The Power of Networking

Every year, I return from the Higher Education Consultants Assocation conference excited about the upcoming college admissions season. More than 140 independent college counselors met in Chicago this year, where we visited area colleges, received updates on admission trends from experts, and shared strategies that have helped our students.

We talk about which schools are most generous with scholarships and which schools are most willing to negotiate financial aid offers. Which colleges are especially comfortable for Jewish students, and which are good places for students with lower grades and test scores. The exchange of information had me filling an 80-page spiral notebook and sent me home once again in awe of the power of networking.

While we visited many schools in Chicago, Elmhurst College, 16 miles west of the Loop, served as our home base at this year’s conference. The school has small classes and a lovely arboretum campus. Faculty and staff provide lots of personal attention, and many professors have been teaching at the college for 20 to 30 years. When a math professor heard that a prospective student was interested in math, he called the student to see if he had any questions about the program.

At Elmhurst, students can walk to the town center, which has a movie theater, shops and dozens of restaurants. It’s also just a few blocks to get a train to downtown Chicago. This place offers the advantages of a small college and easy access to the resources of a big city.

So why wouldn’t I recommend this fine school to any of my students? More than 65 percent of students come from within a 20mile radius of Elmhurst, and those who are from other states usually have relatives in the area. The campus is likely to empty out on weekends, which is not a good situation for students coming from California.

A college can have many wonderful attributes, but if you’re a thousand miles from home and alone in your room on weekends, little else will matter. This is why I’m also reluctant to recommend public universities in other states unless the out-of-state enrollment is substantial. I heard of one student who traveled far from home to a fine public institution and found herself in an environment where many students knew each other from high school. She had a difficult freshman year and ended up transferring.

When I visit colleges and take admissions tours, I sometimes worry about being the annoying person who can’t stop asking questions. But parents often thank me for bringing out important information and students usually look interested in the guide’s answers (while probably feeling relieved I’m not their parent).

College is four years of a student’s life and the more information a student has, the better the experience will be.

One of my favorite counselors at the conference told me a story about a large public university. A student’s parent had taken ill and the family was trying to locate the student, who was in class. Word reached the president of the university and he went to the young woman’s class. He told her she needed to go home right away and that his office had made an airline reservation for her. This is the kind of personal attention I might expect at a small college, but certainly not at the 36,000-student Indiana University.

This anecdote was just one of many positive impressions my colleagues shared about that school, so after visiting the University of Michigan last week, I headed down to Indiana.

My colleagues and I consult with each other throughout the year and our students benefit from these collective resources. But you don’t have to be a counselor to network with peers. College students who have returned for the summer are a wonderful resource for those who are about to begin the college admissions process. So, start filling those spiral notebooks!

Audrey Kahane, MS, is an independent college admissions counselor in West Hills.

She can be reached at (818) 704-7545 or via the Internet at audreykahane@earthlink.net.