Episode 2: Making Your College Placement List Shine

Most schools slap a college list on their website and hope for the best. But when families scan it and don't see enough big names, they walk. A Dean of Enrollment and a college counselor realize they've been letting other schools define the game — and set out to replace a flat list of names with the stories of students who found exactly where they were meant to be.

Transcript

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Welcome to EM Chronicles, where we turn the big ideas in enrollment management into stories you can feel. I'm Claude Anderson. This is episode two. Making your college placement list shine. Let's begin.

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Lena Castillo was standing at the window of the college counseling office, watching a family walk to their car after a campus tour. She could tell from their body language it hadn't gone well. The mother was talking fast, the father was scrolling his phone, and the eighth grader between them looked like she wanted to disappear. Tom Adaemi, the dean of enrollment, came around the corner and caught the same scene. Another one? Lena turned to him. Third family this month. They loved the campus, loved the teachers, loved everything, until they asked about college placements, and I handed them our list. Tom leaned against the doorframe. What happened? Same thing that always happens. They scanned the page, didn't see enough names they recognized, and the energy just drained out of the room. The dad actually said, So where do your top students end up? Like the 60 colleges on that list didn't count, because none of them were Harvard. Tom exhaled. I hate that moment. We do incredible work getting kids into schools that are genuinely right for them, and it gets dismissed because we're not an ivy feeder. And the thing is, Tom, our placements are remarkable. We had a student last year, Marcos Rivera, who spent two years in our marine science elective, did an independent study on coral reef restoration, and got into the University of Miami's Rosensteel School. It's one of the top marine science programs in the country, but his name on a list next to University of Miami doesn't tell that story. It just looks like a kid who went to a state school in Florida. Tom walked into her office and sat down. You're right. And I think the problem is bigger than just the list. It's how we frame the whole conversation. We're letting other schools set the terms, prestige, rankings, brand names, and then trying to compete on their turf. We'll never win that game. So how do we change the game? Lena asked, sitting across from him. We tell the stories, Tom said, leaning forward, not just where kids go but why they chose it and what happened when they got there. Marcos at Rosenstiel is a perfect example, but there's also Priya Kapoor, who turned down a bigger name school to attend Champlain College's cyber forensics program because it was exactly what she wanted. She's now interning with the FBI. Or Devin Washington, who chose a small liberal arts school nobody in our parent community had heard of, and he just got his first novel published as a junior. Lena's eyes brightened. Those stories would change everything. If a parent hears about Devin, they stop thinking about rankings and start thinking about their own kid. They start wondering, what could my child become here? Exactly. And we should be showing this visually too. Maps of where our graduates are, timelines showing how our placements have diversified, infographics that connect our programs to outcomes, like how our STEM curriculum feeds into engineering acceptances, or how our arts conservatory produces students who get into schools like Otis College of Art and Design. I want to do something else too, Lena said. I want to track what happens after college, because the real proof isn't the acceptance letter, it's what our graduates are doing five and ten years out. I had a conversation last week with an Alum from the class of 2015 who went to a regional state university. Nobody would have put that on a highlight reel. But she's now running a climate research lab. The education she got here, the curiosity, the work ethic, the mentorship, that's what made the difference, not the name on her diploma. Tom nodded slowly. That's the story we should be telling, not look at our list, but look at our people. Can we make this happen? Lena asked, because I'm tired of watching families walk away from this school over a piece of paper that doesn't represent who we actually are. Let's bring it to Dr. Ose, Tom said. I think she'll see this the way we do. A week later, Tom and Lena sat in the head of school's office with Dr. Abena Osi. Lena had brought a folder with mock-ups of the new approach, student profiles, a draft infographic, a sample alumni spotlight. Dr. Osi studied the materials carefully, then set them down. This is strong work, but I need to tell you both something honestly. Some of our board members are going to push back on this. Tom shifted in his seat. Because they want the Ivy numbers front and center? Because they believe that's what sells, Dr. Osi said. And I'll be transparent. There was a time early in my career as a head when I believed it too. At my first school, I spent two years trying to get our Ivy placement rate up. I pressured the college counseling team to steer strong students toward name brands, and you know what happened? We got the numbers up by a few points, but we also had students miserable at schools that weren't right for them. One student, a brilliant artist, ended up at an Ivy because her parents and I pushed her there. She transferred after one semester. That failure stays with me. Lena looked at her. I didn't know that. It's not something I'm proud of, but it's why I'm at this school now, and it's why I believe in what you're proposing. The question is how we bring the board along. What if we don't ask them to give up the traditional list? Tom suggested. We keep it as one element, but we surround it with context, the student profiles, the program connections, the alumni outcomes. The list becomes a supporting detail instead of the headline. That's smart, Dr. Osei said. Don't take something away. Add depth around it. There's a practical challenge, though, Lena said. We don't have an alumni tracking system. Right now, once students graduate, we lose sight of most of them within a year or two. If we want to tell the long-term story, we need data. Dr. Osei nodded. Work with the Advancement Office on that. They're already maintaining alumni connections for fundraising. We can build on what exists. I'll fund a part-time coordinator to manage alumni surveys and story collection. And our admissions team needs new language, Tom added. Right now, when a parent asks what percentage go to top 20 schools, our counselors freeze. They need a confident way to redirect that conversation toward fit, preparation, and outcomes. Draft talking points, Dr. Osi said, and let's do a training session for anyone who interacts with prospective families, admissions, faculty, even front desk staff. Everyone should be able to articulate our philosophy. College counseling isn't about getting a student into the most impressive sounding school. It's about helping them find the place where they'll come alive. Lena smiled. When do we start? Update the website and digital materials this month, Dr. O. C. said. Introduce the new approach at the Winter Parent Night. Full rollout by next admissions season. And Lena, that story about your Alum running the climate lab, that's your lead. Start there.

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Now here are three questions this story should raise for your school. If a prospective family asked your admissions team to explain the value of your college placements without mentioning a single school name, could they do it confidently? And what would that answer sound like? What systems do you have in place to track graduates beyond college acceptance? And how would your enrollment story change if you could show where your alumni are five and ten years out? Are you unconsciously reinforcing the prestige driven narrative by how you present college data? And what would it take to shift your community's definition of college success from where students get in to how well they thrive? Thanks for listening to EM Chronicles. Every school has stories worth telling. We're here to help you find your way. I'm Claude Anderson. See you in the next episode.