Category Archives: Admissions

Jun 17 2013
2 Comments
Admissions, Affirmative Action, Community

Virtual Viewing Party: Admissions On Trial

AdmissionDocTITLESo, about that summer schedule. We have bigger things on our plate.

As you all know, the Supreme Court is set to rule on Fisher v. Texas before the end of June. As enrollment management pros, it would make sense that we (you) have a vested interest in the outcome, as should all of America.

I’m sure you saw Jennielle’s tweets the other night regarding a documentary that was recently released,  Admissions on Trial: Seven Decades of Race and Higher Education, and we’d really love to incorporate this into an overarching discussion on affirmative action and the court’s ruling.

SO – here’s what we have planned:

  • THIS Thursday (6/20) we’ll be having a virtual viewing party of the documentary. It seems like it was made for #EMchat because it’s just under an hour.
  • Thanks to PBS-KLRU in Austin, we’ve been set up with an OVEE account to view the documentary, with chat included – Click here!
  • Feel free to use #EMchat and #AdmissionsTrial as well on Twitter. I’ll be tweeting takeaways/facts throughout the documentary on Twitter AND participating in the OVEE.
  • We’d also love for you all to submit questions to us this week regarding the documentary and overall case that we can present to the documentary’s writer, director, producer, Lynn Boswell. We’ll pull these together for a Q & A blog post.
  • Our 6/27 chat will be replaced with a Reactions Chat centered around the decision. We’ll likely take some of the questions received throughout the week and rework them into a chat format.

We’re really excited about this and we’re pumped to be working with Lynn to make this a reality. Click on the Evite below to join the viewing party. We won’t have any questions scheduled, but I’m sure there will be plenty of thoughts!

We’d love to know who’s coming, so please RSVP!

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
May 28 2013
Leave a comment
Admissions, EM, Recruitment, Uncategorized

The Power of Student Employment – Recruitment and Beyond

During my time as an undergrad, I had the amazing opportunity to be a Student Ambassador for my institution.  At first, I served as a volunteer giving the campus tour (no longer a volunteer position, but a paid opportunity).   I moved into a telecounseling position, and from there it exploded into an outstanding professional development and general growing up opportunity.

While maintaining the core objectives of learning about the institution, giving campus tours from anyone to classrooms of 6th graders through graduate students, and working the open house/special events, I worked in our daytime operations.  Our day time operations ran the office.  There was a student manager, someone answering the phone to schedule visits, someone (Me) to answer the general university email account, someone to float and assist, and two people to welcome and manage our front desk.  There were three shifts approximately each day, all coordinated by a student.  If our supervisors wanted to go to a conference and present on our program, and they did, they literally could point out that they were there and our office is still running.

While many people have concerns over the legitimacy of student work and whether the responsibility is appropriate for a student to do, I have to respond with, “Let them do it.”  Now, with that means training and supervision, but outside all the logistics and politics, you are creating something much bigger.

You are creating the opportunity for that student to grow.

My final position in that office, on top of the tours, the answering of emails, and working special events, was “Professional Development Coordinator.”   A rather fancy title that I imagine a lot of us would like to have now as full-time professionals.  My responsibility, develop training sessions that helped build on the core responsibilities we learned from our retreats throughout the semester.  These trainings would be on effective communication, creating healthy work relationships, and all the other topics our supervisors wanted to talk about, but didn’t have the time to talk about it.  It was my opportunity to professionally grow in terms of developing trainings, presenting, communicating with others, and researching topics.

I wouldn’t be where I am without these opportunities.  As some of us continue to fight the battle with budget cuts, and even those that aren’t, there is lot to be said and a lot of power that can come from student employment.

Want to know more about my experience, connect with me on Twitter @JoshKohnert.

Tagged , , , ,
Apr 30 2013
Leave a comment
Admissions, Data, financial aid, Recruitment

Independent Research: FAFSA & Free Lunch

I know that there are only a few people in our chat from Maryland, but I’m hoping this post will inspire anyone with interest in this data (which should be all of you!) to follow suit and create your own state reports.

For the last few months, I have compiled data (largely sourced from NCES and the FAFSA project website) on the state of Maryland. I initially wanted to compare per capita and household income to FAFSA completion rates. While we all know there is a disparity in completion rates between socioeconomic blocs, I’ve never come across a study that lists [public] high school by high FAFSAschool for an entire state. Like most states, Maryland is incredibly diverse when considering the socioeconomic spectrum. As a state that borders our nation’s capital with a highly-educated workforce, we have some of the wealthiest counties in the US. We also have some of the poorest. Continuing, these counties are oftentimes broken up into wealthy districts and zip codes. In short, it was nearly impossible to predict the per capita and household incomes for a specific school–students who have parents that make $250k+ could be sitting next to a student with both parents unemployed. In the end, I resorted to using free and reduced lunch data to compare to FAFSA completion rates.

