We have reached the most awkward time of year for all parties involved in the college access process. The sweat is becoming visible on everyone, counselors are panting, students are winded, and parents are beginning to feel the heat. National College
Signing Day is quickly approaching, and so are those deposit deadlines.
During my time as a practitioner, I considered this time of year to be “decision season,” as it was quite reflective of application season. Spring break usually marks the official start of decision season, with College Signing Day marking the end. Decision
season consisted of months of conversations with parents trying to justify finances, students holding onto dreams, and school administrators eager to reach college enrollment goals. I had to mentally prepare to be loved, hated, and aggravated from
March through May.
These five tactics helped me fight the awkwardness and aggravation of spring semester while assisting my students to make their decisions:
Developing and informing a college going culture in the building from the beginning of the year. I quickly had to learn as a young college advisor that no matter how charming, knowledgeable, and efficient as you might be, some students
just need to hear the same advice from someone else. Recruiting the school faculty, staff, and active community supporters into your system is the only way some families will come to an understanding of the diverse pieces that go into making the
college decision.
Identifying paths to employment and/or chances to improve a student’s odds for employment. This tip is most handy for parents that are significantly loan averse. Paths to employment end up being a college fit factor for these parents
as they often use it as a valuable hidden feature when comparing colleges. Financially savvy parents use paths to employment as a metric to add to their personal calculation of their return on investment. You can utilize tools like O*Net and BigFuture at multiple points in the college access pipeline to help families identify perspective college majors that match with potential career clusters.
Developing allies on the other side of college admissions, like student services, college success programs, and with active local alumni. I’ve heard it be called many things, but my favorite is, “warm handoff.” The populations that
we serve work largely on social capital and recommendation. Setting up warm handoffs by introducing your student to a trusted program or person on the other side can ease the transition a student makes to higher education, especially among first-generation
families.
Providing a guide to aid families in reading those confusing award letters can save you time and prevent significant undermatching. With the rise in popularity of application programs like the Common App, the Coalition App, and the
Common Black College App, there has been a trend in many students applying to more than 10 schools. With that array of applications comes the difficulty of interpreting many financial award letters that often reflect the same variety in format
and content. Providing your families with guides like DecidED can help them interpret the real deviation they will see in college costs for them.
Distinguishing the campus resources that your student will need to increase their probability of success. Necessities like those available in the office of disability services, availability to on-campus mental health counseling, access
to local worship services, or quality of offerings that meet dietary restrictions (e.g., halal, kosher, or allergen-friendly). Most colleges will have some resources to meet all the aforementioned needs, but inequalities in knowledge and funding
show glaring differences in these areas. First-generation families will need you to highlight these amenities because they aren’t always mentioned on tours or in admissions presentations.
All in all, the planning, analyzing, and advising we do for students has become a sort of dance that practitioners and families perform annually. This dance can be finely choreographed on our part as practitioners, but we must always be ready to freestyle
to accommodate the diversity of families and their situations. Parents’ viewpoints can be reality checks for students as they are asked to finance their child’s undergraduate education or an inhibitive cheer squad that ends up putting themselves at
significant financial risk trying to fund their child’s dream. Finding a way to be honest, ethical, and responsible in those instances isn’t a science, but an art. Good luck as you begin this cumbersome time of year. May your moments of improvisation
be exactly what you and your students need.
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