National media cover Augsburg’s admissions success coaching

On February 3, The Hechinger Report published an in-depth look at Augsburg’s student success coaching approach, which leverages admissions counselors in a coaching role as part of the university’s Augsburg Applies to You framework. The Hechinger Report is a national media organization that covers innovation and inequality in education. The piece was published simultaneously in Slate. 

Excerpt:

At a presentation on the campus on a subzero Minnesota morning, where accepted and prospective students in hoodies or sportcoats yawned and stretched while their parents guzzled coffee and picked at miniature breakfast pastries, there appeared to be as much goodwill for Augsburg as there were complaints about the treatment people had received from the admissions offices at other universities and colleges. Parents and students also universally bemoaned the lack of help they got from high school college counselors, who handle caseloads averaging 405 students apiece, according to NACAC.

By comparison, “these guys have been very friendly,” Barbara Young said of the admissions officers at Augsburg, where she had come with her daughter, Kealy, a high school junior. 

At Augsburg, “the first thing that happened is that the admissions officer came over and introduced herself, and that has not happened anywhere else,” said Kristen Campos of Chicago, who was visiting the school with her husband and their student. 

When their older children went through the same process at a big state university, Campos said disdainfully, the admissions office doors were closed to them. “We never spoke to an admissions officer,” she said.

Colleges and universities can only benefit by making time to ease applicants’ doubts, said Pribbenow, the president of Augsburg. 

Read the full piece via The Hechinger Report: College admissions offices take on a new role: Coaxing accepted students to show up

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Top image by Jaida Grey Eagle for The Hechinger Report