What I found only confirmed what we all know. But, the information is now usable. Admissions counselors can now see what schools may need additional information or assistance when it comes to the financial aid process. High school administrators can see where their school ranks when compared to others in their district and across the state. Superintendents can target specific schools that may need additional programming and information sessions encouraging families to fill out the FAFSA. Organizations that focus on promoting college access can reach out to struggling schools. I believe this is only the beginning, but I believe it is a strong step in the right direction, focused on fostering collaboration between all sectors of education.

Please check out the data and let me know your feedback. I’m going to continue refining it (especially when the June 2013 data is released), and hope to create a report that I will be able to present to my state BOE. The most telling sheet is the fourth–just check out how the red (less than 50% completion) begins to change to white as you scroll down.

I’ve uploaded the doc to Google Drive

As a disclaimer, this research is far from perfect. The free and reduced lunch data was a percentage of the school; I applied it to the number of seniors, using the assumption that the students were equally distributed among all grade levels. Some of the NCES data did not match up with the FAFSA data; i.e., there were 2 seniors but 40 FAFSA completions. Schools sometimes overestimate their completions and things can be misreported to NCES. For a list of assumptions of the FAFSA Project, see here. Thus, ignore the obvious outliers of 400%, 1200%–it would be phenomenal if true, but it’s not. There are other assumptions I have taken in this study and I’d be happy to discuss them with you via email. Feel free to contact me: alex@emchat.net

Enjoy!

-Alex

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Apr 16 2013
3 Comments
Admissions, EM, Job Search, Professional Development, Recruitment

What Motivates You?

A few months ago we announced that we’d like to start a “What motivates You?” series. We started off the next week with an awesome post from Ashley Scott and then we kind of fizzled off. I had intended on writing the second post and, well, here I am…a few months late!

I can tell you the moment I knew I wanted to work in enrollment management; although, at the time I only knew it as admissions. I toured Salisbury University on June 23, 2004. Yes, I know the date. I don’t know my tour guide’s name, but I know she had blonde hair and I quoted her introduction in my graduation commencement speech…”If I’m about to trip over something or fall while walking backwards, please let me know.” It became my tagline to make people laugh (so cliché), but also become a metaphor for my life. I wasn’t always sure where I was going and knew I would need help along the way.

I joined the admissions team during my sophomore year as a host. Elizabeth Coccia (CONNECT IF YOU HAVEN’T @ecoccia33) didn’t interview me, but she was the person who introduced me to the world of enrollment management. She provided the foundation for me to build my passion for helping other students find their right fit. She let me emcee during admitted student day, brought me along on counselor luncheons, and showed me what real passion for your job is about. She’s still doing it today, and I am so thankful that she somehow found #EMchat and realized that her wannabe protégé was one of the people behind it. I’m one of those people because of her.

I never took a position in admissions when I had the opportunity.  At the time in my life, it wasn’t right. I look back on that decision frequently. I’m happy to say that I don’t regret it. To be honest, if I had taken that job, I’m not sure that we would have #EMchat – although Jennielle and Jillian would probably still have rocked something out sans Alex.

I needed to keep abreast of trends and changes in the industry because I want to be an enrollment management consultant—my initial interest in the community was selfish, I’m comfortable with saying that now. But now…now I’m motivated each day by the conversations that take place in this community. I’m blown away. I’ve been fairly inactive the last few weeks because of work demands, but I follow the feed on a daily basis and am amazed at the dialogue that’s taking place. I’m in awe of the relationships that have been formed and those that form each day.

So, what motivates me? It’s changed over the years. We all have our true starting point (thanks, Elizabeth!), but we need motivation that takes us through each day and year. Thank you all for motivating me each and every day.

What motivates you? Let us know if you’d love to post on this topic!

Cheers.
Alex

Tagged , , , ,
Mar 04 2013
Leave a comment
Admissions, Data

College Abacus & College Cost Transparency

Familiar with College Abacus? You are? We’re not surprised. Maybe you read about them on CNN, TechCrunch, or perused College Abacus LogoAbigail Seldin’s thoughts about the college scorecard on Inside Higher Ed.   Maybe you’ve seen a tweet or two discussing college cost transparency and the awesomeness [our words, not theirs] that their tool brings to the higher education space.

