By Jeremy Tiers, Vice President of Admissions Services
2 minute read
It’s something that every admissions counselor deals with each year regardless of the type or size of institution they work for.
At some point in the college search process, usually in the later stages, a lot of students communicate less, or they stop communicating at all. In some cases it’s intentional, but a lot of times we continue to find that they’ve become tired of the process and all the decisions and stress that come with it.
On top of that, most students continue to tell us in surveys that they have no idea what questions they’re supposed to ask, or how or when they’re supposed to ask them.
Because of those things they need someone to help show them the way. They need someone, oftentimes their admissions counselor, to lead the conversation.
When I shared this in a recent yield workshop a counselor approached me during a break and told me he was worried about creating extra pressure and annoying his admitted students. He felt like asking a bunch of questions and follow-up questions would be pushing too hard.
My response was, “A little pressure is what many of your students need to move forward.” The key is pressuring without pressuring too much. While you need to always lead the conversation, you should never dominate it. Your goal should be to make it a two-way conversation that is always student (or parent) centered.
Let me expand a little on how this strategy works best:
- Ask questions that focus on their process for how they’ll be making their decision. You could say, “Walk me through what you have left to do before you make your college decision.” Or you might ask, “What is one part of the process that you’re kind of dreading?” Those types of questions are important because they’re not what most counselors are asking, and the answers will give you a much clearer roadmap as to how and when each individual admit will make that decision.
- Tell them what you think they might be thinking so they have to clarify a position or a feeling. I want you to insert some assumptions that tend to be true for most admitted students (or whatever stage the student is at) with the goal of getting them to react and share insights they may not have told you before. Let’s say you have an admitted student who has brought up cost a lot in previous conversations and you know for a fact that he/she is still waiting on a financial aid package from another college even though their family has your package. You might say something like, “It seems you’re really interested in that other school and I’m kind of feeling like if they are less expensive you’re leaning towards choosing them.” Whether that’s actually your assumption or not isn’t really important. The goal is to get a reaction and have them take a side on your hypothesis. Whether they agree or disagree you get information that helps you judge what should come next in the process.
- Tell them what you view as the next step. Like I said earlier, most young people don’t know what to do next in the process and they’re waiting for someone – why not you – to outline the next thing that needs to happen, or the next thing they should be thinking about. Doing that helps take the process deeper as they respond or ignore your suggestions.
Like I explained in last week’s article, don’t assume an admitted student has all the information they need to make their final decision. And don’t assume they know how to make their decision either… most have no clue.
Without your guidance and help, a lot of students (especially admits) will sit in a holding pattern of sorts and delay taking action until you or another counselor at a different school on their final list implements the things we discussed today.
If you have a question about something I said in this article, reply back, or email me here.
And if you found this article helpful, please forward it to someone else on your campus who could also benefit from reading it.