Connie Esparza

There’s nothing easier for a college admissions representative than grabbing a USB memory stick, handing it to a prospective student, and sending them home with all of the information they could possibly need… But are students leaving with digital materials that they can’t even use? In our travels, we’ve been noticing that quite a few schools have jumped at the

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As we’ve watched the temperatures here in our beloved Chicago go from ridiculously frigid to reasonably frozen, we’ve seen plenty of representatives with demeanors just as chilly as our trademark wind! From snarky compliance answers to refusing to provide ANY information during phone interviews, we’ve seen a flurry of bad-mannered behavior. We totally get it here at Norton Norris –

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Did you know that compliance best practices drop by 35% during a solar eclipse based on our studies? Well, not really! But we sent out a staggering amount of exception reports this quarter, all of which just happened to align with the eclipse. From grumpy FA reps to overly aggressive admissions reps, everything was just a little bit crazier this

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We’ve noticed along the trail that a variety of tactics are used to encourage prospective students to enroll. We go into every interview expecting representatives to be focused on building relationships, answering questions, and highlighting the great things the school has to offer. Most of the time, that’s exactly what happens! We’ll have a great interview, full of valuable information

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Students that are part of the younger generation really like to use their smartphones – for everything besides phone calls! Since it can be difficult to reach students on the phone, admissions representatives should be working to engage in ways that are most comfortable for them. In our trail travels, we’ve come across more than a few instances of what

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The million (well, thousand) dollar question. The question almost every prospective student will ask when they visit your college…is your Admissions team prepared to answer it? Even at schools with access to professionally printed tuition sheets and expertly designed collateral to hand out, our covert evaluators continue to find representatives who have a hard time providing the information. Deferring the

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You may have already heard about the vastness of our travels by diligently following our curiously entertaining blog Tales from the Trail, but in case you haven’t yet discovered it, you might be unaware of our ongoing journeys from sea to shining sea.  You also may not know that we have quite a variety of evaluators in our stable of

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With enrollments declining and budgets shrinking it is understandable that nonessential expenses be trimmed, cut, or completely slashed. However, you must be careful when deciding what is “nonessential.” And Mystery Shopping definitely is not on that list. Join us for a review of some shopping wins that we have witnessed, and then continue on and explore a 7 steps checklist

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Every good in-person interview should include a tour of the campus. It’s an invaluable chance to more casually interact with the visitor and showcase the facilities and technology. Even in online/phone interviews, there’s an opportunity to introduce prospective students to the online classrooms, which is a great way to answer questions about the platform and ease potential concerns about the

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This summer is off to a hot start…almost as hot as the topic of institutional accreditation! It’s important for representatives to understand and accurately represent the school’s accreditation, including the full name of the accreditor and what exactly being accredited means. From our trail stops, we’ve learned that prospective students are all too often given partial or inaccurate info.  

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