Director of Admissions

• Lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive Strategic Enrollment Management recruitment plan aligned with Bennett College's institutional strategy, mission, academic priorities, financial objectives, and enrollment goals.
• Translate approved new student enrollment targets into annual and multi-year recruitment strategies with defined student populations, geographic markets, conversion goals, milestones, staff ownership, resource assumptions, and key performance indicators. Maintain changing numeric targets in an annual operating and performance plan.
• Develop term-specific enrollment projections and recruitment plans for fall, spring, and approved summer entry opportunities, distinguishing first-year, transfer, readmission, and stop-out, adult, commuter, and approved distance pathways. Pursue international recruitment and other emerging pathways when institutional readiness and approvals support implementation.
• Partner with institutional leadership to identify enrollment opportunities associated with new academic programs, emerging disciplines, workforce trends, partnerships, and changing student demographics.
• Maintain a strategic understanding of the competitive higher education landscape, including demographic shifts, competitor institutions, pricing, financial aid, student decision-making behaviors, market demand, and program interests.
• Continuously assess enrollment performance and recommend adjustments to recruitment markets, tactics, staffing, communications, travel, financial aid strategies, and resource allocation.
• Contribute enrollment expertise to broader institutional planning discussions involving enrollment growth, student persistence, academic program development, market positioning, and institutional sustainability.
• Participate in institution-wide planning while maintaining direct accountability for new student recruitment, admissions, yield, and readmission outreach; contribute to persistence through effective onboarding and coordinated support.

• Design and execute recruitment strategies that communicate Bennett's distinctive mission and connect prospective students' educational aspirations and interests with its academic programs, leadership development, and student experience.
• Develop sustained school, community, educator, family, and organizational relationships that generate student referrals and support recruitment and enrollment.
• Build sustainable pipelines through high schools, community colleges, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, nonprofit partners, academic programs, professional organizations, and other aligned networks.
• Leverage Bennett's identity as an HBCU and women's college, along with its academic programs, leadership development opportunities, student experience, alumnae network, and institutional outcomes, as differentiators within the recruitment process.
• Create recruitment approaches that authentically communicate the value of becoming a Bennett Belle and connect prospective students' goals with Bennett's educational mission and student experience.
• Maintain an enrollment partnership portfolio with designated contacts, target populations, agreement status, annual activities, referral tracking, application and enrollment goals, and periodic performance reviews.
• Develop intentional recruitment strategies for first-generation students, historically underrepresented populations, and students who may benefit from Bennett's personalized and mission-driven educational environment.
• Coordinate approved school and community college admissions pathways, Belle-to-Belle alumnae referrals, Belle 2.0 stop-out outreach, and employer or community recruitment partnerships. Develop proposed agreements with the Chief Administrative Officer and academic leadership; admission guarantees, transfer credit, and agreement execution require authorized institutional approval.

• Develop a data-informed territory management model based on feeder schools, feeder states, community college pathways, Triad opportunities, inquiry volume, enrollment yield, travel demands, and counselor workload. Assign each school and partner a primary counselor and establish CRM documentation and follow-up expectations.
• Establish territory-specific enrollment goals, activity expectations, conversion benchmarks, and accountability measures for admissions counselors and recruitment staff.
• Evaluate territory performance throughout the recruitment cycle and reallocate staff time, travel, marketing investment, and recruitment resources based on enrollment return and emerging opportunity.
• Oversee recruitment travel, school visits, college fairs, community engagement, counselor programs, open houses, accessible campus visits and tours, approved on-the-spot decision events, virtual programming, and admitted-student activities.
• Identify opportunities to establish or expand Bennett's presence in strategic markets locally, throughout North Carolina, regionally, nationally, and where appropriate, internationally.
• Establish relationships with school counselors, principals, college-access professionals, community leaders, educators, families, and other influencers who can serve as long-term advocates and pipeline partners for Bennett College.
• Lead the Triad School Leaders Breakfast and Chat and Learn for counselors, principals, school administrators, and district leaders from public, private, and Montessori schools serving high school students. Coordinate counselor packets with academic program profiles, admissions requirements, affordability information, campus visit options, services, and named contacts; track referrals and follow-up.
• Coordinate the Community College Advising and Student Success Exchange with academic advisors, advising and student success directors, student affairs leaders, and chief academic officers. Provide transfer advising packets with approved degree maps, credit evaluation procedures, articulation pathways, financial aid guidance, support services, and named liaisons.
• Include homeschool networks and community-based events in priority market outreach and evaluate engagement through completed applications and enrollments, as well as participation.

