By Jeremy Tiers, Director of Admissions Services
If we’ve met before or you’re a frequent reader of this newsletter then you know how much I love helping people grow and win. There’s never a catch. All you have to do is reach out and we’ll start a conversation.
On this final day of the year (and the decade) I’ve got 20 important things to share with you. These are professional and personal tips, strategies, goals, questions, and in some cases reminders that I hope you’ll keep in mind as we enter 2020.
- You control you. Put all of your focus into your own effort and attitude.
- Never forget the importance of mastering the fundamentals and consistently doing the little things right.
- Using a more conversational tone in your recruiting communications does not make you less professional. It makes you more relatable.
- Regardless of the stage they’re at in the process, students want you to explain how your school is different, why your current students love various aspects of your school, and why choosing your school is the better choice.
- If you want more students to answer the phone, stop cold calling. Set up your calls ahead of time and explain why you’re calling.
- Incorporate the word (and the topic of) fear into your recruiting conversations.
- Be more intentional with the questions you ask.
- Aim to sound less robotic and scripted during information sessions, college fairs, high school visits, and phone calls.
- Parents are either an asset or an obstacle during the college search process. Does your school need to improve those communications?
- How you build your relationships is more important than how many relationships you build.
- If someone was asked to describe you in one sentence what would they say? What would you want them to say? If you’ve never thought about that I encourage you to.
- There is no perfect blueprint for work-life balance. Focus more on what makes you happy.
- Emotional engagement impacts decision-making.
- Allocate time each week to gather more stories from current students, recent grads, and faculty. Stories will help you connect the dots, differentiate your school, and make yielding your admits easier.
- Personalization and authenticity continue to be the two biggest things that prospective students want more of from colleges during their search.
- If your school is not establishing the admission counselors as the main point of contact as soon as a prospective student enters your system, getting them to visit, apply, and choose your school just became more challenging.
- Want more students to visit campus? Show a genuine interest in them as an individual, give them a “because,” and explain how visiting campus will help them with their college decision.
- In our ongoing focus group research, the majority of students were comfortable with receiving one email per week, one letter per month, one phone call per month, and one text message per month from a college during their search.
- If you aren’t getting the communication/support that you need from your boss, you need to be willing to start that conversation and ask for it. It’s not inappropriate to do that.
- Self-care is a non-negotiable.
P.S. If you could take one minute and answer two questions about my newsletter it would mean a lot to me. Thanks! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3T6P9S7