Please Stop Asking Students This Question

One of the biggest things that prospective students worry about during their college search is not knowing what questions to ask. They simply don’t know what they don’t know, and many are nervous to ask what could be perceived as a silly question.  

Because of those things the worst question an admissions counselor, a tour guide, a faculty member, or anyone else affiliated with your school can ask is…

“Do you have any questions?” 

Every student definitely has things they’re wondering about, but that specific question – and others like it (i.e. What questions do you have?) are simply too open-ended. Young people aren’t used to leading the conversation so they don’t know what direction to go. They experience what’s known as question reluctance.

Moving forward, I encourage you to replace that with a direct and more narrow question that is designed to help you learn something about the student.

Here are a couple of examples you can utilize with new inquiries:

• How do you feel about staying closer to home (or, going farther away) for college?

• What else besides cost is going to be really important in your college search?

• Talk to me about the atmosphere and community that you’re looking for in your future college. What do you see fitting you best?

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