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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 chance to modernize their materials and have started to hand out digital catalogs, either on CDs/DVDs or USB memory sticks. As part of a collection of materials, our field agents have liked the memory sticks as a backup for the information if they lost the information sheets they received. However, most of the evaluators reported that CDs and DVDs were essentially unusable to them – most laptops no longer have disc drives, so they’re little more than shiny donut-shaped coasters.

Recently, two evaluators reported that when they asked representatives about key topics, they were directed to the school catalog. They were discouraged when they found out that they couldn’t access the information that they needed, mirroring many students who may not have the resources they would need to be able to access digital files:

Brian told me that I would not have to worry about their accreditation status and that I could read all about it in the school catalog. He did not show me the catalog during his presentation, but he assured me that it was already packed in my materials folder. I also asked about tuition and he just smiled and pointed to the folder and stated, “It’s all in here.” When I opened the folder after the interview, I saw only one program course list and a CD that was labeled “Catalog” with a Sharpie. I tried to access the info, but I didn’t have a CD drive.

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Jim gave me a USB memory stick to take home with me. He said it would have the information I asked him for regarding jobs. However, I couldn’t access the information since I only have a tablet. I had to find a library that would let me use their computer and that allowed USB sticks to be used on their computers.

Our evaluators develop a keen eye for collateral, which includes how representatives use the materials to provide info, answer questions, and showcase the school. It also includes looking at the resources they send home with prospective students.

Using a presentation or website to present info is a fantastic idea, but if the student can’t find it on a website later or doesn’t have a handout, even the fondest of interview memories can only last so long.

Kelly navigated to a page title ‘Consumer Disclosures’ on the school website by clicking on various links. She did not explain how to navigate to this page. She pointed out the total tuition cost, the retention and job placement rate, and a link to BLS on the disclosures. However, she did not provide any printed information, nor did she write down the link to this page. I was unable to find this page on my own.

Certain sets of materials can be especially beneficial. Like receiving printed documents to look over later with family/friends as they consider school options, and digital resources to use/send as well. For example, on one of our recent visits we left with one set of documents that included printed tuition information and financial aid estimates, with a sheet outlining all of the other pertinent data. This sheet not only outlined current information, it also provided permanent links to the information on the school website, where we could seek out updated information about the program if we decided to enroll in a future term. The representative also emailed a PDF of the sheet.

David told me that the sheet contained all of the links that I would need to learn everything about the school. He said that my questions were excellent, and I would not need to worry about remembering any of the information he had given me, since I could access all of it online. He said that he would email me a copy, just in case it ended up getting lost in my car. I was able to access all of the information later by using the email that he sent.

Another set of materials with which our evaluators were impressed was a single program information sheet, a financial aid guide customized to the school, and a catalog. No digital materials were provided, but students reported that all of the summarized information about the school and program on the information sheet was enough to make an enrollment decision.

I was able to relax during my interview, since Toby had a program information sheet that he used to present all of the information about the program and school that I needed. I did not have to ask him any questions because he then used a catalog to show me more detailed information, including a tuition breakdown. When I met with Financial Aid, they provided an estimate sheet for me to take home that outlined what I would have to pay, assuming that I reported my information correctly to them. The materials were more than enough to make a decision about enrolling since any questions I had could be answered by using the catalog (or the various website links printed in it).

Although it may seem like progress to stop providing printed documents to potential students, many students who are attracted to career training schools may not have the resources required to access key information.

Based on our evaluators’ experiences, we have seen that digital resources tend to be a backup means of looking up information about the school, and many of the digital materials provided can be useless unless they have the right tools to open the files. Most students rely heavily on phones or tablets to do things. With this in mind, maybe it’s too early completely write off printed materials…or at least too early to offer zero printed takeaway information.

Are you hoping to transition to 100% digital for your Admissions team? Do you think printed materials are still worth their weight in…paper? Share your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page!

If you’d like to see what our incredible covert assessment evaluator team will learn at your school, Vince at Vince@nortonnorris.com is ready to put together a customized program!

The post April Tales from the Trail: Students Love Paper Materials – Even in the Digital Era appeared first on Norton Norris.

We love to see representatives talk through the enrollment process so it’s clear, but it’s sometimes presented as a long process requiring applications, approvals, reviews, verdicts, and recommendations… oh my! What is the intended value-building message here? The message received is that enrollment is limited; not everyone who wants to attend is accepted. “You need my approval if you want to get in.”

Roland told me that after he looked at my application, it would be submitted to his manager. He said that his manager would then send the application to an approval board, which would then send it to “the board” for a final verdict.

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Manny asked if I was ready to complete the enrollment application, and I told him I wasn’t ready. He questioned whether I was really serious about bettering my situation. He claimed that he needed me to complete the application so that he could take it to his director for approval. He also added that it would then take three to four hours to get back to me if I was approved.

