The Story I Want Families to Know

In the past week, I read four distinct posts on LinkedIn. When connected, they stood out to me for a complex but important story that I'm sharing with students and families.

FIRST. Colleges are institutions of teaching & learning (and career-readiness)...AND they are businesses.

Although this concept is not new to those of us in college counseling, it may be new awareness for families. This post from Scott Carlson offers a terrific and digestible description of the impact of enrollment management techniques on higher ed and admissions.

I am clear with families: colleges have business goals and practices just like retail stores. As the article and post states, institutions have an algorithm for each student/family in terms of how likely they are to attend, how much they can likely pay, and so forth. To reinforce this concept with families, I share that a few years ago at SACAC, I heard a vendor talk about providing their college partners with weekly “top-25 lists”…those 25 students from their territory who had spent the most time on the institution’s website.

I want students to understand and remember this reality, even as they “fall in love” (or like) with certain institutions. I also want students (and families) to know how they can respond in the face of this reality.

One option? To develop their own "algorithm of fit” in return. Rather than think of “fit” as binary, what’s the likelihood that an institution will really give the student what they want/need to move forward with their own goals? To make this kind of assessment, what information do students need to gather and how will they evaluate that information?

Can they take a "good enough" institution and, with their own strengths and choices, make it a great one? Yes. And in comparing "great" to "good" to "good enough" - with room to grow! - most students are able to both understand the tradeoffs they are facing and then decide which ones they are willing to make.

I believe doing this is KIND – it helps students distance themselves from a purely emotional tie to institutions and learn to marry their values and preferences with good systems awareness.

Which leads me to...

SECOND. Systems awareness and acting with strategic intention are untapped potential for student competency development AND the college/postsecondary process offers a perfect opportunity for developing these competencies.  

Stay with me on this one. In my opinion, building the above “algorithm of fit” aligns with what Dr. Jeroen Kraaijenbrink describes as strategic thinking and strategy literacy.

This particular post focuses on strategic frameworks vs competencies. Among other parts of the post, Dr. Kraaijenbrink outlines what he means by strategic competencies: the ability to…"Grasp complex realities. Shape future directions. Move systems into action. Deliver results. Adapt to change.” Note that these are very closely related to the top core skills predicted by the World Economic Forum to be in demand in 2025 and beyond.

I’ll respond with, strategic frameworks applied to individuals on the college/postsecondary pathway are more useful than ever precisely because the process is so complex and dynamic. It's one reason I've developed frameworks to use with families in building out their application strategy and in understanding how the high school experience maps to application review. These frameworks help students see the bigger picture before we dive into concepts of tradeoffs, risks, opportunities, and information curation, organization, and assessment.

In addition to viewing these frameworks as useful, I agree – and I’m trying to tell students and families this, but it’s going slowly – that strategic competencies are necessary to move well through the postsecondary pathway. Students have much to gain, and nothing to lose, in developing competencies like adaptability, grasping complex realities, and finding room for choices/control in the direction of their future.

A system as complex and fluid as college admissions - including alternative options, see #3 below - provides a perfect opportunity to grow and test these competencies. (But we need to use language that makes this clear...that's another post!)

Which leads me to...

THIRD. Developing systems awareness needs to include options beyond the traditional 4-year college.

As a post from Paxton Riter highlights, Kim Kardashian micro-credentialed her way through the study of law. This might seem superfluous and more appropriate for a fashion magazine than LinkedIn! But I agree that we should be talking about it.

Her choice makes sense – Kim K likely doesn’t need the networks or additional potential benefits that other students might value from a traditional law school experience. But she does need and want the content of that learning.

In other words, her goals are supported by this choice, and making her story known can help legitimize similar pathways for students. In short, this post reminds us of the importance of connecting choices to values and goals AND different opportunities that exist within the system.

And that leads me to…

FOUR. Students – and those of us supporting students and families – need a tool to evaluate these "alternate" paths as credible options alongside the 4-year degree path.

Guess what? There is a new Credential Value Index from The Burning Glass Institute that should help.

This post from Debbie Wasden introduced the new evaluation tool.  Here’s a link to the website, too.

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This is a lot to take in, I know. The overall story: for the postsecondary/college process, there is a larger system at play beyond purely thinking in terms of "fit". Being able to navigate that system well demands agility, strategic competencies, and yes, frameworks.

Stay tuned -

Beth

Rosecliff College Consulting, LLC