When Yield Tactics Aren’t Enough: The Evolution of a Blog

This blog started out as a practical guide.

The original plan? Share actionable tactics to help graduate enrollment professionals maximize yield and prevent summer melt. Think comm plans, swag sends, alumni and current student connections. All good stuff—the kind of strategic playbook we would typically lean on in late spring.

But as I finalized the draft, I felt wholly like I was missing the mark. I was missing the moment, because the world shifted—again.

New developments in international visa policy sowed fresh uncertainty for incoming global students. Tarriff-driven economic pressures have deepened domestic concerns about prices and job security. Seemingly ever-changing regulatory shifts affecting everything from accreditation to assistantship funding are necessitating budget conversations and cost-cutting actions.

In short: The playbook I started with simply doesn’t match the moment we’re living in.

So, as we all are likely doing on campuses everywhere, I’m pivoting. Because what this moment demands aren’t tactics. This moment demands a strategy. A powerful one.

The moment demands empathy.

Empathy. Not as a soft skill, but as a guiding principle for how we support prospective, admitted, and enrolled students through a time of deep instability.

In that spirit, below are three ways to lead with empathy across the graduate student lifecycle—one for international yield, one for domestic yield, and one for student retention. Each centers on understanding what students are really experiencing and responding with meaningful support.

Imagine this. You’ve been admitted to a graduate program thousands of miles from home. You’re excited, yes, but also staring down a visa backlog, trying to figure out housing in a city you’ve never seen, and wondering how your parents will handle your departure. Your inbox is full of university emails, but none of them seem to get at the real questions keeping you up at night.

Now imagine receiving a short email from your future institution; not a deadline reminder, but a question: “How are you doing, really? Anything we can help with?” It includes a link to schedule a one-on-one call with an advisor. No pressure, just support.

That’s the tone we need right now.

Empathy for international admits is more than pushing them to submit forms. It means slowing down, offering space, and recognizing the uncertainty they’re navigating. How do you tactically implement this approach? A simple intake survey to understand their visa status and concerns. Flexible communication tracks based on what they’re facing. A friendly, unpolished “First 30 Days” guide crafted by current students who’ve been through it. Live sessions timed to their part of the world—not perfectly produced, but real.

In a moment like this, your outreach can’t fix global policy shifts, but it can remind students they’re not navigating this alone.

When I was in the center-seat on my own bridge of the USS Graduate Admissions, I often spoke about “soft admits.” A soft admit can be so for many reasons, but a significant one is hesitation, especially among domestic students. This hesitation is driven by things deeply practical, like cost, time, even uncertainty about outcomes. We sometimes aren’t really very clear on the ROI of our graduate programs.

Picture this. A working professional gets into your program. She’s proud but also overwhelmed. Rent has gone up. Childcare costs are relentless. She knows she wants the degree, but can she afford it? Can she justify it?

Instead of another automated reminder, she gets a personal message from an admissions counselor: “If you’re still deciding, we totally understand. Want to talk it through?”

Not a pitch but a conversation. A helping hand, a shoulder, a person to share the burden and help noodle through the solution. That’s empathy in action.

This is the moment to rethink your yield messaging. Swap persuasion for partnership. Create a “Let’s Talk” campaign; 15-minute chats, no script required. Host informal student panels about the real cost of grad school and how people are making it work. Share an ROI toolkit, built not for marketing, but for decision making. And when a student goes silent? Don’t remind them to infinity. Send a final note that says, simply: “We’re here if you need us.”

Empathy honors hesitation. It doesn’t rush students to a yes. It builds the kind of trust that leads to an enrollment decision that sticks.

Yield gets a lot of attention this time of year. But what about the students who’ve already enrolled and are now wondering if they made the right choice?

This moment demands we re-recruit our own. (If you are primarily charged with recruiting and enrolling new students, I beseech you to not skip this section. I challenge you to read this and find a way to partner with those responsible for retaining the graduate students you worked so hard enrolling in the first place.)

Think of the student who has stopped showing up to optional workshops, or worse, class. Or the student who showed such promise their first term but seems to be simply going through the motions. Think of the online student who was engaged in discussion forums, providing lengthy responses and comments on the posts of their peers, but is now doing the minimum required to get credit for contributing. These students aren’t complaining. They’re just… disengaging.

Now imagine they get a short email from a faculty member or staff advisor that says: “Hey, I just wanted to check in. How are things going? Anything we can support you with?”

No formality. No lengthy, cold questionnaire. Just care. That’s where retention starts.

Consider launching a low-lift “Check-In” Campaign. Invite your community of graduate stakeholders, faculty, program staff, peer leaders, to send a handful of personal emails. Create a 3-question, anonymous pulse survey that gives students a chance to tell you what they need. Follow up if they ask. Host a drop-in event with no agenda, just snacks, music, and space.

Empathy isn’t about big gestures. It’s about being present, paying attention, and acting on what students quietly show you.

If there’s one thing we’ve all learned in the past few years, it’s that uncertainty is a constant. In this moment when students are questioning their options, policies are shifting by the week, and economic pressures are hitting close to home, leading with empathy isn’t just good practice. It’s essential strategy.

But empathy isn’t just something we extend outward. It’s something we need to practice with one another, too.

This season is hard on graduate enrollment teams. It’s emotionally demanding. It’s unpredictable. And often, we’re so focused on supporting our students that we forget to check in on each other. So, as we move through summer, make a little space for peer empathy, too.

Send that text to your colleague who’s barely left their desk. Pop into your international student services office with a jug of morning joe and no agenda. Take 10 minutes at your next team meeting to ask not “Where are we on yield?” but “How’s everyone doing?”

Because the truth is, when we care for each other, we create the kind of environment our students can feel, even if they never see it.

Traditional yield tactics matter. So does communication. But empathy? That’s what will carry us—and our students—through.