Parent engagement in college admissions
I just lived the experience of being a parent through the college recruitment process. With our company’s collegiate focus, my antenna was up as I paid attention to communication to my son and my wife and me. I have a few takeaways that I wanted to share for colleges to consider as they plan for the next cycle. 

For context, my son applied to four colleges and we visited all of them his junior year. Since none of them were local, we did not attend any of the accepted student days as he did not feel that was needed during the decision-making process. 

I broke my observations into two sections, from the parents’ perspective and my son’s. 

Parent Observations:

1. More parent-specific information would be appreciated – Throughout the process, I was really surprised at the lack of communication towards my wife and me. This is such a big decision, so I thought that providing pathways for parents to connect and learn more would be part of the process. There was a range of communication and I want to share my takeaways:
   1. College A – We received a lot of emails and text, and while helpful, I could tell we were just added to the email and text list that my son was on. Thus the content never really spoke to us–which would have been nice. But at least we were communicated with!
   2. College B – The only emails we received invited us to be part of the admitted student parent group. However this was early in the process and our son was not admitted during the early decision process, so it felt odd being invited to the group at this stage since we were still waiting to hear if he was admitted. I wished their email outreach matched where we were in the process. He did eventually get in, but we never received parent-specific email communication.
   3. College C – I don’t think we ever received an email to parents from this college. Ever. This is the school he ended up choosing to attend and we supported his decision. But it certainly would have been nice to receive information to help us navigate the process with him.
   4. College D – He applied later in the process, and we never heard from the college. He did end up eventually getting denied to this college.
2. Parent specific mailing/merch would have been nice – I think the only parent-specific mailer we received during the entire search process was from the University of Chicago, which was not a college on his list. But it was really cute, funny and memorable (my wife shared it with a number of friends). I do feel this is a missed opportunity for the colleges that my son applied to. We are invested in his decision (financially and emotionally) and I was surprised about this lack of mailed communication. In these days of so much email coming our way, it is easy to miss. So to me, colleges mailing specifically to families makes so much sense. And of course, if it includes merch, all the better for us to show off our pride (had to throw that in there!). 

My Son’s Observations:

1. Admit Experience – Only one of the colleges actually mailed an acceptance letter. It was the first college that he was admitted into and he was truly excited. We got a wonderful picture of this accomplishment. For some reason, the other two colleges he got into never mailed a single thing (believe me, I kept checking). I couldn’t believe this missed opportunity as my son was super proud of getting into these two colleges, but they both missed good social media engagement from my wife posting pictures of our smiling son.
2. Merch! – We only received merch from one of the colleges. It came within a day or two right after he got into the college and it was regarding an on campus event – but not an admitted student event, as I re-read the info a few times to make sure. They sent texting gloves that were smartly logoed. He had no interest in attending the event but he did like the gloves and used them repeatedly.
3. Mailers From Other Prospective Colleges – Due to what my son wanted to study, there was only a small subset of colleges that he was truly interested in. Thus when other colleges mailed him postcards/letters/mailers… they were fully ignored. Even the nice look books from colleges that fit his field of study were ignored. He knew what he wanted and nothing moved that needle. 

One more point that I want to share: The college he chose was not on our radar until a teacher in his high school mentioned it. I had not heard of the college and she said it would be a great option for him. Without this input from a trusted resource, I don’t know if we would have ended up in this direction. It is a good reminder for colleges to maintain regular communication with counselors and heads of specialized departments in high schools to keep their awareness high.

Lastly, the college my son ended up choosing was the school that we agreed was best for him. I don’t know how much our input influenced this decision, but I do believe that our support and how we framed this option made a difference.

I know families are impactful in the decision-making process. My takeaway from this process was that colleges my son was engaged with missed an opportunity to better connect with families during the process. I have another son that will be going through this in a few years and look forward to seeing how this process plays out again! Parent engagement in college admissions