• Own undergraduate recruitment and the admissions funnel from prospect and inquiry through application, admission, confirmation, registration, and enrollment at the institutional census date, coordinating each transition with the responsible campus offices.
• Establish clearly defined funnel stages and benchmarks for inquiry-to-application, application completion, admission, admit-to-deposit or intent-to-enroll confirmation, confirmation-to-census conversion, and enrollment melt, segmented by entry term and student pathway.
• Monitor prospective student behavior and engagement throughout the recruitment cycle to identify barriers, opportunities, and populations requiring targeted intervention.
• Develop differentiated conversion strategies based on student segment, market, academic interest, financial need, engagement level, and likelihood to enroll.
• Use data and predictive indicators to prioritize counselor outreach and institutional interventions at critical decision points.
• Lead yield and melt-prevention strategies that include personalized outreach, faculty engagement, Financial Aid counseling, alumnae connections, family engagement consistent with student permissions, peer ambassadors, admitted-student programming, and transition initiatives.
• Coordinate individualized enrollment completion plans from admission through census, tracking outstanding financial aid, registration, housing or commuter arrangements, orientation, and required documents with named office owners and escalation procedures.
• Record reasons for non-enrollment and analyze barriers by term and pathway to guide outreach and institutional interventions.

• Partner closely with Marketing and Communications to develop an integrated enrollment marketing strategy that reflects Bennett's mission, academic value proposition, student experience, institutional outcomes, and distinctive identity.
• Maintain a 12-month recruitment communication calendar and segmented, automated CRM journeys across email, SMS, digital platforms, social media, print, events, and counselor outreach, with defined triggers, staff owners, response standards, follow-up intervals, and escalation procedures.
• Ensure recruitment communications address the motivations, concerns, and decision-making needs of prospective and admitted students, families, school counselors, and community partners, including transfers, working adults, commuters, readmits, and students in approved distance pathways.
• Evaluate campaign effectiveness, engagement, conversion, and return on investment and recommend changes to messaging, timing, audience segmentation, and channel strategy.
• Coordinate accessible recruitment materials, accurate admissions webpages, and consistent institutional messaging with Marketing and Communications, which retains institutional brand oversight. Schedule regular content reviews with the offices responsible for academic programs, costs, scholarships, and student services.

• Serve as the functional leader for Admissions CRM and application technology, ensuring systems effectively support recruitment strategy, counselor activity, prospect engagement, application processing, communication automation, and enrollment forecasting.
• Maintain timely, reliable enrollment dashboards with documented refresh schedules, common funnel definitions, source attribution, and visibility into territory and partner performance, application trends, conversion, yield, melt, and forecasted enrollment.
• Use historical enrollment data, conversion trends, demographic information, engagement indicators, and market intelligence to inform strategic decisions.
• Develop enrollment forecasts with documented assumptions and reconciled baselines in collaboration with Institutional Effectiveness and the Registrar. Distinguish new student recruitment goals from total institutional enrollment using continuing students, graduates, withdrawals, readmissions, and pathway capacity.
• Provide weekly operating reports during active recruitment and monthly executive updates on enrollment performance, forecast risks, pathway and partner conversion, campaign results, acquisition costs, and recommended corrective actions.
• Develop a culture of data literacy within Admissions in which counselors understand both their recruitment activity and its relationship to enrollment outcomes.
• Continuously evaluate recruitment technologies, automation opportunities, and digital engagement tools that improve counselor productivity and prospective student experience.
• Establish CRM data entry standards, duplicate resolution, quality assurance, and routine reconciliation with the Registrar's official census records. Track partner referrals and recruitment cost per enrolled student; coordinate system administration, integration, access, and security with IT.

