University Recruiting Essentials: Building Brand Recognition with Scholarships. You will learn how to implement the best practices in creating a scholarship plan. Find out how to include scholarships as a part of your diversity and inclusion plan and receive tips on how to measure your scholarship return on investment. Visit the AfterCollege Employer Blog for more information on University Recruiting - http://employer.aftercollege.com Also sign up for the AfterCollege Free Webinar Series: University Recruiting Essentials - http://employer.aftercollege.com/webinars/

1. BUILD BRAND
RECOGNITION
Why Your Company
Needs To Offer
Scholarships!
Information Provided by:

2. Scholarships
-As a Branding Tool - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3
-Role in University Recruiting - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8
-Development - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14
-Types of Applicants - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 16
-Types of Scholarships - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 20
-Marketing - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 24
-Awarding Recipients - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 30
-Tracking Value - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 32

3. Scholarships:
As a Branding Tool

4. Scholarships:
As a Branding Tool
-Scholarships and University Recruiting is about BRANDING your company and
attracting “top” students
-Converting the scholarship students to interns or full time grads may be a result
of recruiting efforts – but the primary goal of program is to build brand awareness
with students
-The “elite” recruiting companies:
-Engage students early
-Build a brand with students
-Focus on diversity
-Have a clear strategy that defines their return on investment
-For more information on this subject, sign up for the AfterCollege Free Webinar:
Building Brand Recognition with Scholarships

5. Scholarships:
As a Branding Tool
-No open positions?
-You still need a presence on campus!
-Takes years to build talent pipelines
-Your competitors may already be ahead
of you!
-Start to build your on-campus presence
by offering scholarships to students and
attending other on-campus events

6. Scholarships:
As a Branding Tool
-Community Awareness
-Many companies use scholarships to promote community awareness and
inclusion with their brand
-Communities can be included in:
-Promoting the scholarship
-Picking target high schools
-Incorporating current employees into the recipient pool
-Giving out the scholarship award
-Does not have to be local community – can be part of a larger global
community or even community of certain types of skillsets

7. Scholarships:
As a Branding Tool
-Social Consciousness
-According to reports, Generation Y cares about:
-Community
-Corporations with a social consciousness
-Scholarships are great way to show potential new college grad talent
that your company has a culture of social responsibility and giving back
to our society
-Scholarships communicate a commitment to students

8. Scholarships: Role In University
Recruiting

9. Scholarships: Role In University
Recruiting
-Scholarships are just one tool in the University Recruiting tool kit
-Elite university recruiters have clearly delineated scholarship programs
where they invest
-Deciding what types of scholarships are for your company or leveraging
your current scholarships is a core part of a comprehensive strategy
-Scholarships are a great way to build relationships with students
-Can see what certain students have that stands out
-Keep your brand on the front of students’ minds

10. Scholarships: Role In University
Recruiting
-Always mention scholarship offerings to students
-Incorporate Scholarships into Career Fairs – if freshmen or
sophomores attend your career booth encourage them to apply for
scholarships
-Mention scholarships at info sessions, classroom presentations,
and any other on-campus events
-Make sure company representatives at on-campus events know about
scholarship programs

11. Scholarships: Role In University
Recruiting
-Remember Top Students
-Establish an early relationship and keep track
-Keep in touch with students and engage them with your company
brand
-Top Scholarship applicants can become future interns or full-time
hires

12. Incorporate Scholarships into your company careers page!
Ex: Xerox Careers
Page

13. Incorporate Scholarships into your company careers page!
Ex: Microsoft
Careers Page
-Helps draw attention to your career
offerings to scholarship applicants
-Reinforces to new grad applicants your
commitment to giving back to the
community

14. Development of Scholarships

15. Competitive Analysis
What type of brand are your top competitors presenting to the new college
grad talent you want to attract?
-May want to invest in areas where competitors are – or may want to invest in
different location or programs where there is not as much competition
-Make strategic decisions: check out target organizations you may want to
attract such as diversity, different industry groups, etc.

16. What Students to Target?

17. What Students to Target?
-Create target schools
-Break target schools into Tiers – Decide on
strategy for each tier of schools
-Target schools and tiers created on many
measurements
-Programs offered, geography, and past ROI
-Elite recruiters focus main resources on top tiers
-Invest in campus events, scholarships and
educating students about their brand,
company and opportunities

18. What Students to Target?
What are your corporate diversity and inclusion goals? What are your
university recruiting diversity goals?
Are there certain schools you could target to help you reach those
goals? High schools? Student groups?