And…if you somehow haven’t heard –

Seldin headshot 2013We’re lucky enough to have Abigail Seldin jumping in as our #EMchat guest for the evening. Abigail is the CEO and Co-Founder of College Abacus, a recent winner of the Gates Foundation’s College Knowledge Challenge. A Rhodes Scholar, she is an ABD DPhil in social anthropology at the University of Oxford.

College cost transparency is perhaps the hottest topic in higher education, specifically enrollment management, right now. With the release of the college scorecard, it’s seems to be all that most people are talking about. In fact, if you missed it, we had a great chat on the actual scorecard just a few weeks ago. We’ll be talking about College Abacus itself and how it’s prepped [our belief!] to transform the world of higher education across the socioeconomic spectrum.

Join us this Thursday at 9pm ET to talk with Abigail — bring your questions, bring your comments, and as always, bring a beer.

See you Thursday–Cheers!

Tagged , , , , , ,
Feb 26 2013
Leave a comment
Admissions, Campus Visits, EM, Recruitment

The Diminishing Value of Deposits

Adam Castro (@AdamCastroEdu)

Adam Castro (@AdamCastroEdu)

Well, deposit season is upon us once again. Stage Manager, cue the collective groan. Colleges all over the country are projecting Fall 2013 enrollment based on one, three, even five years of deposit data hoping to see a pre-May 1 uptick that will ultimately result in a strong new student cohort. Give that a second read and tap into your inner Agent Scully: Question everything.

We have accepted the fact that students apply to more schools than ever before, right? In that same vein, we can no longer ignore that the once infinite power of the deposit has been watered down. Some schools have raised, even doubled, the cost of their deposits in recent years with varying results. The bottom line is, the ability to deposit and/or deposit at several institutions, is variable depending on the student population you serve. There is one enrollment factor that is consistent, however: time.

The new deposit is one of an expressed level of commitment through a student’s time. What could be a better indicator of interest than a millennial spending meaningful hours preparing for the start of their college career at a particular institution? To that end, I would argue the following actions are better indicators of student interest than a monetary gesture:

Attending two or more yield-based recruitment events

If a student attends say an Accepted Student Preview Day and a Scholarship Reception, they are highly interested. Get a third visit and you better be helping that student move-in in September. A prepared student may attend 10 Open House events, but they will only attend a yield event for schools they are strongly considering. One, maybe two, schools get multiple yield-based visits.

Taking a placement test

How awful. Imagine giving up your Saturday to sit in a lab for two hours and take a test that has no bearing on your acceptance, but could seal your academic fate as a freshman? I would pay you $150 right now to never have to experience such a thing. Online tests are just as bad. There, I beat you to it.

Registering for classes

Large schools that register their freshmen online en masse, skip the next couple of sentences. Small, niche schools, allow me to holler at you for a second. There is no better indicator for enrollment than registering for classes, right? Well, don’t stop them. Allowing them to register, deposit be damned, opens up a myriad of yield-based, counseling opportunities. You will have every opportunity to find out if they are committed to enrolling at You U. My institution serves a high financial need student body (about 50% of the incoming class has an EFC of $0 – $3,000) and we are often able to present students with a financial aid award that has a $0 out-of-pocket expense after federal, state, and institutional grants, and federal student loans. Does it make sense to ask them to pay out-of-pocket to confirm their intent to enroll? I say no.

The payoff here is in assessment. Broadening the deposit conversation can help you identify problems within your yield strategy. Are your events not up to par? Does your placement test format, or how results are presented, scare the bejesus out of students? Does your initial advising session hook ‘em or push them away?

Deposit to enrolled yield is so 1990’s. Get a handle on your engaged to enrolled yield and it will serve you well in the turbulent years to come.

Tagged , , ,
Feb 18 2013
2 Comments
Admissions

College Admissions: Why I Love My Job

Ashley Scott (@ashleygscott)

Ashley Scott (@ashleygscott)

With every undergraduate admissions essay I read I am reassured education is the field for me. Instead of deterring or annoying me, the most overwhelming student essays compel me to work harder for solutions to their problems. It’s easy to downplay the impact a child’s home environment can have on their in-class and standardized test performance. Coming into this profession I believed that those who worked hard and focused would come out on top and that they deserved an offer of admission whenever they chose to apply. I thought that if determined enough, each student could exceed our expectations. Although those statements never really sat well with me I relaxed thinking yeah, they’ll be fine.

