By Emily Danger, Admissions Counselor II, Palmer College of Chiropractic
It’s 8:30 a.m., and you have already received two text messages, five new work emails, seven new personal emails, and six notifications from TikTok, all before your morning coffee. Whew. Where do we even begin?
We are living in a world where we make countless decisions before lunchtime while being constantly inundated with notifications, advertisements, emails, social media, and encouragement to buy things we simply do not need (I can see the Amazon man walking up to my door right now). With so much information competing for our attention, even seemingly simple decisions can begin to feel overwhelming. This can lead us to what we might call decision paralysis: knowing that we need to make a decision, but feeling so overwhelmed by the options, information, and pressure surrounding it that we struggle to take the next step.
Now imagine experiencing that same environment while trying to decide where you want to attend college.
Students are not only navigating messaging from brands, social media, friends, and family. They are also receiving emails, texts, advertisements, and other communications from multiple colleges encouraging them to apply, visit campus, attend an event, or to submit their tuition deposit. If you are feeling tapped out by the volume of information coming at you, imagine how students feel when they are asked to make one of the biggest decisions of their adult lives.
Gen Z is growing up in a fully digital environment where smartphones, social media, and being constantly connected are a way of life. They are learning to navigate a world where information is instantly available, choices feel unlimited, and communication is constant. At the same time, Twenge (2023) noted significant mental health concerns among Gen Z.
So what happens when we add the college admissions process to the digital puzzle?
In admissions, it is easy to interpret student silence, indecision, an incomplete application, or failure to respond as a sign that they are no longer interested in our school. A typical phrase we use here in admissions is, “I got ghosted.” But what if we are reading and interpreting their messages incorrectly?
What if the students we thought were no longer interested (NLI) are just overwhelmed?
Rather than viewing every unanswered email, started application, or missed call as a lack of interest, admissions professionals should consider another scenario: the student could be experiencing decision paralysis. The challenge facing the students may not be that they do not want to make the decision. It may be that they are trying to filter through an overwhelming amount of information, weigh their options, and make the right choice for them. When the pressure to make the “right” decision becomes too much, they may choose not to make one at all.
However, most admissions counselors would probably mark this student as no longer interested and move to a student who is more responsive and engaged in the admissions process. We have all spent countless hours on the phone leaving messages and setting the next task, hoping that just one student would pick up the phone. So, what if we reframe the way we communicate with students and create a space that takes some of the pressure off making a decision, instead of pushing them to make a choice?
What if we stopped trying to get students to decide?
I know this sounds like a crazy concept, so hang in there with me. I am not saying that we throw the admissions rule book out the window, stop recruiting, stop following up, or stop asking students to complete the next admissions steps. Students need to receive information, adhere to deadlines, and at the end of the day, admissions counselors still have a job to do.
What I am suggesting is that we think more intentionally about how we ask students to navigate the admissions process and to remember that they are individuals, rather than one more name on an email campaign list.
When we look at a student’s file, and we continue to see “left message” (LM) lined up in a row and unanswered texts and emails we tend to keep reaching out with more communication. They continue to not respond, so we either close the file or leave it open and continue sending them more information they need to process and take in. In this instance, more communication does not always equate to better or clearer communication.
Think about a student who is looking into five different colleges with marketing campaigns coming from all five of them, on top of direct emails, calls, and texts from their admissions counselor. Each admissions counselor may be asking for something different and requesting that the student complete a different task, from sending transcripts to letters of recommendation.
Our first thought as an admissions counselor is to make sure to send them reminders. While those reminders can be helpful, the student could have gotten reminders from the other four schools at the same time. While the task of sending over a transcript or letter of recommendation seems easy, when all of those tasks pile up, each one becomes one more thing the student has to figure out.
Now, instead of responding to their admissions counselors, they don’t respond at all. Because now the text message has become one more decision in a sea of already overwhelming tasks.
This is not to say that every student who ghosts you is experiencing decision paralysis. Some students may just really no longer be interested, have chosen another institution, or have changed their plans. All of those answers are completely okay.
But what if some students really are becoming overwhelmed by the volume of communication and the number of decisions they are being asked to make? Maybe it would be helpful to rethink how we are communicating with them and ask ourselves whether our message is actually helping them move forward or simply adding to the noise.
Maybe our goal at the end of the day shouldn’t be to just get some type of response.
Maybe our goal should be to help students make their next decision a little easier.
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