Improving your admissions processes...
Our admissions department currently operates very effectively. The prospect is interviewed, taken on a tour of the facility, introduced to all of the directors, meets with the program director over their program of choice, and tested. They recieve follow up calls from the admissions staff and are scheduled for orientation. We could possibly improve our admissions process by asking more probative questions to gather more specific information from the prospect regarding their expectations of the school, of college studies, of goals and values.
Ours works in a similar fashion. They bring prospective students in multiple times, take them on a tour, follow-up with calls, and have an Orientation before our quarte starts. If they do not come to Orientation, they are required to meet one on one with our Admissions Director before starting the quarter. I feel that where our Admissions Department could use some work is by gathering more infomration on the prospective students in order to 'weed' out students that are statistically not likely to be successful. One other thing that our Admissions group does that is great, is that they follow the student through their first quarter. If they are not attending, they are informed, and are more than happy to help get the student back in class.
Hi Jack
You are right that Admissions efforts are very important. It is crucial for the Admission Department to remain involved with the student. Admissions is usually the first contact students make with the school.
Everyone wants students to be successful. Perhaps if Admissions knew the profile of a successful student or could tell Education (although instructors can often tell immediately) which students might need more support it might improve retention.
I believe the admissions processes can benefit from augmentations. Typically, prospects are interviewed and toured. They are not usually introduced to program directors or instructors. They do not typically observe classes or be provided with traits of successful students.
I like the idea of developing a checklist of traits from successful students and graduates.
Hi Lucinda
Achieving a partnership with Admissions can be helpful. Retention improves when all departments work together to help students succeed. And, it starts with Admissions.
I imagine you do a drop analysis and/or have a drop report. This might be the first step in raising awareness of what doesn't work.
Thank you for your response.
Hi Jack
Do you have any suggestions for Lucinda as to what Admissions does best to aid in retaining students?
Hey Lucinda,
I know one thing that our admissions department does, is to stay in contact with our new students. Obviously they are in constant contact with the students through the enrollment process all the way through orientation and the first day of school. On top of that, our admissions team tracks each new student for the first two to three weeks of each quarter to ensure they are attending. If they do not, they are the first ones on the phone trying to find out where they are. After that time period, they also get updates from me. I continually track students that are out of school, and when I come across first quarter students that have been missing class, I refer those students to their respective admissions representative. We have found that first quarter students are much more likely to give a legitmate reason/concern for missing class to their rep, who they feel they know pretty well, as opposed to myself or somebody else in the Education Department that they may have only met on a tour of campus. Each school is different in size and format, so you may not be able to track individual attendance like our school is able to, but being able to use the reps as a retention tool after the quarter has started is a big help.
We are in the rebuilding stages of our admissions department, so this will be a great opportunities to put into practice these process and to measure the results they have on retention.
Hi Joshua
What do you think is the role for Admissions
to play in retention? How do you think this will
happen on your campus?
I have talked to our admissions department and have found out several techniques that they use to gain retention with new enrolled students. Our admissions program is broken down and run by four qualified employees. Each person has a job duty pretaining to the student cliental. We have one who works with High school juniors and seniors. This person has a diffent focus where he plans on having big enrollments in June and January depending on when a student graduates from high school. Another member takes on the single mother student population. This person spoke with me about working with student who are doing the same that she is. She graduated from a four year college and has the power, passion and motivation because she has walked in their footsteps. We have another member who works with older male population and gears these students to take on the technical and automotive trade. This member has had experiences as well. He spends time working with people in the community that have the same ideas he has. This member works with mostly non traditional older students. we have one other member who takes on working with female non traditional students and runs the operations of admissions department.
When I spoke to these members, they all have given me great advice on improvements. But they are also working building better and stronger relationships with students. I feel that communication is the key to success.
I do believe our admissions process can improve and I've implemented recently that our Admissions reps track attendance for a minimum of two weeks after a start to ensure their students are on track and don't quit. If a student is absent they are calling the student that day to identify any problems. Although the bonds between Admissions reps and their students usually continue after this time period, the primary responsibility for retention then falls on the Education department. Many times though it is a joint effort with education and admissions saving students and keeping them focused on the end goal, which is to graduate and establish a career.