However as I read college admission essays summarizing accounts of rape, abuse, neglect, homelessness and low self-esteem I feel determined to serve as one of the champions these students need to succeed. I don’t believe we are put on this earth to survive all by ourselves. So every chance I get I jump at the opportunity to serve as the advocate they require to advance. Nothing will change for them unless passionate and determined people create space then offer support, resources, and opportunities to progress.

I work hard to make young dreams become reality and I’m proud to be associated with all who contribute to that cause as well. Parents, family, friends, teachers, school administrators, and supportive community members – be encouraged. Our hard work pays off. I’m thankful that it does; it is for this reason alone that I love my job.

Tagged , , , ,
Feb 12 2013
Leave a comment
Admissions, Community, Community Project, First-Generation

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

Jan 30 2013
1 Comment
Admissions, EM

I’m Not an Engineer

I read this article this morning from Inside Higher Ed on my metro in. It led me to this article and a bunch of others related to the value of a liberal arts education. For the past few years we’ve been hearing about the value of higher education in general as tuition prices have soared over the past decade.

We all know that high school graduates make more than those who don’t graduate (typically), and those who graduate college (typically) make more than those who don’t go. Continuing, those who go on for master’s or professional degrees (typically) make more than those stopping at four years. We know that recent engineering grads make more than history majors—just look at those STEM jobs! And, as EM’ers, we (hypothetical “we” since I don’t actually work as an EM’er) know this and use these stats to draw in prospective students, build up our programs, and truly show the value of a degree.

I’m not an engineer. I can’t build things or do much with math beyond basic calculus. I hate trigonometry. I can’t build a computer or code. My wife is a NICU respiratory therapist at Hopkins and when I listen to her talk about setting up ewritingquipment, a particular problem a baby is having, or a technique she has to use to intubate a premature baby, I’m fascinated, but have no idea what she’s talking about. I’m a smart guy, but I can’t even pretend to have a clue.

While I have an MBA, my undergraduate degree is in English. Writing and rhetoric, that’s what my diploma says. I’m an analyst for the Senate and I write plans. I [occasionally] blog and shape words into meaning. I am an English major. You can’t place a value on my degree because to me—to me it’s priceless. My liberal arts degree prepared me to communicate, to connect, and to create.

The point of this post is simple. We’re all different. We think differently, we learn differently, we communicate differently, and we have different interests, desires, and passions. We can’t all aim to have a career in a STEM field (but trust me, I certainly understand the importance of these jobs) because we’re not all quantitative cut outs. I grasp the need to push students into these fields completely and I admire those schools that do. But, for politicians—or anyone—to suggest that funding should be cut for liberal arts programs based on job placement is a slap in the face to those students who don’t fit this created mold.

There’s nothing like having a math teacher teach history, a chemist lead a discussion on gender studies, a programmer teach grammatical structure, or a surgeon discuss the philosophy of religion—although that last one might be a fairly interesting discussion. The purpose of the liberal arts is to round us out as individuals, to provide us with knowledge in a number of fields. The purpose of having a plethora of degrees and majors is to round us out as a society, to provide us with individuals with knowledge in a number of fields.

Diversity is a good thing.

How do you sell the value of a liberal arts degree on your campus?

Tagged , , , ,
Jan 03 2013
Leave a comment
Admissions, EM, Job Search, Professional Development, Tweet of the Night

#EMchat 55: Emerging Admissions Pros – #TOTN goes to @jotamjota

Our first #EMchat of 2013 was about how emerging admissions professionals get their start, gain experience and advance in the field.  It was a great start to 2013 and it was so great to see so many new faces join in on the discussion.

Tweet of the Night

Our Tweet of the Night goes to Jay Jacobs (@jotamjota) for his simple and straight to the point tweet about working in the EM field:

————————————-

Honorable Mentions

Great tweet by one of our newbies, Kristina Aceto (@KristinaBryantU), telling us what the most rewarding part of her job is:

————————————-

We got a ton of great tweets in response to our question: What keeps you up at night?

Here’s one from Melanie Gottlieb (@melgott):

————————————-

Another great tweet from Adam Castro (@AdamCastroEDU) about how to stay motivated:

————————————–

And, we can’t forget this mind boggling tweet from Tim Dunning (@timdunning) who works with College App via Hobsons:

Thanks to everyone for joining us tonight and we hope you’ll be back next week for: Data Series I.

← Older posts
%d bloggers like this: