The secret to a successful Admissions Rep
What are the main tips towards becoming a successful Admission Rep? What does it take to get to the top?
I agree that to be a successful admissions rep you need to have good listening skills and really care about what your prospective student is trying to accomplish.
I am new to admissions, but so far I'm finding that being empathetic is very important. Many of our prospective students have shared personal stories with me of extreme hardship, and I try to be genuinely concerned with their situation. I think people can tell the difference between when someone really cares and when they're just pretending.
After working in the college admissions world for nearly 10 years, I would say first and foremost is you must have the right attitude. Being positive and focused on truly helping the students you work with will always get you to the top quicker than any other technique because your students can tell when you want to help and are doing the best for them. This builds trust.
Secondly, as others have mentioned, listening is key. You will never know what your student needs or how to help them if you don't listen to them.
The last tip I have takes time and experience to build. You really have to understand when your students just need a cheerleader and when they need someone to be real with them and make them face their fears of failure. Getting to a comfort level where you hold your students accountable for their success and don't let them make excuses without trying take time but in the end when they are walking across the stage at graduatation and they come to you and say "Thank you, I almost gave up before I started and you helped me to get past my fears and now I'm graduating" It will be worth any nervousness you have about having those tough conversations.
I am new the career college field, and have only had a year of previous work as a College Advisor, where I encouraged students to pursue any sort of higher education. While I technically, work for Admissions, I am actually a readmission coordinator who works with students who have previously dropped out and want to reenroll. I work with a lot of check chasers, as well as students who have been dropped due to missing too many class periods, or drug/alcohol violations. Most of my students are very hard to get a hold of, and I am primarily tied to phone/email/mail contact since my students have returned home. Any suggestions on how to work with these students, and encourage them to finish thier degrees? I firmly believe in getting students to finish thier degrees, but I am struggling with how to motivate them.
I think this is a great point that can too easily be forgotten. We can't just have one way of doing things. We have to cater to our individual prospective students and find a way to build a strong foundation for their relationship with our school. Choosing to go to school and better your future is a huge decision and a huge responsibility.... congratulate them! Be upfront and honest about everything and really take the time to get to them personally and figure out why they are here. Just showing a presentation and walking them through statistics is all fine and dandy... they get some great information. But showing them how this can change their lives, how this could work for them, helping them build an image of themselves a year from now after graduation... that's creating a memory. And I think that image is far more effective than any page of numbers.
One tip for becoming a successful admissions rep is to know your programs competitive advantages. The more you know about your school and programs that are offered the more "selling" points you can use during your interviews. Effective communication and really listening to what the students have to say is vital to an Admissions Reps success.
Everything that has been said is true, but you also have to be very thorough when speaking with the student over the phone. You have to be aware of check chasers. These are the people who have no intentions on ever actually being students. They are chasing thier FA checks and but will never start a class. When I first speak with them before setting up an interview, I really probe them to make sure they are serious about being a student. If they start sking about "Pell Grants" or school "School codes" because they have already filled out their FAFSA, most likely they are check chasers. The other big clue is if they have been enroled to 3 or more schools in a short period of time. Once you weed the check chasers out, its all about what the previous answers satted and the job is fun after that.
Question what are the main tips towards becoming a successful Admission Rep? What does it take to get to the top?
Successful admissions reps have to be proactive listeners, maintain short memories, and last but not least be able to adapt to different personalities. We have to be proactive to identify areas of motivation. We have to have short memories and continue to consult to allow each student to understand we share the same dream. We have to adapt our pitches and probing questions based on personality traits so that we are addressing them in the manner they feel comfortable.
Admissions come with many challenges however there has to be a real desire to see the campus vision and the role you play.
Commitment is the key to being on the top tier.
First and foremost, i think one of the main reasons why a person is a successful admissions represenative is because it the level of listening, you have to become a effective listener in order for you to understand what your student needs are. Also, your students must be able to trust you, its not all about what you know but its about do you care. I think the admissions role is the most exciting just do to the fact we are usually the first point of contact and the face of the university, and always remember to never let your students make excuses always be there support but there must be some hard love sometimes.
Secondly, what i think it takes to get to the top is a positive attitude towards you students as well as your peers, understanding not every student is the same but also understanding not all of your peers you can work with the same. And what i was always taught from sports be the hardest working person you know day in and day out.
