Treffer: 2025 Graduate Student Recruitment Report: Looking at Graduate Student Behavior by Primary Motivation

The 2025 Graduate Student Recruitment Report is RNL's third national study of the expectations and preferences of America's graduate students. This report provides graduate program leaders and stakeholders with detailed insights into the motivations, expectations, and behaviors of prospective graduate students during the enrollment process. These insights can drive strategies that will help institutions position their programs more competitively, move graduate students through the enrollment process more quickly, and ultimately drive enrollment growth. Anticipated demographic shifts in the American populace and a fluid regulatory environment are creating unparalleled levels of uncertainty. At the same time, the expectations and decision-making priorities of today's graduate students have changed dramatically as Millennials and increasing numbers of Gen Z students dominate the graduate education market. This is further complicated by graduate students having more programs and modalities to choose from than ever before. For decades, students have seen graduate study as a route to career advancement or change, but the incoming generation is even more focused on their career success as the ultimate indicator of the ROI of their studies. With this in mind, we present the data throughout this report by primary motivation: career advancement, career change, and personal reasons/lifelong learning. A fourth motivation--maintaining current careers--did not have sufficient responses to be included in the report, an indicator that, for graduate students, it really is about opportunity for advancement or change.

ERIC