We train our trail travelers on how to handle any kind of enrollment discussion, but pressure can still make for an unpleasant exchange. Being asked multiple times to enroll or move forward can get quite awkward and immediately dissolve any previously built rapport. Evaluators have reported feeling uncomfortable, frustrated, manipulated, and rushed after these kinds of conversations, both in person and on the phone.

Giles navigated to the enrollment page on the presentation. I told him I couldn’t complete the application at the moment. He said he wanted to get my information to his director. He said I would have an opportunity to meet with Financial Aid and if the numbers weren’t affordable, I would be able to cancel the application. He stayed on the line with me to get me through the first page because he wanted to make sure I found his name (to include on my application).

We’ve had representatives completely lose their cool when we decline offers to complete enrollment applications. These same representatives have tended to be less forthcoming with requested school/program information, instead focusing on moving the process along. When there is a free and open discussion of the school and its programs, students will take the next step when they feel ready and confident in their decision.

We wonder how often these tactics are successful and how many of those students feel satisfied with their choice after being hurried to make a decision…

Trevor gave me curt replies to my questions about tuition and financial aid. When I explained that I was not ready to enroll, he became slightly aggressive, stating that my position did not make sense. After I told him I needed to speak to my uncle about moving forward with the process, he said that I’d already told him my uncle supported my decision to go to school. He told me to have a wonderful day and hung up the phone without waiting for me to respond or offering a way to contact him.

Choosing a school is one of the most important decisions in a student’s life. As such, it seems pretty reasonable to allow them the time and space to consider the information and pick the school and program that’s right for them.  When students make careful and thoughtful choices, everyone wins! It can impact student and graduate performance data overall, and students are more likely to be engaged in the process of finding a job right out of school if they’re pursuing the path they chose on their own.

Imagine yourself sitting in a room with Sidney, your admissions advisor, with whom you’ve just spent 45 minutes to an hour, and have shared information about your situation and experiences. The interview is coming to a close, so the conversation turns to the application.

Sidney said if I didn’t apply the same day she probably wouldn’t see me again. She said that she never had a student who did not want to apply the same day come back at a later date and apply. She said she would pack up the information and send me home. Sidney told me to tell her one good reason that I couldn’t apply the same day. I told her I just didn’t feel comfortable applying. She told me if I did call her back that I would be the first student to return to enroll. She said she wouldn’t call me and that if I needed to apply, I would need to call her. She showed me to the front door.

Most adult students lead lives that are already full with work and familial responsibilities. We always encourage admissions representatives to help students overcome obstacles and brainstorm solutions. Unfortunately, we’ve run into some less than empathetic representatives recently:

I told Shawna that I needed to speak with my husband and employer about scheduling and she said, “No, this is about you, not them.” I then said, “I need them to support me or going back to school won’t be successful.” Her reply was, “I am here to support you. You don’t need them to support you.”

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Rick pressured me to enroll for the next six minutes despite my saying no and needing to discuss it with my husband. He told me I wouldn’t be going against my husband by completing the application because he needed to send it to his director for approval. Rick said he was busy and had a busy calendar. He felt I was a fit for the program and wanted to know how serious I was. He said the director may or may not approve me, so this was just the first step.

What’s the best way to disengage and potentially lose a prospective student? We’re not sure, but pushing them to do something when they’ve said NO is certainly one method. Intimidating or misleading students to encourage prompt enrollment before they’re ready helps no one. We here at Nn know that most representatives do their best to make sure students are comfortable before moving ahead in the process. If you’d like to know how your team talks to visitors about applying, give us a call or shoot us a message. We’d be happy to see you on the trail!

How do you encourage a visitor to apply or enroll? What tactics do you use to make the process exciting and easy for everyone involved? Do you know about our new Admission Training Program? Let us know on our Facebook!

The post August Tales from the Trail: We’re Not Ready to Enroll! appeared first on Norton Norris.

When an interested person calls, are representatives prioritizing them just as they would with a student at the campus? Prospective students who’ve taken the time to call in will form lasting impressions based on the conversations they have and treatment they receive. Unprofessional conduct can have an immediate negative impact that reflects poorly on the whole school. Is your ideal institute of higher learning also a place where yelling is considered an acceptable means of student communication?

While she was on the phone with me, a student showed up at her door. Rather than place me on hold, she started shouting to him and into the phone, “Jerry! Jerry! Wait right there!”

Not all interested prospective students are able to make the trip to a campus right away. Some may prefer not to visit until they know more. The same information should be given to students who call with questions as those who attend on-campus interviews. On that note, representatives should take all student communications seriously and never imply that the student is ‘not serious enough’ about school to come to the campus.

