I was told I would become an astronaut !
I was told I would become an astronaut and that by the time I finished these courses I would have built my own personal spacecraft that I could keep! This is a statement similar to what I have heard from some students. The subject matter has been changed to protect the innocent. When you hear something like this though, you have to wonder, did somebody really tell them something like this or did they concoct a perception in their own mind of where this training would take them? I know that admissions reps are charged with the responsibility of recruiting a certain number of students and that they are typically going to paint the most attractive picture they can, but how do I know if a student is exaggerating or if a rep really did cross the line? In most cases, my feeling is that it is most likely a little of both. What I have seen though is that all it takes is for one student to make a statement like that, aloud in class, and there is a visible negative impact on many of the other students. If the student really was told he would become an astronaut, it is difficult to convince him that greasing the axles on the shuttle transport vehicle is an acceptable substitute. I sometimes use an analogy something like this: Attending the finest music school in the world can not guarantee that you will be a rock star, but it certainly won't hamper your efforts to get there. In addition to that, there are quite a few "astronauts" who graduated from this school.
Having the facts is fundamental to problem solving.
We deal with each one on a case by case basis. I had a situation recently and I sat down with the instructor and our education director to review it and then with the student. The situation was resolved. The campus director here believes in making sure we have all the facts correct before moving forward and I agree completely withhim.
Certainly the ideal situation is to determine where the misunderstanding began and then deal with it. Is there a mechanism in place at your school to do this? If an instructor encounters a misunderstanding, can he/she do to get things clarified?
I believe students at times wil say anything to divert the issue at hand. I do believe we need to sit down with each student to clarify where the error might be and deal with it accordingly.The school I work for constantly has each department working to solve any problem that may occur this has been very helpful and keeps all parties on the same page. We also make sure new reps have the product knowledge to conduct interviews on ther own before they do so.
That's the theory, Theresa. How close is your school to performing according to this model? For those not there yet, what would you recommend as a solid first step?
In my career in admissions, I have often listened to students that feel they were mislead or misinformed on the reality of their program outcomes. While it is true that a few admissions representives in this industry will tell a prospect whatever they want to hear, the majority were never intentionally deceived. Regardless of whether deception occured or not, it is the responsibility of admissions to assist in correcting the issue with the student the moment it occurs. Believing one can become an astronaut can be due to a vaiety of factors, some preventable and some not preventable.
For instance, the admissions representative may paint the picture of one rare success story to show the prospect the potential of completing a program. While the rep did not intend the prospect to hear 'you can become an astronaut', indeed the prospect perceived the rep told him or her that is what the program can accomplish. Often these types of miscommunications can be avoided. First, in a proprietary school system often we hire reps and provide little or no training prior to getting them on the phone and meeting with prospects. A rep needs to be trainied to communicate a message properly to a prospect. This involves the whole school, from faculty to career services assisting the new rep by providing accurate and realistic product knowledge. When a rep has the proper training prior to beginning the sales process, he or she will have the tools to accurately communicate career outcomes, both immediately upon graduation and long term. The entire school needs to give the students an accurate, detailed path to achieve a long lasting career in the program selected. We can tell a student they can become an astronaut but we need to provide a thorough explanation of how one individual accomplished this, not a simple statement, to prevent the prospect from misinterpreting the information. Second, we need to provide the rep with proper training on the psychology of selling the dream before the rep engages in any sales related activity to prevent the prospect from perceiving an unrealistic outcome upon completion.
Second,there will always be a small minority of students, regardless of how accurate a picture we paint, that will hear what they want to hear. But, as previously stated, that one student can ruin it for an entire class by being loud and vocal to his or her peers and getting others to agree that they were told a similar story. By slowing down the recruiting process and taking a lengthly first interview, we can provide our students with enough information to not be affected by a disruptive, disgruntled student looking for an excuse to drop.
