Get Your Students Hired
As the Academic Specialist at our school, I have a role in admissions. I help with enrollment testing and I work with the reps to help students with disabilities visit the school and decide to enroll.
As of right now, I believe our admissions team does a good job throughout the whole process. They could possibly improve by finding a way to identify earlier on whether or not a student really wants to come to school. In some (albeit rare) cases, students are "encouraged" to come to school by their parents, and often these student end up doing poorly then dropping out. I recognize that reps need to have so many enrollemnts for each period, but it's important that we get the right kind of student.
I think a survey or checklist really could help our admissions team.
So, it is wise to have this discussion as they enter school. Ask the question, "What are you going to do if something happens?" The idea is to reveal and create contingency plans.
Dr. B
yes it can be improved by seeing how well the person that is wanting to attend the school is willing to work. Not just at school work but in life too. Do they have the means to go on when or if times get hard or are they more likely to give up and go home. these soon to be students need to be aware of the pit falls that they may run into and are they willing to do what it may take to succed. Life is not always fair but then if you don't try you may never know how far you would have gotten.
Our admissions department definitely keeps their numbers up. I do feel the processes can be improved, however, by admissions giving the prospective students more accurate information not only about the programs we provide but also a more realistic view of what the average day-to-day of being a cook is like. I hear them telling prospects of unheard of salary expectations straight out of school and how "glamorous" it can be and I feel it makes them lose sight of why they want to be a chef in the first place. It's not done for the money, it's done for the love of the craft and although it may or may not KEEP the student in school I'm sure once they get out in the business and realize they were told wrong, they won't stay in the business for long and I think that makes our institution look worse than if we had poor retention.
We see this type of retention problem in criminal justice, too. This is why it is important to talk about the profession and types of jobs... early... not false promises of current jobs that students are getting.
Dr. B
I think this is right on the mark , At our school somtimes the students are from out of state and maybe get to visit the school once before they start , This shows up as retention problems that we see in that they don't fully understand what being an automotive technician is really about ,also they are not prepared in several ways to be on thier own for the first time . One example is what it takes financially ,they come to school with enough funds for the first month, then when they can't find a job suddenly thier world starts to close in . This is a huge impact on a students frame of mind while they are at school trying to learn . We tend to lose students after nine weeks because of this , I wish we could implement a proccess that would have the studnet settled into a self sustaining point before the strugles of school are added . We have a great employment dept. admissions dept. student services dept. we have a food bank , housing assistance , alot after they start I wonder if we could do somthing different before they start .
Yes, link instructors and career service personnel as early in the process as you can. Retention will improve, I promise.
Dr. B
Yes, all programs have room for improvement. Ours is doing a great job getting the students in school. It helps if the instructors are involved so the prospective student gets to here from the instructor about the school and classes, what they will need to succeed.
What about linking academics, too? This way you are saying the same things to prospective students.
Dr. B
they need to spend more time with each prospective student, not worry about hitting their quota for the month. By doing a detailed interview, they can truly decide whether or not the school would be a good fit for them.
Good point. Adjuncts really need to be included. The idea is to link for success.
Dr. B
Thanks for sharing an excellent and reflective response to the question. The key... through advising form a "relationship" so that students feel they can ask for help. Too many times we do the reports and collect the data. But people are poeple and they want to know you.
Dr. B
David, I feel like a mushroom at times as well, but have become involved more in the admission process through committees and getting to know some of the key players. I am adjunct so that is a little more of a challenge. I think that workshops might help where more of the process is explained, trends discussed, and changes that are on the horizon that might deal with projected student needs, the needs in the workforce and so forth.
The admissions process and those who do it are constantly being reviewed and tweaked. This comes from within as well as from without in the form of accreditation reviews. The school has increasingly made faculty more aware of those processes and their active role in retaining students once they are “in.” This includes weekly assessments of the students’ progress with letters out after assignments are due to those who are lagging. The requisite help is offered, of course. There is also a quarterly profile sent to instructors showing the percentage of students who left during/after that quarter in each of the instructor’s courses. Those student’s could have left for a litany of reasons, but the report offers comparative data with instructors teaching the same course so that there might be an exchange of lessons learned…..How can each of us better improve the retention of students?
Students are referred to a “Lab” in areas where they have trouble. This is usually in APA, using MS products and things of that nature. There is also help in our Library in a variety of areas that are intended to make students successful in their academics. I think the network of support does more to retain students after they are in than admissions; but the identification of students who have issues could be a little better and shared more with instructors. We are made aware of “special needs” students, but there are students of lesser need that I would like to be aware of. Much of that is volunteered by the student, but you can guess that most want to “blend” and will keep it to themselves before asking for help.
I like your idea of a clear picture. And, you deal with a number of issues that effect retention. Consider the impact of telling the whole "academic" story, too.
Dr. B
I think that it is most often possible to improve processes that we use to enroll students. I think that it is critical for students to get a clear picture of what they are embarking upon through through thrie degree and to have an effective workable plan in place to complete the program successfully, whether that means having backup childcare, a friend who could drive the student if their car breaks down, or even a day planner to schedule out study time. It is important for admissions to address this from the beginning so that if a student does run into trouble they do not panic and they can more on to plan B that was already determined.
Being an instructor I am not directly involved with the admissions process. I use the first day of class as an orientation to the course, explaining what’s required, how the grading works and the lab layout.
Yep, misrepresentation is a root cause for stuents leaving school in the first two terms. Do all that you can do to deliver what is being promised.
Dr. B
Yes, it is important for you to link to admissions. The message that you give to students needs to square with what is being said in enrollment. Good place to start is to listent to what prospective students are being told.
Dr. B