I told Fred that I wasn’t feeling well enough to come in but wanted to research schools in my spare time. He told me, “I don’t know if this school will be the right fit for you. If you can’t come in for an appointment, how do I know you will make time to come in for classes?” He then refused to answer my next two questions about the program and hung up on me.

Since many students don’t answer their phones, admissions representatives have started embracing texting their potential students. Since 58% of teens with smartphones rely mostly on texting to communicate, it seems like a good idea to have your admissions representatives reach out to these students via text. However, using emoji or emoticons can be tricky in business communication. Opinions may differ, but we can all agree that texts from an unknown number can be quite unexpected if the sender doesn’t identify themselves. Add emoticons or emoji to the mix and things can get really weird. Greetings that otherwise would be innocent can be interpreted as creepy at worst (and unprofessional at best) if a representative misses the mark.

After I completed my assessment, I went to the lobby and told the receptionist that I was ready to meet up with Ted again. After waiting 20 minutes, the receptionist told me that Ted had gone to lunch and offered me a meeting with him the next day. I said that was fine. When I got into my car, my phone vibrated. I got a text from Ted that said only, “What’s up, Sally ;).”

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 Ilana texted me to ask, “Did you show the info to your uncle? :)”

We always encourage representatives to provide their business cards with contact details. If there’s a question later, how would a prospective student reach you? That direct contact info is important. We’ve faced some awkward situations with representatives who perhaps ran out of business cards and took matters into their own hands, so to speak…

I did not receive a business card, but James added his number directly into my smartphone.

Have you sent a text or left a voicemail for a student that you regret? A funny text exchange you’d like to share? Let us know on our Facebook!

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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 conversation to another department for the answer isn’t bad, unless the introduction to the other department doesn’t happen. Who wants to hear about how fantastic and valuable a place is without also knowing how much it costs to be a part of it?

Creed told me that he would give me a tuition sheet since he was in Admissions and not Financial Aid. He then wrapped up the interview and handed me a folder. While walking out of the building, I opened the folder to look at the information, but there was nothing inside it.

Speaking of folders…some of the school materials we receive are underwhelming (at best) – a sticky note with tuition written on it, a sheet of paper with class times and start dates written in orange marker, or a copy of a copy of a printout from 2011. We also crack open stylish school folders only to find documents so poorly printed we get caught squinting to try to read the numbers. Prospective students are more than likely visiting other schools. Why not provide a nice shiny tuition sheet to stand out from the competition AND help them make an enrollment decision?

Getting an education can be an expensive endeavor! Representatives sometimes try to find clever ways to discuss program cost without causing sticker shock. We at Nn encourage a full review of tuition, fees, and what’s included in those amounts, followed by a solutions-oriented approach to helping the student look at their options for paying for college. Every effort should be made to make sure prospective students never leave a school feeling disheartened or thinking that they might not be able to afford an education.

Tossing out a number and hoping it doesn’t make them flee, shed tears, laugh, or lose consciousness is a less than ideal approach.

Michael said, “The cost of the program is $92,000. Please don’t pass out on me.”

Other representatives opt for more questionable responses to our tuition queries. Our heads spin when we read these! When representatives make inappropriate jokes, our evaluators tell us that it makes them wonder how seriously the school would take them as students – will real students be thinking the same thing?

Meredith looked me in the eyes for an uncomfortable few seconds, and then said, “Unless you have a sugar daddy, the $350 to $400 monthly payment is another expense you will have while you’re here.”

We always encourage representatives to connect with prospective students and build rapport! We’ve seen in previous Tales from the Trail that laid-back conduct can easily be misunderstood or cross the line, no matter how good the intentions were. Even the most relaxed students expect professional behavior and correct information when they visit an institute of higher learning. A simple question deserves a straightforward answer. Anything less than a complete review of the program cost can be perceived as convoluted, confusing, or potentially deceptive. Every program has a cost and every student will want to know. Be ready to answer that question with pride (and a nice tuition sheet, we hope)!

What’s the most interesting tuition conversation you’ve had or overheard? The worst tuition sheet you’ve ever seen? Tell us about it on our Facebook!

The post March Tales from the Trail: How much will this cost? appeared first on Norton Norris.

Why consider automation in the first place? In a recent report, researchers indicated that automation of processes helps managers identify key activities that can be improved and more efficiently executed by using technology (McKinsey, 2016). In doing this, employees can devote more time to activities that no robot or algorithm can replace, thus benefiting the organization’s bottom line. The good news: Automation in the workforce is not new.

