Traditionally, campus visits have played a critical role in helping students figure out which school is right for them. But with coronavirus restrictions keeping many campuses (and families!) on lockdown, how can students get a feel for what life—and learning—looks like at their targeted institutions? Experienced school counselors offer tips for determining the right “fit” from afar.
Edward Truong:
Hello, and welcome to the College Admissions Decoded podcast, an occasional series from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC. NACAC is an association of more than 15,000 professionals at high schools, colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations, as well as independent counselors, who support and advise students through the college admission process. I’m Edward Truong, Associate Director of Admission at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and I’m joined today by two longtime members of the association and experts in the field of college admission.
Carla Hampton, School Counselor at Montgomery High School in Skillman, New Jersey, and Bill Hancock, Senior Associate Dean of College Counseling at Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Carla Hampton:
Hello. Thank you so much for having me.
Bill Hancock: Hi, Edward. Thanks for having me. Nice to be here.
Truong: Thank you both for joining me today. Let’s get started. Life as we know it changed dramatically since last spring, but time keeps marching forward for students, and that’s especially true for high school juniors and seniors engaged in the college search process. Right now, juniors are crafting their college lists and deciding where they’d like to apply, and seniors will soon be weighing offers of admission and determining which college is right for them. Traditionally, campus visits have played a critical role in helping students and their families answer those questions, but with coronavirus restrictions keeping many campuses and families on lockdown, how can students get a feel for what life and learning looks like at their target institutions? Today’s discussion is all about determining fit from afar.
So, first, campus visits traditionally have been a pretty important part of the decision-making process for students and families. Carla, what’s taken place of those events amid the pandemic? What sort of offerings should students look for when they visit a college’s website?
Hampton: So, it’s been interesting to see how students and families are researching schools. Because they miss the true visit experience, they’re spending their time online doing searches. They’re spending time incorporating information from family members who have attended colleges. They’re spending time talking to alumni. They’re investing time in reading more about the schools so that they feel more knowledgeable. But I think they’re also spending time interacting more with counselors because they need the real person input and experience. It’s definitely something that I’m seeing that there’s more involvement in discussion and Q&A to gather information instead of just going on what they see.
Hancock: I think that colleges have been thoughtful in, or many of them have been thoughtful with regards to the kind of virtual content that they’ve made available to students and families through their websites, through podcasts, through YouTube channels and things of that nature. They’ve gotten a lot more creative. I think some of our professional colleagues on the college side have taken that step back and said to themselves, “Okay, we can’t do the visit. What is it about the visit that is important and how can we deliver that?”
And part of that is engagement. And so, what I’ve seen is an incredible effort. Lots of different ways it’s being done. But an incredible effort by our college colleagues to make counselors available through office hours, just drop-in office hours, or through sometimes they have open-ended Q&A sessions online. Sometimes they bring a student to those open mic sessions, if you will, and so there is an opportunity for a back and forth, and I think some of the tours that are being done now, they’ve used gimbals and just kind of walking them through a regular tour and having conversations with our families. It’s a little on the two-dimensional side, but they’re making an effort, and I think we have to remember that a lot of folks on the college side have lost what they consider their home field advantage when they get a family onto their campus to showcase. They lose that too, so they’re thinking very creatively on how to bring that to life as best they can to engage families.
Hampton: I just would like to add I was impressed when I also checked out some of the college visits and websites that were online how many deans and presidents took the time to talk to the parents and students about what they see for their campus even though the students and families aren’t there. They did a lot of reach out that you probably wouldn’t have had if you went to the actual campus. You don’t often get to see the dean or the president, but they took the time as well to personalize it and to share, “Well, this is where we envision ourselves, whether we’re in a pandemic and post-pandemic.” So, it gave a lot of hope, which I think people need, to say, “You know what? This is temporary and we’re going forward.”
And I thought it was a more personalized experience in that respect too for the parents. I was impressed.
Truong: Absolutely. So, one of the things that I found that I thought was really successful at our institution was the use of Instagram with students. They have what they call takeovers, where they will document kind of a day in their life through Instagram Stories, and just kind of tracking little moments like going to class, or getting lunch in the dining hall, so just those small, kind of true slice of life moments. We’ve seen a lot of positive response to that, so definitely thinking creatively about how we can replicate that feeling of what it’s like to be on campus through digital means has been a big focus.
So, my next question is for Bill. How can students make sure that they come away with the information they need while also communicating demonstrated interest to the college?
Hancock: I think there are a couple facets to that question that are really important. And the first one is how can the student and the family come away from these visits with what they need, what they want? And a lot of that is the preparation that they do before they go to the virtual visit or before they engage with a counselor in drop-in office hours. So, a little bit of work ahead of time really pays dividends because it allows you to recognize areas where you could make a follow-up question. And I have to say that that’s probably good practice, whether we’re in the virtual space or whether we’re doing actual in-person types of visits. Doing your homework in a sense before you go onto a college campus allows you to recognize opportunities for follow-up questions or questions that delve a little bit deeper into what it is that you need to know.
