After returning from the National Association for College Admission Counseling conference earlier in September I was inspired to write. As I sat in a session a former boss, Jennifer Delahunty, said “The three tools you use in college admissions are prestige, financial aid, and love.” And in that moment there was great clarity–and agreement.
If college admissions were a science a great many of us in the profession, on both sides of the desk, would be out of a job–a career.
Applicants would fill out a standard form for all colleges. The application would simply calculate an admissibility score and dependent on the profile a school has set for applicants they want on their campus…boom…you’ve got your new freshmen class. I imagine SAT or ACT scores would be required, high school GPA would surely be required and recalculated, overall academic rigor looking at honors classes, AP classes taken, scores from AP exams, or IB classes and IB scores.
Senior admissions officers at institutions across the globe find themselves creating unique measures that aim at getting to the heart of the “right fit” student for their respective institutions. Not just who they admit, but also to whom they market their institution.
I was recently appointed to a chief enrollment officer role–I knew very early in my career this role was part of my long game. Years ago, as I garnered information about the admission industry, I realized the future of the admission industry, and higher education overall, was going to be more business like. Success at the top was going to be awarded to those who understood how to operate in a market place where the product was in question, the consumer group was shrinking (which would allow them to be more selective), and the way we were to engage with our consumers would have to evolve to meet them where they were and stand-up to shrinking budgets–all of these things are here today.
Our profession is one of art + design…where we work hard to blend the tools of “prestige, financial aid, and love” as Jennifer Delahunty mentioned.
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At one time the art of the process was central to the experience of the admission officer and the prospective student. We could focus more on the depth of their personal experience, the context of their self-expression, the thing that make them tick. As the demographics have shifted the design of the process has increased in importance–what do we do to enhance our prestige, leverage the financial aid dollars we have to impact our yield, to grow our prospective pool to ensure we amble amounts of applicants that will translate to admits and then marticulants?
Chief admissions officers spend a great deal of time deconstructing the design of the past trying to identify the pieces that have been successful over the years and then trying to construct a new process blending in the new elements of the present landscape in which we exist. Admissions professionals have been employing design thinking before it was even a thing.
This is a tough job, a job that has great rewards of the heart, tugs at the heart strings some days, and other days has you wanting to retreat deep under the covers.
Yes, those of us with a fire in our belly will work hard at making the institutions where we work a success, but as a former dean of mine, Rick Shaw, would say “we are human and we have to ensure that this process reflects our humanity and is humane.”
This is the (he)art + design of college admissions.