My conclusion is that the entire school needs to be one the same page. We need to have all staff meetings in which we address issues and prevent them from occuring in the first place. We need to provide support to other departments, keep the communication line open, and truely all be on the same page for the education we provide. Admissions needs to educate faculty on the recruiting methods used and faculty needs to educate admissions on the subjects we teach, career services needs to educate other departments on realistic job outlooks and truely exceptional immediate success stories. If we as a school all work together to support one another and help each other from day 1 understand what we do and how we help students achieve, we can prevent these misunderstandings from occuring for most students. The school is one team, working together to achieve a common goal, not separate entities. We as a school must first educate ourselves on how we work as a system, then educate ourselves truely on the programs we offer, then finally we can accuarately and consistently give our students the same message so these issues do not occur as we pass our students from admissions to education to placement and finally the real world.
Is that the case at your institution? If so, now is the time to start a dialogue between the faculty and the admissions staff to correct the assertions made by the reps.
I feel that there is some truth in this. Most adult private institutions solict students and make promises to them. Some institutions have entire departments devoted to soliciting new students. Many of the promises made are unrealistic. Ultimately, the instructors have to pay the price for this.
At least you got to the discussion phase. What were the barriers to implementation? Was there a champion for the initiative?
I expect you got some resistence based on time, but the results should clearly outweigh the temporary time pressures.
I think that an unfair amount of pressure is put on Admissions to get in the numbers, then when things begin to fall apart, it's everyone else's responsibility to keep the student. Working together to portray an accurate picture of what to expect is the key to retention.
Cross training between departments would be the first step to this. Faculty would spend time with admissions, admissions would spend time with financial aid, etc... Everyone where I work (a culinary school) loved this idea when strategies were discussed, but somehow none of it has come to pass. It would GREATLY improve morale among the staff and that would no doubt have an effect on student attitudes.
It's reassuring to hear that communication between departments works. What can be done about the remaining few who didn't get the message?
We have similar situations at our school. The people recruiting the students tell them about all the certifications they will have when they graduate. We had a team meeting with our team leader and he took it to admissions. For the most part this problem has been solved except for the few who will still tell the recruits what they want to hear to get them in.
Well said, Sandy. Sounds like you have developed a very positive, outcome centered environment.
I think it should be academically driven. Our school went through a major culture shift several years ago, where the faculty and academic affairs began working collaboratively with the admissions and marketing teams to ensure that we were not promising the students they could become astronouts or rocket scientists. Retention has improved as more care is taken at the very beginning of the admissions process. Prior to changing our processes and procedures many of our students were very unhappy. As I heard on an NPR education program, "Education is the only commodity you pay for, but don't necessarily get." A lot is up to the student, but we need to ensure they know what to expect and that we are here to support them as they "earn" their degrees.
Our school has gone to such great lengths to avoid situations like this. We have developed prospective student interviewing scripts and most interviews, both face-to-face and over the phone, are recorded. Yet, we still have an occasional student who claims they were "promised" something that we can't deliver. I believe this stems from student misinterpretations of comments or answers to questions somewhere along the line in the interviewing or enrollment process. It's just like the fact that I now have to accompany my 76 year old mother to doctor's appointments. She isn't senile or anything, it's just that she will hear one particular comment the doctor makes, focus only on it, and tune out the rest. She used to come away with a great deal of misinformation. Now that I go with her and ask questions and take notes, we have been able to alleviate the problem. So, how can we further alleviate this problem with prospective or newly enrolled students? Use as much written materials as possible--words on a page are much less likely to be misinterpreted. Make sure our marketing materials are a true reflection of our programs, courses, and services. Provide definitions for commonly used terminology--every business sector has its own terminology and higher ed is no exception. We must make sure that what we are saying is what they are understanding it to mean.
Is having grand expectations a problem? While I agree that very few of those with inflated expections will achieve the goals they have when they enroll, isn't it our role to help them understand what it takes to get there and help them identify viable alternatives?
I feel that it is best to be very up front with the entire class at the very begining about what they can realisticly expect to take away from my class. And most importantly, what there level of expertise they will own.
Mr. Whyte I am with 100% on this astronaut thing. Some students paths I have crossed has seem to have an extroardinary concept of being or becoming something they are not. I try to always tell my students nothing is handed in life. Granted sometimes you will always have that lucky one that was in the right place at the right time. But we all know for the most part. You work hard you get rewarded. RIGHT???????
I am glad but also saddened to hear this is a problem at other schools. We constantly have issues with students being told..or perhaps "hearing" untrue expectations from our admissions team. This is a culture that if changed I am certain would help in our attrition rates.
