for Enrollment Management Solutions. Previously, he served on the faculty with the USC Race and Equity Center, as interim vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and held leadership positions at Illinois State University, DePaul University, the School of the Art Institute, and Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of three books including Color by Number: Understanding Racism through Facts and Stats on Children and Keep Calm and Call the Dean of Students.

Jillian Baer
Solutions Consultant
Liaison
Jillian Baer
Jillian Baer has worked in enrollment management for more than 13 years, including serving as assistant director of graduate admissions for The Ohio State University. In her current role as a Liaison solutions consultant, she provides technical expertise to universities that leverage Liaison's enrollment, retention, and marketing solutions to achieve their goals.