Associate Director for Graduate Programs

Associate Director for Graduate Programs

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn's distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America's Best Large Employers in 2023.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title
Associate Director for Graduate Programs

Job Profile Title
Associate Director D, Student Services, Graduate Programs

Job Description Summary
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School is one of the nation's oldest and most distinguished law schools. The school offers a unique approach, incorporating cross-disciplinary legal education, a distinctly collaborative environment, and an innovative curriculum to enrich student learning. The small and highly interdisciplinary faculty achieves scholarly excellence while emphasizing a shared effort to advance understanding of the law. The result is an intellectual community that bridges traditional boundaries and disciplines within a renowned internal culture of collegiality, making the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School an extraordinarily supportive academic community for all its members.

Each year, Penn Carey Law attracts outstanding legal practitioners and scholars from around the world to its LLM, LLCM, SJD, and visiting scholars programs. The Office of Graduate Programs is charged with recruiting, matriculating, and ensuring exceptional programmatic opportunities to these exceptional students and scholars and maintaining strong relationships with our alumni.

Reporting to the Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs, the Associate Director helps develop, support, and implement a range of strategies to recruit diverse and talented foreign-trained attorneys to Penn Carey Law, provides support and programming to optimize the students' experience while at Penn Carey Law, and helps maintain strong relations with alumni.

Job Description

Recruitment and Admissions

• Support and implement effective, creative strategies to recruit outstanding students to Graduate Programs, both in the application and admitted student phases.
• Recruit students via email and other correspondence, video and telephone conferencing, and international travel.
• Review files and make admissions and scholarship recommendations, taking lead responsibility for regions as assigned by the Assistant Dean.
• Track data throughout the admissions cycle to assess the effectiveness of current practices and suggest changes and improvements.

Communications and Representation

• Represent Penn Carey Law to prospective, admitted, matriculating, and graduated students as well as to international schools and universities, law firms, other employers, and other potential partners both within and outside the University of Pennsylvania.
• Ensure excellent communication about the program, its benefits, its students, and its alumni to internal and external audiences, including international schools and universities, scholarship organizations, law firms, employers, and potential partners both within and outside the University of Pennsylvania.
• Work directly with communications to enhance Graduate Programs profile and outreach, e.g., providing content for social media platforms, website articles, and updating any print materials as needed.
• Responsible for keeping the Graduate Programs websites up to date (currently the external and the admitted student sites).

Student Life

• Manage and operate all aspects of the non-academic portion of Penn Carey Law's unique 5-week pre-term program. Plan the admitted student virtual week. Work directly with partners within the law school and university to schedule social, cultural, and professional events to effectively onboard the LLM/LLCM/SJD and visiting scholars and foster networking and wellbeing.
• As part of the Graduate Programs team, provide curricular consultation and programmatic direction, support student events, and meet with students to address concerns and provide general support.
• Collaborate with colleagues within the law school and university to ensure excellent programming and superior student support.

Operational

• Collaborate with the Graduate Programs Coordinator to devise and direct a comprehensive system to process over 1400 applications for the LLM, LLC, SJD, and visiting scholar programs through UNITE and other application platforms.
• Manage all online systems, including admissions database, website, and various online applications; write, analyze, and produce all statistical reports for internal and external constituents.
• Maintain the team's recruiting schedule (both in-person and remote events); work with Graduate Programs team to drive a robust post-acceptance outreach events.
• Work closely with our dual degree partner universities and Wharton Executive Education for the Wharton Business and Law Certificate Program to maintain and support the admissions process and student programming.

Other duties as assigned

Candidate Qualifications

We seek candidates who are reliable, flexible, committed to ongoing learning and professional growth, and have established track records as successful collaborators in the workplace.

