High School Counselors can provide insight into what high school students want when they are interacting with college admissions officers. The counselors acknowledged that students are fickle. So, how can colleges make an impact with potential students?
18-year-old students are anything but predictable. Many counselors discuss that the education business is about knowing the predictability of these teenagers. However, colleges can reach out to high school counselors or education counselors in order to find out what students want from their perspective colleges.
So, what is the best way to reach out to potential students? College Fairs? Presentations at each school? Tours?
One thing that students are over is the typical college tours. More and more students are coming back to school, after a tour, talking about their tour guide and their personality than the name of the school. They want their tour to be personalized to what they are looking for in a school and not just a general speech and walking tour of the campus.
Colleges are being judged, as a whole, by the tour experience. Gone are the days of the general spiel or tours that walk backwards to give an impression.
Even college fairs don’t have much value for either student or college/university. Counselors have said that they see better results in smaller meetings between college admission officers and students. These one-on-one meetings often look a bit like speed dating but are most beneficial to students.
College recruiters are frequently failing to meet the needs of potential applicants that visit their schools. Often visiting students are not only high school seniors but juniors and even sophomores that are all in a different stage of their college search. These are questions that could be asked through a high school counselor prior to the students visit.
College Admissions
This being said, college admissions should reach out to high school counselors in order to discuss the potential applicants and when they are planning to visit the campus in order to give them a more personalized tour, make sure they get answers to their questions and that they are given information to the questions that they may not even know to ask.
With the current competitive admissions, it is important that students know all their options and look at a variety of schools. The college search can be daunting and some students may not even consider out-of-state options if they don’t know what is available to them. This is where college admissions can also reach out to education counselors or even high school principals to provide informative packets.
Another great way to reach out and keep in touch with high school counselors is to gain access to an email list and send out general information to determine interest. A national survey by the leading higher-ed management firm shows over 70% of high school counselors prefer to receive college news by email.