19. What Students to Target?
-Diversity and inclusion scholarships are very common as a way to
attract a diverse talent pool
-Elite recruiters start as early as high school offering scholarships for
specific majors to diverse candidates who may not have thought
about pursuing that degree otherwise

20. Types of Scholarships
-Funded by Foundation or corporate giving arm of the organization – Not
currently used as a pipeline and branding tool for UR
-Funded by marketing – Can benefit company brand in the community as
corporate branding tool
-Also can create a partnership with another outside group and treat
as a strategic alliance
-Funded by University Relations/Recruiting – Strategically incorporated
early in university recruiting pipeline
-Typically start in high schools and driving students to choose the
field that the company will have a future talent need

21. Types of Scholarships
Questions to ask:
-What is my budget?
-How many scholarships will I make available? How often?
-When will you award the scholarship?
-Will students still be in school to spread the word?
-Would there be a benefit to create timing in line with your UR cycle?

22. Types of Scholarships
Questions to ask:
-Who is eligible? International students? High School students?
-Only people from certain states? Certain schools? Certain Majors?
-Will there be a diversity component?
-Will there be an essay? If there is an essay, what do you want to capture
in that essay?
-How will you be using the essay in the selection process?

23. Selection Committee
There are groups (Including AfterCollege) that you can hire to run your
scholarship programs
-Whether or not you manage the scholarship process in hours or via an
external service you can have a voice in the selection process
-Often times executives can enjoy being part of a selection committee – It can
be a great way to engage them in the support of university relations program

24. Marketing Scholarships

25. Marketing Scholarships
-Scholarships are about
reinforcing your brand to
eventually attract the top
talent your company
needs!

26. Marketing Scholarships
-Many companies work closely with their agencies or marketing
departments to have a comprehensive, consistent outreach policy to
students in their talent pipeline – scholarships should be no different
-Scholarships should fit in with your corporate brand in a way that will be
relevant and memorable to the entry level talent you will be trying to
attract
-Continue to engage and educate students on your company brand,
culture, and eventual opportunities
-Start with the brand you want them to remember when marketing your
scholarships

27. Create Your Schedule
Work backwards:
-When do you want the scholarship recipient selected – to get the
most attention for your brand?
-How long will it take you to do the selction?
-When will the application deadline fall?
-When do you need to start marketing the program? How to market
it?
Students are deadline driven – bank on the fact that you will get the
most traffic and applicants closest to your deadline
Create a plan, work the plan, and make sure everyone knows about
the time frames

28. Let Students Know!
-You need to inform your target applicant the scholarships are available
-Let them know when, where, and what to expect
-Not a “build it and they will come situation”
-Work with your agency or marketing department – figure out who and
how to contact
-Do you have database of past students you spoke to previously?
-Do you have students who have applied for past internships?
-Do you have a consumer facing brand where you can let “followers” or
customers know?

29. Let Students Know!
-Once you have your message and scholarship details – get it out in
every possible way
-Ask student groups that you have connections with and national
organizations that you engage with to inform their members
-Do you have alumni on staff who can help? Do they still have
connections with campus organizations? Can they contact faculty in key
programs?
-Do you have a student ambassador program?
-Get creative! – some companies have had success with creating social
media buzz

30. Scholarships: Awarding Recipients

31. Scholarships: Awarding Recipients
-Scholarships are large investment – make granting the awards FUN!
-Whether it’s a virtual or in person party – spread the word and
celebrate!

32. Scholarships: Tracking Value

33. Scholarships: Tracking Value
Investment starts with upper management – management must believe in
college talent as a pipeline to future success
-Needs investment – not just monetary – but support from management and
staff time
-Often no immediate return – like planting a seed then reaping the benefits
later
-Can take multiple years to gain investment

34. Scholarships: Tracking Value
Application Tracking System (ATS) vs. Customer
Relationship Management (CRM)
- Tools to input information from students engaged with at event
- Find way to track where you met student and if they continue to
engage with your company around career information
- Need unique source code for each event
- Track where students first interacted

35. Scholarships: Tracking Value
Tracking for long lead time:
-Can be a time lag in ROI – need to prepare management and explain
process
-Some companies now starting to measure new grad hires as
someone who may have been out of school 1-3 years but this is
their first professional position
-If you have coordinated your CRM and ATS information – your
university program should still get “credit” for the hire – and be
considered a success of your program

36. Key Takeaway: Scholarships and University
Recruiting are about your Brand!

37. AfterCollege Can Help!
-The worst thing that happens is you do everything right in creating your
strategy – getting the funding for your program and creating excitement in
management – only to have no students and/or no quality students apply.
-AfterCollege has a solution to help you solve this. We help employers
with getting messaging out to the right students, by school and major – via
departments, students groups and to students directly to evangelize your
scholarships. We also have an integrated way to manage all of the
applicants and provide them to you after the application period has
closed.
-Visit the AfterCollege Products and Services Web Page to see how
AfterCollege can help

38. Visit AfterCollege
Sign up for Free Employer Webinar Series
-Subscribe to Free AfterCollege Employer Blog
-Follow us on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
-Visit the AfterCollege LinkedIn University Recruiters Page for more
information on University Recruiting

39. Questions?
Contact: Jennifer Rutt
jrutt@aftercollege.com
Twitter: @JenRutt