Associate Director, Student Admissions

Description

The Associate Director of Student Admissions leads the strategy, planning, organization, and execution of student recruitment and admissions across Urban Dove schools. This person supervises the Student Admissions Manager, who oversees the Student Admissions Assistants and leads much of the team’s direct outreach to schools, community organizations, prospective students, and families.

• Develop and lead Urban Dove’s network-wide student recruitment and admissions strategy.
• Create annual and seasonal recruitment plans with clear goals, timelines, responsibilities, and benchmarks.
• Develop recruitment strategies tailored to the enrollment needs and communities of each Urban Dove school.
• Identify new recruitment opportunities, referral partners, geographic areas, and outreach methods.
• Anticipate enrollment challenges and develop plans to address gaps in applications, completed enrollments, and student arrivals.
• Lead planning for major recruitment periods, including summer, back-to-school, and midyear enrollment.

• Oversee systems for tracking prospective students from initial contact through enrollment and arrival at school.
• Develop and maintain recruitment dashboards, trackers, and reports.
• Monitor recruitment progress, enrollment projections, and conversion rates for each school.
• Analyze the effectiveness of referral sources, school visits, events, outreach campaigns, and other recruitment activities.
• Ensure that recruitment data is accurate, complete, and entered consistently.
• Provide CMO and school leaders with regular updates on progress, risks, trends, and recommended next steps.
• Use data to adjust recruitment strategies, staff assignments, and priorities.

• Supervise, coach, and evaluate the Student Admissions Manager.
• Support the Student Admissions Manager in supervising and organizing the work of the Student Admissions Assistants.
• Establish clear goals, expectations, responsibilities, and accountability measures for the admissions team.
• Lead regular team meetings, individual supervision meetings, and recruitment data reviews.
• Create project plans, calendars, checklists, and other systems that support effective execution.
• Monitor deadlines and deliverables and ensure that recruitment activities are completed on time.
• Provide training and professional development related to recruitment, project management, data tracking, communication, and admissions procedures.

• Guide the team’s strategy for building and maintaining relationships with schools, community-based organizations, social-service providers, and other referral partners.
• Help the Student Admissions Manager prioritize outreach based on enrollment needs and referral potential.
• Develop systems for tracking partner contacts, visits, referrals, and follow-up.
• Identify gaps in Urban Dove’s referral network and develop plans for building new partnerships.
• Represent Urban Dove at selected recruitment events, presentations, and community meetings.
• Ensure that students and families receive timely, welcoming, and consistent communication throughout the admissions process.

• Establish consistent recruitment and admissions procedures across Urban Dove schools.
• Ensure that applications, enrollment documents, and required follow-up are completed accurately and on time.
• Review current systems and recommend improvements that strengthen efficiency, accuracy, and accountability.
• Collaborate with School Leaders, CMO staff, school operations teams, and communications staff to support enrollment goals.
• Contribute to organizational planning related to enrollment growth, student retention, school expansion, and new-school launches.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree preferred.
• At least five years of relevant experience in student recruitment, admissions, education, nonprofit leadership, project management, community engagement, or a related field.
• Experience supervising and developing staff.
• Strong project-management skills, including the ability to organize multiple priorities, deadlines, and team members.
• Strong analytical skills and experience using data to monitor performance and guide decisions.
• Proficiency with spreadsheets, databases, dashboards, and reporting tools.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to balance strategic planning with attention to daily execution and follow-through.
• Experience working with young people, families, schools, and community organizations.
• Understanding of the needs of over-age and under-credited students strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with New York City schools and communities preferred.
• Ability to travel among Urban Dove schools and attend occasional evening or weekend events.