Doing some thinking ahead of time about what is it that you need to know or would like to know, that’s important. I think that a little bit of prep work is helpful. Understanding what it is that you are hoping to communicate in a sense, so when I’m working with my students, I’m talking about and working with them on how to communicate their strengths, what is it that you want the college to see in you, what is it that you want them to understand that’s important? So, having that crystallized in your head a little bit is important.
And then the demonstrated interest question. One of the things about the last year is a lot of deans have been on panels and doing broadcasts and there is a philosophy out there that it’s not just demonstrated interest, but it’s demonstrated engagement. And the subtle, nuanced difference is demonstrated interest feels more like I’m checking this box off, and I got the email, I opened the email. But did you respond to the email? And that’s the difference between demonstrated interest, checking the box, opening the email, and demonstrated engagement, reading the email and responding appropriately.
So, I think it’s important to have the mindset that if you’re interested in a college, you’re going to want to seek opportunities to engage with them. And I think our college colleagues have really been working hard to create opportunities for that. And if they haven’t, point of information for the college folks, you should. Because the opportunities are there and students are looking for them, so I’m hoping and I’m certain that a vast majority of our folks have figured that out by now, but opportunities are there. We need to look for them. That’s where Carla and I come in when it comes to families that perhaps are new to the process and it’s our opportunity to help them find these places where they can engage colleges.
Truong: Thank you. Before the pandemic, one advantage of the college visit was the opportunity to break away from scheduled events to chat with real students and get a feel for the surrounding community. Carla, what are some of the ways that students can try to replicate those experiences from home?
Hampton: So, I agree that social media is a great resource for students. It’s a great way for people to get that somewhat real feel and students need to get that sense of community by reaching out to other people. A lot of times it’s Instagram. It could be something like Reddit or blogs. It could be a resource such as Google. But the students do want to have community feel and fit because they need to understand what they want and what they need. So, quite often students, to get the more personal feel, will reach out to alumni. They want to get that student real-time experience and they also really get a positive feeling about the college by interacting with the college reps.
The college admissions reps have been going out of their way, really interacting with the students to help them feel comfortable, to make them feel like they’re connected, and because the students are spending time looking into the websites to understand what each campus is offering, the conversations are more meaningful and they’re more connected. They really want to know what it is that fits them and why it fits them.
Truong: And we’re coming to the end of our time here shortly, but I also want to make sure to give a shoutout to all the work Carla and Bill and the rest of our members do every day. Just so our student listeners know, you may attend a zillion online tours, you may follow every one of a college’s social media accounts, but at the end of the day, talking it out with a college counselor or college advisor is a really great way to put everything you’ve learned together and get insights from an expert. They are here to help.
So, Bill, can you talk a little bit about how counselors can help students get a feel for colleges on their list?
Hancock: I think one of the things that counselors are trained to do, and it’s important work that we do, is to listen. And very often by actively listening, by asking the right questions, those are things that help a student and a family really focus on some of the facets of the college process that are really important to them. As I’m talking with students that I’m working with, I’m trying to get them to focus on things that they feel are important, not that they’ve heard are important, so that it individualizes the process as much as possible. Now, I realize that’s not always possible for every student and for every counselor, but it is one of the things that we can help with. Sometimes I have colleagues that have created asynchronous classes that their students can access on their own time, and that helps them access tools and resources that are important. And I think that those are also key to having a successful process.
The other part of it that’s important is that many of us have been around for a while and we have visited these campuses. We have had conversations with our colleagues on the other side and we understand where to find information. So, if we don’t have all the answers right away, most of us are able to find through either our colleague networks, or through resources that we have access to, we can get those answers for students and families. It’s one of the great things about being a member of NACAC is that we have over 15,000 spots of resources that we can tap into, and we often do. So, that’s something that I want to remind students about and families about.
Be confident in asking questions and we will try to get those answers. It’s an important thing that families recognize that this is a two-way street. That it’s not just colleges and college admissions officers that have all the power in this dynamic. Students and families have a lot to think about and when they really have good questions and have really examined what it is that they need and want, they’re gonna be able to do a better job and focus on their process. That’s where we can come in as counselors, asking questions that get students to reflect on things that are going to be important, or helping them solidify some things for themselves that they really want to investigate, and then connecting them to resources.
Truong: Thanks for those words of wisdom, Bill, and thank you, Carla and Bill, for this great conversation, and thank you to our audience for joining us for this episode.
College Admissions Decoded is a podcast from NACAC, the National Association for College Admission Counseling. It is produced by Lantigua Williams & Co. Kojin Tashiro produced this episode. If you would like to learn more about NACAC’s guests, our organization, and the college admission process, visit our website at www.nacacnet.org. Please leave a review and rate us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
CITATION:
National Association for College Admission Counseling. “Episode Title.”
NACAC College Admissions Decoded,
National Association for College Admissions Counseling, May 4, 2021.