| Summary: | Thesis advisor: Karen D. Arnold === This mixed-methods study examines admissions professionals' consciousness and perceptions of the role that institutional culture plays in attracting and enrolling graduate-level students. This research identifies and describes how graduate admissions professionals learn culture and how that culture is communicated to applicants. Data were gathered through a web-based survey that queried 102 admissions professionals at 236 graduate schools of theology throughout the United States of America and Canada. Additionally, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with practitioners directly involved in communicating culture to applicants. Survey and interview data were triangulated with a document analysis of printed promotional materials and website text. Findings suggest that graduate admissions professionals consider culture a crucial factor in their efforts to recruit potential students, regardless of such factors as years of experience working in higher education or working specifically in graduate admissions; professional title; or school's religious denominational affiliation. Across these categories, graduate admissions professionals perceive culture as a leading factor in enrollment decision making. Likewise, graduate admissions professionals indicate that culture is highly and intentionally incorporated into marketing and recruitment strategies. Findings also indicate there is little difference in how culture is viewed between those graduate admissions professionals who have had direct institutional academic experience as a current student/alumnus of the school and those graduate admissions professionals who have not. Although the two populations may experience different ways of learning culture, both indicated similarly high perceptions of culture's importance in the enrollment process. While digital technologies continue to create new potentials for communication methods, face-to-face communication--most notably through campus visits--is still viewed by graduate admissions professionals as most effective. This research highlights the importance of facilitating student discernment within the larger context of the admissions decision-making process. The findings also suggest that external candidates who are hired for their admission expertise can learn and communicate institutional culture effectively. Ultimately, this study reveals culture's perceived importance in the admissions process and its potential as a principal factor in enrollment decisions. === Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. === Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. === Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.
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