• Provide leadership and oversight for undergraduate admissions review, decision-making, and applicant processing.
• Ensure admissions practices are timely, equitable, student-centered, consistent, and aligned with institutional policy.
• Establish and monitor service standards for acknowledgment, application completion, document processing, admissions decisions, applicant communications, and enrollment handoffs based on validated staffing capacity.
• Ensure prospective students receive an intentional and personalized admissions experience reflecting Bennett's commitment to community, belonging, leadership, and student success.
• Collaborate with Financial Aid on approved scholarship and affordability strategies, financial aid communication, net-price messaging, and financial barriers to enrollment. Financial Aid retains responsibility for aid eligibility, packaging, and awards under institutional policy.
• Identify friction points within the admissions process and implement improvements that reduce unnecessary barriers to enrollment.
• Maintain an admissions procedures manual covering application review, document verification, decisions, exceptions and appeals, communications, and periodic quality assurance.
• Coordinate timely preliminary transfer credit evaluation and program advising with the Registrar and Academic Affairs. Communicate accepted credit and degree pathways using approved evaluations and maintain clear transfer and readmission processing procedures.

• Recruit, supervise, coach, develop, and evaluate admissions counselors and assigned support personnel; coordinate student ambassadors, work-study students, and Bennett Belle alumnae ambassadors supporting recruitment.
• Establish a team culture centered on mission, relationship-building, accountability, urgency, student service, innovation, collaboration, and measurable results.
• Establish balanced staff performance expectations for territory activity, prospect engagement, conversion, service standards, data quality, partnership development, and enrollment outcomes, recognizing responsibilities and factors within each employee's authority.
• Build staff competency in consultative student recruitment, territory management, relationship development, culturally responsive recruitment, enrollment analytics, CRM usage, communication strategy, and yield management.
• Conduct regular pipeline and territory reviews with Admissions staff and provide coaching and strategic intervention when performance is not tracking toward established goals.
• Build succession capacity and professional development opportunities within the Admissions organization.
• Train recruitment ambassadors on approved messaging, confidentiality, event support, and referral tracking. Admissions retains responsibility for applicant records, admission decisions, and follow-up.
• Provide cross-training, staff development, and office coverage during recruitment travel and peak periods.

• Serve as a key member of Bennett College's Enrollment Management leadership structure and contribute to institution-wide enrollment planning.
• Partner with Financial Aid, Academic Affairs, the Registrar, the Office of Student Experience, Residence Life, Marketing and Communications, Institutional Effectiveness, Alumnae Engagement, Business and Finance, IT, Career Services, and other offices to create a cohesive enrollment experience.
• Work with academic and administrative leadership to confirm program demand, academic capacity, housing and student support readiness, approved degree maps, and faculty engagement before launching recruitment for new programs or pathways.
• Coordinate documented handoffs to advising and student support through census and early first-term check-ins. Support readmission and stop-out re-engagement with the responsible offices; continuing-student persistence and graduation remain shared institutional outcomes.
• Help establish shared institutional accountability for enrollment rather than positioning recruitment as the responsibility of Admissions alone.
• Participate in the executive SEM council and regular enrollment operations meetings; maintain shared action tracking, named owners, service standards, and escalation procedures for enrollment barriers.

• Develop and manage annual Admissions operating, recruitment, technology, partnership, event, marketing, and travel resource plans and budgets; monitor expenditures and report variances and expected enrollment returns.
• Allocate recruitment resources based on strategic priorities, historical performance, market opportunity, and anticipated enrollment return.
• Evaluate recruitment vendors, lead sources, events, travel, and partnership investments against defined deliverables and conversion results; recommend expansion, renewal, reduction, or discontinuation within institutional purchasing and approval procedures.
• Identify opportunities to improve recruitment effectiveness and operational efficiency while maintaining a high-quality prospective student experience.
• Collaborate with Financial Aid and Business and Finance to evaluate acquisition costs, aid and tuition discount assumptions, and net tuition revenue by pathway. Maintain clear separation between Admissions spending and scholarship budgets and award decisions.

