You Should Ask Your Admitted Students This

Within your admitted student population you have a group of students and families who shortly after they receive their financial aid package(s) will be ready to end the college search process.  

My ongoing Top Tier Higher Ed data says that almost 38% of students over the past three years had the college or university they ended up choosing as their #1 choice at the time they applied.

Today’s strategy will help you determine who some of those students are by uncovering important insights about a student’s timeline, as well as what might really be involved in the decision they’re making.

Through either a text message or a phone call I want you to ask your admits this question:

“<Student’s First or Preferred Name>, what do you see as the next step in your college search?”

You might even add that you’re asking that because you understand every student doesn’t have the same timeline or decision-making process and you want to provide the right kind of support.

The student might respond with some version of “We’re waiting to get the financial aid packages and see what it costs.”

I want you to then immediately say, “And then what?”

The student might respond with “Well then my parents and I will sit down and see what we think the best options are.”

You should then immediately say “Okay, and then what after that?”

The student might respond with “I think we’ll visit any schools I haven’t been to or maybe go back and visit my top schools one more time and then I’ll make my decision.”

By simply asking an initial question about a student’s next step and then following that up with “and then what” you can find out where a student is in their decision-making process, who is helping them with their decision, what steps they feel still need to happen before they decide, and you might even find out a timeframe for when the decision will be made.

When you better understand a student’s timeline it becomes easier to know what to lead the conversation about and when, as well as when to personally ask if they’re feeling ready to submit their deposit.

If you ask a student about their timeline and it becomes clear that they have little to no idea how they’re going to make their college decision, you now have an opportunity to insert yourself as an expert guide who has helped countless families who were in the same situation.

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