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”​

[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.

"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]."

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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

Kent Games

Dr. Kent Games

Director of Graduate Studies and Professor or Applied Medicine and Rehabilitation
Indiana State University

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art-munin

Dr. Art Munin

AVP for Enrollment
Management Solutions
Liaison

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Jillian Baier

Jillian Baer

Solutions Consultant
Liaison

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Liaison GradCAS

Learn more about how GradCAS simplifies processes, removes barriers to enrollment, and leads to better outcomes for graduate school programs and their applicants.