Our admissions staff works as a team, actually we refer the admissions department as “Student Integrated Servicesâ€. When the prospect calls to request information about our programs, we make an appointment for an informative session. The informative session consists of a tour of the facility and a presentation of our innovative educative system and programs. The presentation consists of a PowerPoint, a video, and the staff answers the questions. They are scheduled to take the placement tests and submitting requested documents. Typically, they receive follow up calls from the admissions staff and are scheduled for orientation. They have the option to attend a group orientation before our term starts. If we make the group orientation mandatory then we could possibly improve our admissions process. The referral system for individual orientation should be improved in order to provide more specific information regarding the careers, the vocational interests, and goals. I feel that communication is the key to success; thus the more questions that can be answered and the more anxiety that can be reduced, the more opportunity to increase student retention.
Our Admissions Manager does an excellent job with our admissions process. Students entering our program go through similar processes, from touring the school, meeting with respective department heads and attending orientation. I believe adding the checklists for the admissions dept. to see if a prospective student is the right fit for the program and respectively a checklist for the student to see if they have what it takes to complete the program is an initiative we would like to add to our process.
Hi Fiona
Do you think Admissions will be receptive to possible restrictions to entering students?
Thanks for your response.
I believe admissions would be receptive to any and all initiatives that bring success to our students and school.
It is absolutely correct that retention starts in admissions. We've probably all heard the phrase that "the admissions department is not the whole school, the whole school is the admissions department." It is also true that the whole school is the retention department and early intervention is the key to maximizing our success!
Our admissions process is also quite comprehensive. Prospective students are interviewed by a program information specialist. During this interview, the specialist addresses potential roadblocks and the individual's plan for overcoming them through a standardized interview form. Prospects then view an extensive Powerpoint presentation which contains detailed information about the school and their program of interest. (The Powerpoint is customized for each program we offer). The prospect then fills out an application form which also addresses roadblocks and contains an essay section to answer this question: "Why do you want to pursue a career in the ___________ field and how do you think this will benefit you in the future." During the school tour, the prospect meets with the Director of Admissions and the School Director. If the representative or the prospect are uncertain about the appropriateness of the program for the particular applicant, a time is scheduled for the applicant to attend a hands-on class in that program area. Instructors participate in the admissions screening process by discussing the student's level of interest in the course material with the program information specialist. Upon starting classes, our Director of Admissions is responsible for monitoring new student attendance for the first two weeks of classes.
We have learned that even though students often have great plans for overcoming obstacles set out during the admissions process, they often abandon these plans when the real pressure of school begins to mount. Therefore, I am excited about identifying commonalities shared by successful students and using these traits to create prospect self-checks. This should be of great help in identifying students with potential persistence problems and setting up appropriate intervention with those individuals. We also are in the process of completely re-inventing our orientation program to include a detailed Powerpoint presentation about what to expect in college and how to be successful. While there is no "magic wand," I do believe these additional strategies can improve our admissions processes to increase student retention.
Hi Scott
You have made many efforts to help students succeed on your campus. I think other schools might benefit from the steps you have made as well as the recommendations in this topic.
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Providing our students with a real look at what happens when the doors open and it is time to find a job, about the bumps and hurdles that they will have to navigate could provide a necessary dose of reality for them, and help keep their nose to the grindstone.
It is my opinion that during the admissions process at our schools the prospective student is "told" what the program and outcomes are about. Instead of being told, I would rather have them be "asked," so that their concepts and conclusions can be taken into consideration and misconceptions put to rest.
I truly do think we can increase with retention in this process. Currently I think when we have someone who has knowledge in the field, we kind of brush over some key points in that field. We are skipping stips with those familiar with the field of study thinking they already know. We can take that time to reassure they know they are getting into a good field of student. Also, we are not inviting them to come in and see what is going on in class, seeing lab time, ect..
Kevin A
