Redefining College Selection with Corsava
With campus tours and college exploration season upon us, let’s hit the ground running with tips on how to make this process really fun and productive for everyone. I am super excited about a tool we recently released that allows students to hone in on the cards that matter most to them by organizing their impressions about those items for each college on their list. As students decide where to apply, student accounts are a great resource to gather and organize information about colleges. Counselors can view impressions in real time as students explore and visit colleges.
How it Works (Hint: You don’t need access to the Counselor Café to use these tools)
Invite your students to set up a Corsava account and complete a card sort online.
You and/or your students create a college list within their Corsava account.
Students research colleges, either on campus or using tools closer to home. Students can access their Corsava account on any device and give their impressions about each college on their list.
Students simply have to choose an impression for each card. When they select a college, the “Must Have” and “Would Be Nice” cards from the student’s most recent completed sort pop up automatically.
Presto—a score is given to each of the colleges on their list, indicating how each college lines up with the student’s deeper preferences. Students can also add notes for each card when entering impressions for a college, either shared with you or kept private. We recommend that they check in with you after giving their impressions and discuss the pros and cons of each choice. This is a great resource for writing their “why this college” essay, more specifics to use in interviews, a central location to keep things organized, and a much more targeted response when everyone keeps asking “where are you applying?”
How many times have your students returned from campus visits and tried to articulate the differences between each college, while coming up short on details? They might say that some just stood out, others are off the list for some vague reason, and still more are left in that wasteland in between. It could be just a feeling, the weather, a class they attended, the tour guide, or the great food at lunch, but one way or another, their list is beginning to crystalize. I love hearing these stories—why a student chose not to get out of the car at a certain college, why another college surprisingly moved way up the list, and why their preferences may have completely changed.
We all know that first impressions are important, so rather than trying to remember everything when they return, students can pull out their favorite device and give their impressions of what matters most to them on the spot while everything is fresh in their mind. And if they overlook something that really was important to them while visiting, they can circle back and ask or leave it to follow up later. The result—no loose ends, a more engaging experience, and lots of food for thought later so the discussion can be continued with you and/or the family.
Back at your office, their impressions are automatically shared with you in real time so that you can see how things went and what they think of their colleges. Students can also make notes that are shared with you or kept private, so nothing gets left behind when it comes time to make final choices and apply. And down the road, students will be more knowledgeable when they connect with admissions representatives—at their high school, during a college fair, or when going through the interview process.
Finding a great fit and narrowing college choices is all about matching a student’s preferences to the many options out there. There are so many ways now to do research without visiting campuses—talking to peers from a student’s area who attend the college, going to Google Earth and driving through campus, and exploring those things that matter to them most on the college website. And there are also easy ways to gather information close to home—follow colleges on social media, get on the admissions mailing list, run the Net Price Calculator, and attend the college’s local events. There is a lot to be learned without leaving town, and by recording the impressions of their “Must Have” and “Would Be Nice” cards, they are digging deeper, learning more, and keeping a good record of why College A might be a better fit than College B.
A Myriad of Choices
Just yesterday, a mom called me in a bit of a quandary as she said her son loved all the schools he visited during Winter Break. How does he start narrowing his choices and decide where to apply? We discussed the fact that her older son is now at a wonderful college that he loves, and she never would have thought it would be a good fit, but he is getting mentoring from faculty, friends are encouraging him to take classes he never would have considered, and he is enjoying his time in another state. But her older son knew that it was the place for him, and he never wavered. I thought about her concern for her younger son as this was going to be more complicated for the family; there were too many choices. As is often the case, families learn the process and then see it from a totally new perspective when their next child starts round two.
Then it occurred to me—adding the colleges he visited to his Corsava account and then going through the impressions process might give some clarity to a seemingly overwhelming process. It’s funny because I live and breathe Corsava, but I am used to doing things a certain way and I am just now getting used to offering this option. While the application was not yet live when he visited, I suggested she have him log back into his account and add the colleges he wants to his list. I could do this, but my approach is a bit more hands-off, and I want him to take ownership of the process. That said, some students might benefit from having counselors add to their lists to get the ball rolling.
He would then be ready to give his impressions of his “Must Haves” and “Would Be Nice” preferences at each of the colleges he visited. And once he finished making his choices, he would see which colleges have the most positive impressions overall as each college gets a numerical score when an impression sort is completed. The great news is that this approach is based on what the student thinks, bringing the process back into focus for students who might have originally had a very vague sense of why a college was on their list.
Why This College?
Students say that campus info sessions, campus tours, social media presence, and a college’s website are important factors when weighing their choices, so we added these cards to impression sorts.
As I was writing this, I received a notification that a student I had met with earlier today had just finished her online sort. Even though I like using the cards during a family meeting early in the process, I ask students to do a sort after we meet and they’ve had a chance to think about things we discussed. Not surprisingly, I often see some changes from our original meeting after we have had some time to discuss their choices. But I think the most compelling part about this approach and the new college impressions tool is that now they can take it to the next level. Students and families are overwhelmed, and anything we can do to help them provide concrete feedback about their individual preferences is going to help them target schools that will be a better fit.
I cannot wait to see what she thinks about her schools now, and I am looking forward to checking her account to see what she thinks of her choices after her Spring Break visits. My hope is that more discussions will follow at home as students see how powerful digging deeper can be. And even if students never have the opportunity to visit, by going through their “Must Haves” and “Would Be Nice” cards and giving their impressions, they will get a much better idea of which colleges would offer the best educational and campus culture, residential options, extracurricular activities, academics, and the resources they need to succeed. Whether it’s an assignment for students to do at home after a sort (add your colleges, give your impressions!), or something you do together, they will go through this process feeling more focused and confident with a more personalized vision of where they should be.
As far as I am concerned, the more effective the tools in our toolbox are, the better. The more ways we have to engage our students in the college process, by encouraging them to look deeper and giving them ways to change their preferences and target their choices, the better. I am excited to see the results of offering students a way to pull out their phones after a tour or while researching their options at home, all the while allowing me to see their impressions in real time.