By Jeremy Tiers, Vice President of Admissions Services
3 minute read
A lot of things have changed in 10 years of Tudor Collegiate Strategies collecting data from students. Here’s something that has remained the same.
The overwhelming majority of students – we’re talking above 90% – regardless of their grade or the stage they’re at in their college or transfer search process are worried or scared about one or more things.
If you’re looking for an easy way to build trust, show empathy and increase engagement with your students. I want you to ask them about their fears and worries – potentially even multiple times (i.e. when they’re an inquiry, and again after they get admitted).
We continue to find that most admissions counselors and enrollment marketers are not intentionally making this topic a part of their conversation because they think it’s either too intrusive, or it’s not really that big of a deal. Please know it’s not, and in addition to being important, it can help you stand out from your competitors.
The easiest way to discover what a student is scared or worried about is by asking them a direct, intentional question like, “Jeremy, what are you worried about most when you think about your college search?” You can ask that as the call to action in an email or text message, during a high school visit or a college fair, or during a campus visit.
If you’re wondering what kinds of responses a question like that that will produce, here are the biggest fears and worries according to the latest TCS research.
- Making the wrong decision remains number one with 29.9% saying it was their biggest fear and worry during their search.
- Right behind at number two with 29.8% is being worried they won’t be able to afford college they want to attend.
- The fastest rising fear over the past 2-3 years is not being emotionally and socially prepared for college. The percentage of students who rank it number one has nearly doubled during that timeframe.
Other common ones include:
- Their grades and test scores won’t be good enough to get admitted
- Moving away from home and fitting in
- Figuring out the right major or academic program
- Giving a college negative feedback and/or telling them “no”
- The “unknown” (What will college really be like)
When it comes to campus visits, the top two worries are not knowing what questions to ask and not making a good impression.
For non-traditional students, in addition to many of the same fears listed above, they’re also worried about their credits not transferring, and/or not being able to fit school into their schedule.
After a student has shared their thoughts and feelings, I encourage you to thank them and validate that it’s okay to feel that way (i.e. they’re not weird). In a lot of cases they need to hear that from you – especially high school students.
The final piece of this effective strategy is helping alleviate their fear and/or putting their mind at ease. Storytelling continues to be one of the most effective ways to do that. I want you to provide them with one or more concrete examples of people who felt the same way (namely your current students or even yourself) and explain how they/you overcame (or how someone at your college or university helped them/you) overcome it.
If you found this article helpful, please forward it to someone else on your campus who could also benefit from reading it. Sharing is caring 🙂
P.S. Parents and other key family members also have fears and worries. I strongly encourage you to take the same approach during your conversations with this group.