News & Events

There is never a dull moment in the undergraduate admissions and recruitment office.

The 50 staff members are busy year-round recruiting prospective students, processing applications and admitting new students to Ryerson. The department handles close to 70,000 applications annually and admits 7,300 students for more than 60 full- and part-time programs across the university each fall. Charmaine Hack, associate registrar and director of undergraduate admissions and recruitment, has witnessed the explosion of applicants over the last two decades as the demand for a Ryerson education has increased substantially.

"Ryerson's unique footprint in the city and connection to community attracts many excellent students. The work is never-ending and admissions and recruitment is at the front end, funneling all that interest," Hack said.

Ryerson is the most-applied to university in the province based on available spaces.

The majority of offers of admission are released by the end of May, so the summer is spent following up on conditional offers and fielding inquiries - sometimes up to 3,600 client interactions per week - from those who hope for admission to the university. Social media has become a high priority with the office using Facebook and Twitter to disseminate information.

Once fall arrives, the department shifts gears again to attract prospective students, who apply as early as September for the following school year. Positioning Ryerson for the Ontario Universities' Fair, a three-day event in Toronto that draws tens of thousands of prospective students and their families, as well as preparing for more than 600 secondary school visits across Canada and around the world are key outreach activities in the fall. Discover Ryerson events, where prospective students come to campus, are held throughout the fall, winter and spring and campus visits are tailored for parents and guidance counselors to keep them informed about the university.

Current students play a role in showcasing Ryerson as well. Thirty-five students are hired as ambassadors to lead campus tours twice a day.
From January to May, the department works to continue communication with new applicants and process more than 200,000 documents which arrive every year in support of applications. Staff is busy handling inquiries via phone and email, counseling applicants in person, hosting March Break events on campus, authenticating transcripts, reviewing applications, checking grades and determining who gets an offer. A large research library helps personnel stay up-to-date on curriculum changes all over the world - a task that helps the department make fair and equitable enrollment choices.

Hack says the support of academic departments around the university is invaluable to the recruiting and admissions process.

"We couldn't profile Ryerson appropriately without the help of deans, chairs, faculty and academic staff. Our programs do a tremendous job representing the university," she said.