The successful candidate will hold an advanced degree, JD preferred and have a minimum of five-seven years of increasing responsibility in higher education administration, with admissions experience preferred, and strong proficiency in Excel and admissions databases such as UNITE. The ideal candidate will have considerable experience working in an environment concerned with international issues and experience interacting with people from around the globe. Foreign language skills and international work experience are valued, but not required. The successful candidate will also have the ability to build strong professional relationships with multiple constituents and partners, including faculty and staff within Penn Carey Law and the University of Pennsylvania, colleagues at other law schools, current students, and alumni.

Job Location - City, State
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Department / School
Law School

Pay Range
$79,500.00 - $115,000.00 Annual Rate
Salary offers are made based on the candidate's qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, and in alignment with salary ranges based on external market data for the job's level. Internal organization and peer data at Penn are also considered.

Equal Opportunity Statement

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

Special Requirements
Background checks may be required after a conditional job offer is made. Consideration of the background check will be tailored to the requirements of the job.

University Benefits

• Health, Life, and Flexible Spending Accounts: Penn offers comprehensive medical, prescription, behavioral health, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits to protect you and your family's health and welfare. You can also use flexible spending accounts to pay for eligible health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars.
• Tuition: Take advantage of Penn's exceptional tuition benefits. You, your spouse, and your dependent children can get tuition assistance here at Penn. Your dependent children are also eligible for tuition assistance at other institutions.
• Retirement: Penn offers generous retirement plans to help you save for your future. Penn's Basic, Matching, and Supplemental retirement plans allow you to save for retirement on a pre-tax or Roth basis. Choose from a wide variety of investment options through TIAA and Vanguard.
• Time Away from Work: Penn provides you with a substantial amount of time away from work during the course of the year. This allows you to relax, take vacations, attend to personal affairs, recover from illness or injury, spend time with family-whatever your personal needs may be.
• Long-Term Care Insurance: In partnership with Genworth Financial, Penn offers faculty and staff (and your eligible family members) long-term care insurance to help you cover some of the costs of long-term care services received at home, in the community or in a nursing facility. If you apply when you're newly hired, you won't have to provide proof of good health or be subject to underwriting requirements. Eligible family members must always provide proof of good health and are subject to underwriting.
• Wellness and Work-life Resources: Penn is committed to supporting our faculty and staff as they balance the competing demands of work and personal life. That's why we offer a wide variety of programs and resources to help you care for your health, your family, and your work-life balance.
• Professional and Personal Development: Penn provides an array of resources to help you advance yourself personally and professionally.
• University Resources: As a member of the Penn community, you have access to a wide range of University resources as well as cultural and recreational activities. Take advantage of the University's libraries and athletic facilities, or visit our arboretum and art galleries. There's always something going on at Penn, whether it's a new exhibit at the Penn Museum, the latest music or theater presentation at the Annenberg Center, or the Penn Relays at Franklin Field to name just a few examples. As a member of the Penn community, you're right in the middle of the excitement-and you and your family can enjoy many of these activities for free.
• Discounts and Special Services: From arts and entertainment to transportation and mortgages, you'll find great deals for University faculty and staff. Not only do Penn arts and cultural centers and museums offer free and discounted admission and memberships to faculty and staff. You can also enjoy substantial savings on other goods and services such as new cars from Ford and General Motors, cellular phone service plans, movie tickets, and admission to theme parks.
• Flexible Work Hours: Flexible work options offer creative approaches for completing work while promoting balance between work and personal commitments. These approaches involve use of non-traditional work hours, locations, and/or job structures.
• Penn Home Ownership Services: Penn offers a forgivable loan for eligible employees interested in buying a home or currently residing in West Philadelphia, which can be used for closing costs or home improvements.
• Adoption Assistance: Penn will reimburse eligible employees on qualified expenses in connection with the legal adoption of an eligible child, such as travel or court fees, for up to two adoptions in your household.

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To learn more, please visit: https://www.hr.upenn.edu/PennHR/benefits-pay


Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.
To apply, visit https://wd1.myworkdaysite.com/en-US/recruiting/upenn/careers-at-penn/job/Law-School/Associate-Director-for-Graduate-Programs_JR00112184









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