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Feb 12 2013
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Community, Admissions, First-Generation, Community Project

Logjam on the Pathway to College

Karen Full - @KarenAFull

Karen Full – @KarenAFull

I recently read an interesting blog piece in the Huffington Post by Patrick O’Connor, Cranbrook School’s Associate Dean of College Counseling and a former NACAC president. The post is called Counselor Training, College Board, and the Circle of Huh. In it, Patrick describes the disconnect between the lack of graduate school training that school counselors receive in the areas of college and financial aid counseling, and these same tasks that counselors are expected to perform in their schools. We expect school counselors to inform their students and families about college admission and financial aid, yet many have really never been trained in conducting this particular part of their job. Patrick has been urging communication between legislators, school board leaders and counselor graduate programs in Michigan to address this problem.

The blog references a 2012 College Board survey of school counselors called True North: Charting the Course toward College and Career Readiness. Read the executive summary of this report. In a nutshell, the majority of school counselors in the U.S. feel inadequately armed to guide their students through the college search and selection process.

Do your state university master’s degree programs in guidance and counseling include courses that cover these topics?

Think about it: particularly in low-income school districts, where most parents are also not equipped to guide their children toward a future that includes college, who else can students turn to for help with the college admissions process, FAFSA filing, and scholarship searches? That is, if guidance counselors could even realistically find enough time to work with each student, given that the national student-to-counselor average ratio for public secondary schools last year was 421 to 1, according to NACAC’s State of College Admission 2012.

Read more about these issues on the NACAC Issues and Advocacy page.  There is great information to be found here about the Pathways to College Act, which would create programs in low-income school districts to assist students with college readiness and preparation.

Urge your state and federal legislators to support funding and training for college counseling.

Karen Full on Twitter @karenafull

Sep 06 2012
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Admissions, Professional Development

What Are You Reading?

A few months ago, I attended a conference session at which a panel of admissions deans and school counselors discussed their professional reading lists. Staying informed about pertinent admissions news, topics and trends is important to me, so I enjoyed this discussion immensely. Some of the readings just seemed useful in helping us to understand our students better.

If these topics are important to you as well, you might be interested in the short list below. Please know that I am not intending to favor or promote one resource over another. This is purely meant to be informational and, hopefully, helpful to #EmChat readers.

Here are some of the readings cited by the deans and counselors:

  • Professional consulting web sites, journals, or blogs such as The Lawlor Review or Noel-Levitz.
  • Newsletters, blogs, and issues on the NACAC web site.
  • New York Times: Demystifying College Admissions and Aid: thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com.
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain.
  • Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
  • A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink
  • Why Does College Cost So Much?, by Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman
  • An article published in September, 2011 in the New York Times Magazine called “What if the Secret to Success is Failure”?

I’d be interested to learn what some of you are reading professionally. Please share!

Happy Reading,

Karen Full

Jun 04 2012
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Admissions, Professional Development

Hey, I think I like college admissions work… now what?

Okay, so you’ve been working for your admissions office for a couple of years and you really enjoy it.  You are excited about helping students find their educational pathway, and perhaps you are interested in the theories and strategies evolving around enrollment management.  What to do next?  For new admissions officers who take a liking to the profession and wish to continue moving forward, here are a few simple things you should do to help you learn more and to assist you with moving up through the ranks:

  1. Become involved in admissions and enrollment organizations, and make a point of attending seminars, webinars, or conferences.  If your office has the funding, join your state affiliate of NACAC (National Association of College Admission Counseling) or AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers).  These organizations hold wonderful national and regional conferences at which you can learn about pertinent admissions issues, as well as get a chance to network with colleagues from other universities.  ACT, The College Board and many other higher education consulting organizations hold learning conferences as well.  As much as your supervisor and office budget will allow, take advantage of attending whatever you can.   Volunteer to serve on a committee.  You will gain some amazing insights and ideas to bring back to your office.
  2. Get a mentor.  This is a concept that is obvious and useful in so many professions, and one to which I should have paid more attention years ago.  It is so great to be connected with someone whom you can ask for advice, someone with whom you can exchange ideas, or who will help you to ask the right questions.  This person is maybe your boss or director, but perhaps it can be someone whom you’ve met through admissions travels or at a professional meeting.  SACAC (The Southern Association for College Admission Counseling) even offers a Mentorship Program which is, according to the SACAC web site, “designed to offer a lifeline for those who are in the first few years of college counseling or admission counseling.”
  3. Train yourself on concepts outside of your area of direct responsibility, and volunteer to help as often as possible in these areas.  Don’t be afraid to tackle topics about which you feel less comfortable, for example, working with transfer students, articulation agreements, or international students.  So often in my admissions office tenure I’ve heard people say something like: “I can’t speak to a prospective international student on the phone.  I would honestly have no idea how to answer his questions.”  Don’t let yourself fall into this trap.
  4. Find ways to enhance your education.  Thinking about another college degree?  There are many advanced degrees in higher education that are designed to teach future administrators of college campuses the skills needed for effective leadership.  If seeking another degree is not in the cards for you at this time, you can always take advantage of other types of learning opportunities.   AACRAO, for example, offers short-term online professional development courses.  Some organizations or institutions even offer a certificate in enrollment management.  Or, perhaps you can even try taking a class in public speaking to improve your presentation skills.

Let me close with this thought: take a risk!  No, I’m not talking about bungee jumping off of your student center.  I mean…  try to find an extra way to make a difference at your college or university.  Ask your supervisor for an additional project and bring back extraordinary results.

Apr 17 2012
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EM, Professional Development

So… you’ve always wanted to be an admissions officer?

Do you know anyone who, while growing up, claimed to have had a goal to work in enrollment management? Or anyone who wanted to become a college admissions counselor ever since she was in high school, or even younger? Quite honestly I’ve only ever met one such person. Years ago an employee of mine told me that he knew he wanted to work in college admissions when he was a senior in high school. The admissions representative at the college he ultimately chose to attend had inspired him, even before he decided to enroll at the college.

From my experience the scenario that I just described seems highly unusual. I would wager that most of us wandered into this profession after preparing for something else, or because we needed a respectable, professional position as a stepping-stone to the future. In college we majored in a field such as business, management, marketing, communication, psychology, English, the arts, or perhaps even teaching. I was a German language major and had taught high school for several years before getting a job at a German division of a freight shipping company. Even though I relished the opportunity to speak German to clients all day, the job itself was not rewarding. I finally took a week off and began to scan the classified advertisements in the local newspaper. (Remember the classified section? That was how we looked for jobs in those days.) One ad in particular caught my eye: “Admissions Representative for a local college. Recruit students from an assigned territory. Frequent travel required.” The salary was not much, but I had loved being a college student, and I loved to travel. I set out to land that job, and over 20 years later I am still glad that I did.

My name is Karen Full, and I am Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. I am thrilled to have become a participant on Emchat. I have worked in college admissions and enrollment in various capacities and on many college campuses, and I’ve recently been thinking about what has sustained me through this profession for so long. I have some reflections and ideas for training and mobility that I would like to share with other, perhaps newer, admissions staff as they learn to enjoy this profession, embrace it, and grow with it.

This is the introduction to my series on admissions training, staff development and networking. I look forward to sharing some of my ideas, successes, follies, and yes… laughs… it is definitely necessary to have a good laugh now and then in this line of work! I look forward to connecting with you on Twitter (@KarenAFull) and hearing your thoughts and ideas as well. Happy recruiting!

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