Think about how the healthcare industry has utilized automation to provide virtual care. The American Telemedicine Association predicts that approximately 750,000 patients will access more than 1.25 million online consultations this year, which are just one aspect of the telehealth field (Olson, 2017). Automation in healthcare has become an extremely valuable tool with the potential to impact healthcare reform by improving the quality of the patient experience and outcomes, while saving money (Olson, 2017). Automation also allowed one healthcare system the ability to move from a provider-centric to a patient-centric approach. In 2015, as a direct result of round-the-clock virtual monitoring of intensive care units, Mercy Virtual Care reported that 1,000 more patients survived than expected, and ICU patients spent a total of 90,000 fewer days in the hospital. This translated to avoiding a $50 million cost and getting better outcomes for patients (Olson, 2017).

So, if automation can work in healthcare, what are the chances that it can be applied to higher education? Think about your current admissions process. What would it mean if you could automate key processes? It would mean that your prospective students would have easy access to important information anywhere, anytime; improved service prior to and during the admissions process; and the ability for key departments and individuals working with students to have simultaneous access to important information (Educause Quarterly, 2017). Additionally, an automated admissions process can also provide a compliant and consistent admissions approach so that every prospective student has the same experience.

MyGuidance Coach (MGC ) is one technology that is helping to revolutionize automated admissions. MGC is a pre-enrollment advising software offering prospective students the opportunity to set future goals and determine areas of their life that need to be managed to achieve those goals. In addition, MGC pushes customized information about your institution to the prospective student to assist in making an informed decision before reaching out to an admissions advisor or enrolling. The process culminates in the development of a Career Action Plan, which identifies specific milestones and steps to assist prospective students in achieving their goal. And this plan stays with the student throughout his or her journey at your institution and gets passed along to other critical team members (financial aid, faculty, career services, etc.) who will help them to work toward their goal. The best news: MGC is accessible from a smartphone, tablet, or personal computer, which means that as the student’s goals evolve over time, the plan can evolve with them.

Automation can provide a number of benefits for higher education and specifically, admissions professionals. It expands access to students and gives them the opportunity to experience the process in a way that is most comfortable for them. By offering this option, we are also improving service throughout the customer experience and providing touch points along the way. In addition, admissions professionals can focus their time and attention on building solid relationships with their students, and establishing trust in helping with the decision-making process. What’s important to remember with automation is that even as machines do take over some activities performed by humans in a given occupation, that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of jobs in that line of work. In many cases, occupations that have been partly automated continue to grow because overall demand for the remaining activities continues to grow (McKinsey, 2016).

Sources

Frazier, L. (2000). An admissions process transformed with technology. Educause Quarterly.

Chui, M., Manyika, J., and Miremadi, M. Where machines can replace humans and where they can’t (yet). McKinsey Quarterly, July 2016.

Asp Olson, S. Staying Well, Virtually. Delta Sky, January 2017.

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Think of the important contributions your local school counselors have made in your success as an admissions professional. Counselors spend a great deal of their time helping students develop and grow in three specific areas: academics, social/emotional growth and career development. Post-secondary planning is an important part of what school counselors do. However, a recent study found that they can devote only 30% of their time to college and career readiness due to so many other responsibilities. Exploration of key areas related to post-secondary options directly impacts the options students decide to pursue. This makes the relationship that college admissions counselors establish with their local school counselors critically important to ensuring students are able to perform once enrolled in your programs and institutions.

Many conversations related to the success of college admissions counselors today relate to how we can assist our prospective students in finding the right fit. And for many, the idea of “fit” can be difficult to quantify. What are the elements that a student must consider in order to determine the right “fit”? We can look to our school counselor partners for help in defining those areas. As ASCA’s Executive Director, Kwok-Sze Wong has pointed out that “school counselors actively engage in helping students examine their abilities, strengths, interests and talents.” In doing so, counselors are instrumental in laying the foundation for determining a student’s “fit” criteria. Through the partnerships we establish with school counselors, we have the opportunity to continue that initial exploration of “fit” criteria as it relates to prospective students, gaining a better understanding of alignment and likelihood for success in our program and beyond.

I wholeheartedly believe that helping students determine if your school, college, university or program is the right fit for them is one of the most important tasks that admissions professionals have when working with prospective students. Our school counselor partners help to establish a foundation of fit criteria early on, by exploring their students’ interests, skills and values associated with specific careers. College admissions professionals then have the opportunity to carry that discovery forward through the student’s journey in a given institution to help increase the likelihood of success at the college and beyond.

I personally would like to give a shout-out to the school counselors whom I have had the good fortune to work with throughout my career. While I have not been a student on your caseload, you have contributed to my development over the years and cultivated a deep passion for helping students. Thank you for your continued collaboration in helping students reach their truest potential and achieve the goals they have set while pushing toward even greater heights. For any of you who have had the privilege to work with amazing school counselors, don’t be shy this week (and beyond). Let them know how much you appreciate their time, passion, energy and efforts in positively impacting students’ lives. #NSCW17

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