I work most with course desriptions so I can assist students with making decisions on class selection and so they can be better prepared in knowing what the course is about.
Three things I discuss on a daily basis are credit hours and transfers, courses/programs that my institution offers, and eligibility of the student for our school. Being an online school we have a wide range of students and they always keep me on my toes with interesting questions and I enjoy getting to answer them.
Three things we reference would be cost of the course/programs, credit hours and length of the classes, and accreditation. Being an online institution many students question the legitimacy of your program, and want reassurance from the advisors they talk to, to make sure that what is in the catalog is correct.
Guest students are non degree seeking students. They need to fulfill certain course requirements to earn a degree or get into a degree program. These students are earning 30 or less semester credits.
Brandi,
Hi, agreed that anytime you have a "bridge program" you MUST discuss transfer credits in detail.
Cindy Bryant
Bree,
Hi, welcome to the forum. You mention that you work with "guest students" and I am not familiar with this phrase. How are guest students different from enrolled students?
Cindy Bryant
When working with transfer students, I find transferability with their credits is the main or first topic brought up in conversation. Then the discussion tends to steer towards tuition rates and degree completion. Normally with a first-time student, the conversation falls with admission policies and procedures, helping the student to first complete the appropriate steps towards enrollment.
I work in a specific department that is able to provide guest students with general education requirements to help fulfill their needs for a specific program at another institution. The student type that i work closely with predominately uses the course descriptions on a day to day basis. I work for an institution that is 100% online so a lot of the other information is not used as much. Transfer information is also really important because of the partnerships that we have to ensure that the course(s) the student is taking will fulfill the needed requirement.
I would say the area that I reference the most is the possible area of studies for potential students to go into. I think it is important for students to not make rash decisions about their major; and see what possible career options they can have after attending school here. After looking into the different areas of studies they are able to weed out what it is they are not interested in; and ask me any questions that they may have about ones they are interested in.
With the current economic situation and with more savy consumers, I often reference tuition and course descriptions. Student are much more interested in knowing exactly what classes they will take. With working on a bridge program, I often refer students to our transfer policy.
Christina,
Hi, welcome to the forum. How does the accreditation factor into transfer of credits at your institution?
Cindy Bryant
Most of the time I answer questions about our transfer credit policy, program length, and cost of tuition. A large portion of our students are transfer students, so they want to know about being able to keep credits they have already earned. I think the area more student need to ask about is the particular schools accreditation. Not enough attention is being paid to that, and when the ask us about being able to transfer their credits in, a lot of the time we cannot because they attended a school that does not hold the appropriate accreditation.
In admissions, I frequently reference course information and transfer policies. I specifically discuss course descriptions and prerequisite courses and refer students to access the online catalog for specific, detailed information.
Policies, procedures and program descriptions. I think it's important to reference certain things because some things do change or get updated. And you also want to do so to stay compliant.
Eric,
Welcome to the forum. Do you find dealing with students that are 100% online to be more or less difficult and why?
Cindy Bryant
Adam,
Thank you for your quick response.
Cindy Bryant
Our institution is 100% online so I drive prospective students to the website as much as possible. The most common reasons are to review course catalogs and also to go over partnerships with other colleges and universities.
Many students come in with at least an idea of a program that they have interest in. When they do not meet admissions standards we explain to them where they are falling short and discuss other options for them.
Adam,
Hi! Do you find that many students come to your school with a program already in mind? If so what happens if they do not meet the admissions standards?
Cindy Bryant
I most commonly refer to program discriptions. Working in admissions, after students have decided on our school the next thing the comes to mind is the appropriate program for them.
