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Graduate Admissions Coordinator Smiriti Isaac |
Since Smriti, also known as Simmi, Isaac joined the ME department in December 2004, she has had a full plate. The new graduate admissions coordinator in the Academic Services Office came on board right in the midst of the fall 2005 application review process, which she coordinated before moving on to host two different groups of prospective students in the spring, and is at present working to develop the fall orientation program for approximately 160 new students. "It's been a busy time," she said.
A time she is well prepared to handle. Isaac earned a master's degree in higher education administration from the University of Michigan and has worked at the university since 1998. Prior to joining the Mechanical Engineering department, she worked in the International Center for six years, where she assisted the university’s large population of international students, scholars, faculty and staff in areas ranging from employment and immigration advising to cross-cultural differences and adjustment issues. Earlier in her career, she worked in admissions and recruiting at King College and Carson-Newman College in Tennessee.
"My background in human resources and student services has served me well in terms of fitting right into ME's large graduate program that also has a large international student population," she said. "Our graduate program has been ranked fourth in the nation by US News and World Report among 164 universities with doctoral programs in mechanical engineering, and I'm pleased to be a part of this. Especially the critical function of selecting our student body each term."
As part of the selection function, Isaac manages the recruitment and admissions process, including related events held several times each year, for promising domestic and international students. The efforts generate between 800 and 1,000 applications annually to the department's masters and doctoral programs.
One of the new initiatives that Isaac introduced early this spring was an E-mail Peer Mentor program where each new student coming in the fall was matched up with a current student who serves as an excellent resource for information and advice, and friendships are fostered even before they meet in person! Another new initiative that was launched late spring was updating the graduate student section of our Website with detailed information on the upcoming fall orientation programs including setting up an online pre-registration service for students. “Such measures,” says Isaac, “go a long way in providing critical information in a timely manner and allow for a smoother adjustment to campus upon arrival.”
Isaac also oversees various other enrollment management functions, advises students about departmental, college and university policies and procedures, and provides academic program information as well as information on housing options, health insurance benefits and settling in to the local community. She also helps students connect with appropriate faculty for research and fellowship opportunities. In addition, Isaac watches application and enrollment trends and conducts benchmarking with other institutions.
As she carries out her responsibilities, Isaac has a few objectives in mind, such as aiming to work even more closely with the department's 100-plus faculty members in order to attract "the best and brightest students to our programs from around the country and the world, and to effectively communicate the strong points of our program to prospective students. We have some stiff competition, but we want to do the very best to make Michigan the number one choice."