Get Your Students Hired
I feel our admission process could benefit from the check list. Our team needs to be more "involved" with the student. Retention, as mentioned in the discussion, should begin at the start. For us, retention begins when the student is just ready to give up and leave.
Our Admissions Directors do a fantastic job with the interviewing process, although it has been a long journey to get to this place. They have used surveys of students over the course of several years to put together the presentations and processes they use today. However, we still struggle with learning disabilities and sometimes general trouble with reading, which usually means failure in an A & P class. Without an entrance exam or the person's willingness to reveal these difficulties, how best can you confront this during the admissions process?
Our admissions is similar except that not all prospects get to meet with the program director. We're a smaller school and logistically, it isn't possible but I think if we had the resources, it would add tremendously to the admissions process. It would give the prospect the chance to ask more detailed questions and also give the PD the opportunity to give the adm rep feedback on the prospect.
We have introduced within the past year a 'formal review' process which adds a step in the admissions process. After the prospect has enrolled with the admissions rep, they have a formal review meeting with the DOA. We have them twice a week so depending on the number of enrollments, they could be individual meetings or group. It gives the prospects a reminder of what it required for admission, what the expectations are while attending school, requires the them to come back to the campus for one more visit, and seems to really seal their commitment.
There is always room for improvement in every department. The admissions process can be more probing with the potential students.
We have our Admissions Team actively call each student prior to starting classes to make sure they had a successful experience enrolling in the college. Once the student has started school, our Admissions Team follows up with the student a month into the program to see how everything is going again. We find that the student feels connected to the Admissions Team until about the time they complete their first qtr, once the qtr is over our Academic Dept has the ball.
Admissions and Academic need to work together. A join venture is going to be very vital to the success of the school.
We have put together an admissions process which looks quite similar to what is discussed here. It's nice to see we are on the right track!
I think that every process can be improved upon. In the terms of our admissions I would think giving the students an understanding of some of the things to bring with them (work history, school history) in order to help the employment office build a good resume for them.
I feel the admissions department does a good job with interviewing students and taking students and families on tours of the school. I do believe that as with any process we can improve on the experience. I think that making some questionairs to have students fill out can help us get a better gage on the students who are entering and follow that to success.
Our admissions department does a fine job of
recruitment. But after two weeks, if the student does not contact them they have very little contact with the students. We will need to work together to keep them involved with the student as they continue with their education.
Steve--It is in your best interest and the student's best interest to be honest about the obstacles that might be in their way. Our goal in career colleges is to get students placed.
I currently work in a more conservative area and we do not allow students to show tattoos during their externship. A lot of what we do is helping the student get not only the knowledge, but also the behaviors that will help them succeed in the workplace. They, at least, need to know that they are hurting themselves.
Thanks, for your comments!
I believe our current admission process is well refined. However, I believe it could benefit from a regular review to benefit from the ever changing professional requirements and technical requirements of our trade. An example could be, a few years ago it was considered unprofessional to have tattoos that were visible in the workplace, customers could be lost from a perception of unprofessionalism. However we still allowed students in even though they may have not been hired upon graduation. Now it is less unacceptable, they have greater employment opportunities. Large ear plugs are now a regular occurrence and we need to decide if this is acceptable for a student even though they may not be hired even when graduating with high grades and attendance. By better educating these possible students about their opportunities we may turn some away, which is a loss of revenue; however we may increase the retention and job placement of the remaining.
Our current admission process is doing a gret job of getting in more students that we have seats available. Our current wait time for an available seat is approximately 10 months. Our admission team does follow up with all retention risks students, which are referred by student services. They have their checklists and all the necessary tools to try to pick the applicants that are most likely to succeed. What they do not have is crystal ball that will let them know of all the possible life events that can create challenges for our students once they are here. We must as a team try to recognize these students when they are still in the challenged stage before it gets to the life emergency that seems to force their hand. I will suggest to our admissions team to consider contacting the students every 9-12 weeks to search out how the student is doing in school, the community and with their peers.
Our admissions team dies a great job with giving the prospective student all the information they may need about the Career Services department as well as internship and job opportinities. Each prospect while getting a tour of the campus is brought into each of the Career Services department and introduced to the staff and is given information about the role they play during the student education. We in Career Services, asks questions about where they live, what their goals for the future are and where they see themselves after their completion. The admissions team also shows them our "Hired During Internship" board, which allows the prospect to see themselves as the intern in the future and hired during their own internship.
We feel that an intervention with students who maybe dealing with some challenges would be a great idea also. We feel getting more staff involved and showing the student we all care about them and want to be in the process of helping them overcome any obstacles would be beneficial and meaningful.
Our current admissions process is working very well for us. We have more enrollments this year than we had planned. Our Admission Department has been excellent in showcasing our new schedule for our current program. One challenge that may help in student retention would be that the admission representative would go over action plans for any challenges they may have in their peronal life during the program. If they already had back up plans incase one of these challenges were to come up, they would know how to deal with them instead of having to withdraw.
I have shared with our admissions staff the suggestions that were brought forth through this course. The checklists are a great idea and the faculty is excited in participating in the development that will suit our school. We have had two meetings with all of the departments in order that we can work together to have a plan for success from before admissions through graduation and beyond. It has been received well.
Our admissions staff includes briefings to prospective students throughout the country as one portion of the timeline for this extended process. I anticipate the concept of admissions staff qualification checklists and applicant self checks, described within the course, to be a valid ingredient in order to focus on prospects that are likely to succeed. The information gained from both of these lists could also be used in developing marketing materials that would excite successful students.
What a wonderful idea having those in the field bring to life the students' dreams. When you offer many different career pathways, I think that it would be great to offer that before enrolling and packaging a student. Many times we have students who pass the entrance exam, but doesn't understand what it takes in each career path to succeed. We sometimes transfer them to another path, but not until a failure has occurred. This suggestion might help alleviate delaying a person's success and possible drop from a program. I can't wait to suggest this to our admission department.