The Motivations and Concerns of Prospective Graduate Students

Graduate student enrollment is increasingly critical to the enrollment health for universities. As demographic changes will make it harder to grow traditional undergraduate enrollment, institutions will need graduate enrollment growth to fill in the enrollment gaps.

The good news is that the graduate student market is growing. According to National Student Clearinghouse data, graduate enrollment reached an all-time high of 3.2 million in fall 2024, with a 3.3% increase over the year before.

However, in order to compete for these students, you need to understand the motivations, influences, and concerns of graduate students. To dig into these issues, RNL surveyed 1,400 prospective and enrolled graduate students on a wide range of issues that relate to their decision to pursue graduate study. Here are some of the key findings that enrollment managers need to know.

What is their primary motivation to study?

It’s no surprise that today’s students are career-oriented, but it’s clear that advancing their current career is the top driver, with 74% of our participants listing that as their primary motivation to study.

What does this mean for us as practitioners in higher education? It’s critical to not only highlight career-related information, but make sure that information and outcomes are very easy to find. In another finding from our report, 90% of respondents indicated that it’s important for program pages to provide specific and easy-to-access information on careers related in their field.

What influences graduate students to consider graduate study?

As you can see here, these decisions are largely self-motivated even if the reasons to pursue grad study are career-oriented. I find it interesting that these are not more employer-driven, especially when it comes to continuing degrees. However, it still shows that the majority of graduate students are self-motivated, intrinsic learners who see graduate study as a way to improve their lives.

What are the most important program features to prospective graduate students?

For our survey respondents, format flexibility was the most cited feature that was important, followed closely by available specializations. This is interesting, as the respondents cited modality, course format, and specializations, and then flexible scheduling. This could be a reflection of the growing number of Gen Z students (those under 29) who make up 56% of the graduate student population according to the fall 2023 IPEDS snapshot. This emphasizes the importance of offering and designing those programs for multiple delivery types and really meeting those students where they are.

What are the main concerns of graduate students?

I don’t think anyone will be shocked that cost is a concern for 60% of graduate students. But half of our respondents also cited balancing responsibilities—again, not shocking considering the vast majority of our participants said they worked full-time. While fewer than 20% cited ROI uncertainty, that still represents 1 in 5 of our survey takers. The bottom line is that institutions need to directly address these pain points when they conduct outreach with students. Mitigating some of those concerns right away can help students feel more comfortable in the process and be more likely to enroll as well as complete their programs.

What will inhibit a graduate student from applying to a program?

Finally, we asked our survey respondents which common requirements would potentially dissuade them from applying to a program.

As you can see, 1 in 3 cited letters of recommendation and essays/personal statements. This is not to say that institutions should remove these requirements, but be mindful if your program really needs them in the evaluation process. Similarly, for items such as transcripts, look for ways to make it easier for transcripts to be submitted or gathered to remove the burden from students—and a potential barrier from applying to your program.

Read the full report for even more insights

These findings represent a fraction of what you will find in the 2025 Graduate Student Recruitment Report. It’s packed with findings on the channels graduate students use to search for schools, how they use search engines for research, which digital ads they click on, and much more.

You can also watch our webinar Keys to Engaging and Enrolling Graduate Students to hear my colleague Lori Cannistra and I discuss the findings and how you can use them to guide your strategies. And if you want to discuss graduate marketing and recruitment strategies, reach out to set up a consultation.