Reading the Right Signals: What Graduate Applicant Behavior Means (and What It Doesn’t)

Graduate enrollment leaders make daily decisions based on applicant behavior. How many programs applicants apply to. Where applicants pause or persist. Whether they seek help. What submission appears to signal about intent and readiness. These behaviors are visible and familiar, yet they are
often interpreted through experience and assumption rather than shared evidence.

In this session, Liaison’s Art Munin, PhD and Steve Taylor will present findings from the NAGAP-Liaison Applicant Mindset Study, a research initiative that examines how applicant behavior is understood by institutions and how applicants themselves describe their experience. The study pairs a large-scale GradCAS applicant survey with a parallel administrator survey conducted with NAGAP members to explore where interpretations align and where they meaningfully diverge.

Participants will examine how applicants describe effort, friction, and decision-making during the application process, and how enrollment leaders interpret those same behaviors as signals of confidence or seriousness. The session focuses on strengthening interpretation rather than evaluating
performance. It invites reflection on how common behaviors may reflect persistence, uncertainty, or exploration within a complex and crowded application environment.

Attendees will leave with a clearer framework for interpreting applicant behavior, practical considerations for process design and communication, and shared language to support more thoughtful enrollment decisions grounded in how applicants actually experience the application phase