• Maintain current admissions procedures and coordinate with institutional compliance owners to meet applicable federal and state requirements, institutional policies, and professional standards governing admissions and recruitment.
• Maintain equitable, ethical, transparent, and consistent admissions and recruitment practices.
• Champion inclusive and culturally responsive recruitment practices throughout prospective student engagement, communication, application review, and enrollment activities.
• Protect applicant and student information through approved access, confidentiality, data-sharing, and records-handling practices; coordinate CRM integrations and security with IT and designated records and compliance owners.
• Train admissions staff and recruitment ambassadors on ethical recruitment, confidentiality, accurate representations, and institutional requirements.
• Promote only approved programs and pathways and verify representations about transfer credit, scholarships, costs, outcomes, and student services. Coordinate international and distance recruitment with designated compliance owners and refer international student matters to the authorized institutional official.

• Represent Bennett College at professional conferences, recruitment events, community programs, institutional functions, and external partnership meetings.
• Serve on College committees and strategic initiatives as assigned.
• Maintain active professional engagement relevant to admissions and SEM and apply evidence-informed practices appropriate to Bennett's mission, scale, and resources.
• Perform other related duties as assigned in support of Bennett College's enrollment and student success objectives.

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution required.
• At least five years of progressively responsible experience in college admissions, student recruitment, or enrollment management, including at least two years supervising professional staff.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing strategic recruitment or enrollment plans with measurable enrollment outcomes.
• Demonstrated responsibility for recruitment territories, enrollment pipelines, application generation, conversion, yield, or related enrollment performance measures.
• Experience using CRM technology and enrollment data to manage recruitment activity, analyze funnel performance, and inform strategy.
• Demonstrated experience managing recruitment budgets and developing school, community college, or community partnerships that support measurable enrollment outcomes.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, relationship management, project management, problem-solving, and executive reporting skills.
• Practical proficiency in CRM workflows, spreadsheet analysis, accurate recruitment records, and use of data to improve enrollment outcomes.
• Working knowledge of financial aid and affordability communication and the ability to collaborate across academic and administrative offices.

• Progressive leadership experience within a small private college, HBCU, women's college, mission-driven institution, or similarly enrollment-sensitive higher education environment.
• Master's degree from an accredited institution.
• Seven or more years of progressively responsible admissions or enrollment experience with broader strategic leadership.
• Direct experience with Strategic Enrollment Management planning and implementation.
• Demonstrated success developing new recruitment markets or building sustainable student pipelines.
• Experience developing recruitment strategies that effectively communicate a distinctive institutional mission and support student aspirations.
• Experience integrating recruitment strategy with financial aid, marketing, academic program priorities, and student-success initiatives.
• Experience with Bennett's admissions CRM Element451 and enrollment systems or comparable platforms, such as Slate, Salesforce/TargetX, Ellucian CRM Recruit, Jenzabar, or similar technologies.
• Experience using advanced enrollment analytics, predictive modeling, market analysis, or enrollment forecasting tools.
• Experience recruiting transfer, adult, commuter, readmission, or approved distance students and managing partner referral pathways.

• Evaluate performance against annual goals approved with the Chief Administrative Officer and grounded in validated baseline data, institutional capacity, and available resources.
• Measures include new student census enrollment by term and pathway; application completion, yield, and melt; partner referral and enrollment results; territory performance; response and decision turnaround; CRM data quality; onboarding handoffs; staff development; forecast accuracy; and budget performance.
• Assess acquisition costs and contribution to net tuition revenue objectives with Financial Aid and Business and Finance. Use activity measures alongside conversion and service outcomes and recognize shared responsibilities.

• The position involves office and computer-based work, presentations, campus and off-campus recruitment activities, and travel.
• Occasional evening and weekend work and regional or overnight travel are required based on recruitment needs.
• The employee must be able to meet the transportation needs of the position.
• The employee must be able to perform the essential functions of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation.