Christine: You are listening to the Your Empty Nest Coach podcast with Coach Christine, episode number 10, What Your College Enrollment Management Office Wants You to Know About Admission and Financial Aid. … I thought I would take advantage, for you, of the fact that I have access to some amazing admission and financial aid staff members.
Christine: You are listening to the Your Empty Nest Coach podcast with Coach Christine, episode number 10, What Your College Enrollment Management Office Wants You to Know About Admission and Financial Aid. This podcast is for you, a mother who years ago walked away from a career to raise your child. Sure, you’ve been busy with volunteering, car pools, maybe part-time work and taking care of everyone. But your main gig, that’s been your child. Now, that they are in their later years of high school, the empty nest looms ahead for you and it’s freaking you out. I’ve been there and I get it. Together, we’ll turn our freaking out energy into freaking awesome energy.
Hello, my empty nest friend! Episode 10 is here. I’m in double digits and I am super excited. This episode is a bit of a crossover episode for me. This is because I spend my 9:00 to 5:00-ish hours working in the Enrollment Management Division at Ursinus College. Ursinus is a College that Changes Lives college. If you’ve never heard of that, check out the link in my show notes. Ursinus is a private liberal arts college, located in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. The campus is beautiful. The faculty is engaged with students and we have a brand new, gorgeous Science Center. Ursinus College is definitely worth checking out, if you’ve never heard of us. There’s just way to much to list in this podcast.
I thought I would take advantage, for you, of the fact that I have access to some amazing admission and financial aid staff members. They kindly have shared with me their most important things to know about the enrollment process. All guests on this episode were asked to respond to the question: what is one thing you would like parents and/or students to understand about the enrollment process? I hope you enjoy this and learn some things.
My name is Ashling Suppan, and I’m the Assistant Director of Student Financial Services. My advice to families going through the enrollment process, is that it should be a collaborative effort. Parents shouldn’t do everything for students, but they also shouldn’t throw them in the deep end without any help. Work together towards your common goal, which is the student’s future.
Hi guys, this is Doug Ulrich, one of the Assistant Directors of Admission at Ursinus College, and I think my best advice for parents, specifically first-generation students and parents, is to don’t be afraid to ask questions and educate yourself. There are a lot of resources that are out there, whether it’s through your local high school, or your community college, or just any college that you’re looking at, to go speak to somebody about financial aid or understand the FAFSA, or whatever you’re having any questions about. Don’t be afraid to reach to your Admissions Counselor. That’s what we’re there for. Email us, call us, text us if it’s allowed, but don’t be afraid to ask any questions. It’s never too early to get started within the college application process or the enrollment process and let us try to ease your mind as much as we can. That way we can make the transition from high school to college as seamless as possible.
Alyssa Worrilow, Associate Director of Admission. The one thing that I would like parents and/or students to understand about the enrollment process is if you plan ahead of time you can have a lot of fun with it and you should make it fun, because this is a really important time in your lives, and it is a fun process because you’re exploring where you’re going to be spending, hopefully, the next four years of your life. You’re going to be planning trips and doing research, and if you’re not so stressed out about it, and you plan efficiently, then it can be a lot of fun, and you can make projects together. Just have fun with it. Don’t stress out, and of course, like I said, if you do enough planning in the beginning, it will be fun.
Hi, everyone. This Shawn Kennedy, Assistant Director of Admission, here at Ursinus. When asked what is one thing that is not stressed enough is your admissions counselor really can be a great resource for you. The college, we’re already here for you. We already want to help, regardless of the institution that you end up ultimately choosing, your admission counselor really cares about you and wants you to be successful, wherever you are, wherever you’re going to reach that full potential. I definitely wish I knew that kind of going through the process as I didn’t have a lot of people to rely on. I wish I knew I could rely on the Admission staff more often throughout the entire process.
Hi, my name is Destinee Harper, and I am an Assistant Director of Admissions at Ursinus College. If there was one thing I could advise parents during the enrollment process, for their child, when they’re looking for college. I would say utilize the guidance counselor’s office or the college advising office, whatever the student has at their school. Really have the student go to those visits when the colleges come and to talk about different programs at whatever school, so they can learn more about the school. I say also, to utilize the admissions team at a college. Ask as many questions you can. Talk to Financial Aid about FAFSA, scholarship information, loans, educating parents about loans, and that understanding that it could be a necessary evil for your child to go to school, but you necessarily won’t be in debt for life. There’re other options about taking smaller loans versus a big one. Lastly, I say visit the school. Do interviews at the school. If the school has that available for them, so the student can show the admissions team, who are going to be reviewing the application how great they are, and how well rounded they are, because sometimes the application doesn’t reflect that. Also, visiting the campus so you can see people like to go there, and for their parents can be comfortable leaving their child there for four years. That’s the advice I would give.
My name is Jesse Randall, and I’m the Associate Director of Student Financial Services. One thing I wish that parents would know going into the whole admission process and the financial aid process, specifically, is that we are on the same side as you. The reason I’m in this job is because I want to be an advocate for students and despite sometimes having to deliver bad news, it’s not something that I enjoy doing. It’s typically regarding regulations that I have to deliver bad news. At the end of the day, all I’m trying to do is help the student out as best as I can.
There we have it. Aren’t they great? Should you have any specific questions that were not answered here, or mentioned, that you would like answered in an upcoming episode, please feel free to email me. I will mention the email address in just a moment. If you would like another episode like this, definitely let me know that too. I would also love to do an episode of what is one thing that parents want college admission officers to know, and I’d love to do one from the student’s point of view as well. If you would like to participate in that, email me at podcast@youremptynestcoach.com and put guest in the subject line. I would also like to take a moment to state that this episode is not sponsored by Ursinus College. Actually, I’ve made it a commitment in my first year of podcasting, and potentially for all of my years of podcasting, to not have any outside sponsors. I hope you like that, and if you do, thank The Minimalists. If you want to keep it that way, be sure to share my podcasts on social media, or with someone you think would benefit from it. You are the best. Thanks!
The questions I have for you in this episode are:
1) If you could tell your child’s college enrollment team one thing, what would you want them to know? If you answer that, and you’d like to be included on the podcast, just write podcast okay, in there.
2) What is the most important thing for you, in your child’s college search? Meaning, what’s the one thing? Is it they need to be an hour away from you or less? Or, is it cost? Or is it a major for them? I’m really curious. What’s the most important thing for you in your child’s college search. Great. I invite you to fly over to my Empty Nest Flock Community at youremptynestcoach.com/community to share your answers to this episode’s questions and a reminder to sign up for my free Thursday Thoughts email. There I will send you weekly thoughts on what is on my mind, as well as updates on my coaching programs and podcasts. As always, if you have a question you would like me to answer on my podcast, you may submit it to me in the Empty Nest Flock Community Forum or email me at podcast AT youremptynestcoach.com. Include your question and how you would like me to refer to you or, if at all. My next episode’s title is Misery Loves Company, But What Does That Get You?
It is listener feedback time. I would like to share listener feedback in my episodes going forward and I’ll start with my very first Apple podcast review. This one is titled It’s Mine, I Like It, and it says, giving my own review to see how it works. Thank for checking this out. Yes, the writer of that review is Your Empty Nest Coach, me, but I would love to read your review in the future, so don’t be shy. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, you are amazing!
