Advertise on podcast: The Admissions Directors Lunchcast

Season finale. What actually works that nobody wants to say out loud? This week: the case for fewer AP courses and more trades, why most enrollment problems are really follow-up problems, and an argument about whether we'd have time to actually know our students if we hadn't chosen to build applicant pools this big. Influencer guest: Matt Fischer, 6-12 instructor at Fort Campbell High School. Practitioner guest: Austin Blair, Dean of Admission and Marketing for the OSF Colleges of Nursing — Saint Francis in Peoria and Saint Anthony in Rockford, Illinois. That's season 12. Thanks for spending your lunch hour with us. Sponsors: · Caylor Solutions, caylor-solutions.com · Square One Consulting, squareoneky.com · College Board Strategic Advisory Services, cb.org/strategic-advisory

The aid package is confusing. This week: why families misread aid letters before the letters even arrive, what "standard assets" actually means, and one guest's case that we should stop calling it retention and start calling it continuous enrollment. Influencer guest: Evelyn Jerome Alexander, Certified Educational Planner and owner of Magellan College Counseling in Los Angeles — she's the one at the table when the letter comes. Practitioner guest: Rachel Gordon, Vice President of Student Financial Aid Services at American University of Antigua. Join us for the most productive lunch meeting you'll take all week. Sponsors: · College Board Strategic Advisory Services, cb.org/strategic-advisory · Caylor Solutions, caylor-solutions.com · Custom Viewbook, customviewbook.com

Why does a student start an application but never finish it? Why can a generous financial aid offer feel disappointing to a family? On this episode of the Admissions Directors Lunchcast, Teege Mettille and Nathan Ament talk with Laura Rudolph of Square One Consulting about applying behavioral economics to college enrollment. Laura explores the intention–action gap, the small points of friction that stall applications, and why families often focus on what they still owe rather than the scholarship they received. She also makes the case for honest deadlines and deposit messages that answer unresolved questions instead of adding pressure. One place to start: Watch a few students attempt a task, such as completing an application, and note where they get stuck. Connect with Laura: Square One Consulting: Higher Education Enrollment Marketing Consultant | Square One ConsultingLaura on LinkedIn: Laura Rudolph | LinkedIn

Your tour guide is the whole visit, and you barely control what they say. This week: what students actually remember from a campus visit, why the climbing wall keeps making the tour route, and how to train ambassadors without ironing the personality out of them. Influencer guest: Ashley Tucker, school counselor at Leyden High Schools District 212 in Franklin Park, Illinois — she hears what students say after they get back. Practitioner guest: Anna Barger, first-year recruiter and admissions coordinator at the University of Michigan School of Nursing in Ann Arbor. Join us for the most productive lunch meeting you'll take all week. Sponsors: · Square One Consulting, squareoneky.com · College Board Strategic Advisory Services, cb.org/strategic-advisory · Caylor Solutions, caylor-solutions.com

Which parts of the campus visit actually move a student, and which parts are just choreography? This week: why the library might be the wrong first stop, whether a self-guided tour beats no tour at all, and what happens to yield when you stop treating the individual visit as the gold standard. Influencer guest: Stuart Nachbar, Certified Educational Planner at Educated Quest in central New Jersey — 350-plus campuses visited and profiled, and some heretical opinions about the tour route. Practitioner guest: Kim Zimmerman, Vice President of Enrollment at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin. Join us for the most productive lunch meeting you'll take all week. Sponsors: · Caylor Solutions, caylor-solutions.com · Custom Viewbook, customviewbook.com · College Board Strategic Advisory Services, [email protected]

A special episode with The College Board. Social intelligence analyzes that conversation—from students and parents to alumni, faculty, and media—to provide campuses with a deeper understanding of students’ needs and interests to improve outreach at scale. College Board’s new strategic advisory services are built on Campus Sonar’s social intelligence methodology and paired with expert strategists who translate insight into focused action for your institution.  Because knowing what students are actually saying is the first step to knowing what actually works. Guests: Keagan Miller and Amber Sandall, former Sonarians, now Strat 2026 NACAC Booth #1415 Learn more at ⁠cb.org/strategicadvisory⁠

A special episode with Ambio. Streaming ads for higher ed, and the part enrollment leaders have been waiting on: attribution you can actually take to a board. Kelsey Anderson explains how household-level tracking works, where performance TV fits alongside the vendors you already have, and why getting in front of the whole family matters more than getting in front of the student. Guest: Kelsey Anderson, VP of Client Solutions at Ambio. Learn more at ambioedu.com

A special episode with CampusESP. Figuring out when, how, and about what to engage parents has been a vexing challenge for many of us. From limitations (not having parent contact information) to the awkard dance of not wanting to step in front of the student, colleges have often defaulted toward stepping back. Today's guest tells us: step forward! Guest: Dave Becker, Co-Founder and CEO Learn more at campusesp.com

Every email you send lands at somebody's kitchen table. This week: what parents are actually worried about underneath the questions they ask, how much of the conversation is really about money, and why more communication often makes families feel less steady rather than more. Influencer guest: Lauren Watson, founder of Watson College Consulting in the Boston area ... the one in the room with the anxious parents. Practitioner guest: Shana Kinane, Senior Assistant Director of National Recruitment at Indiana University Bloomington, regionally based in Chicago. Join us for the most productive lunch meeting you'll take all week. Sponsors: · College Board Strategic Advisory Services [email protected] · Caylor Solutions, caylor-solutions.com · Square One Consulting, squareoneky.com

A special episode with Custom Viewbook. Most of us are still guessing at the top of the funnel. Sarah Ailes walks us through what a student actually experiences in the four minutes after they click, what lands in the admissions office, and why an inquiry form with an immediate payoff behaves differently than one without. Plus a real case study from Greenville Technical College — 46,000 leads, 65% opting into text, and roughly 10% matriculating. Guest: Sarah Ailes, Custom Viewbook. Learn more or request a demo at customviewbook.com, or email [email protected].

Students don't want to talk on the phone. Or do they? This week: what actually lands in a call or a text, when outreach tips from helpful into intrusive, and why a growing number of students assume your text was sent by a robot. Influencer guest: Megan Ryan Finegan, Senior Associate Director of College Counseling at The Pingry School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. That's 28 years on both sides of the desk. Practitioner guest: Jennifer Sloan, Regional Associate Director of Admissions at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois ... the one actually making the calls. Join us for the most productive lunch meeting you'll take all week. Sponsors: · Custom Viewbook, customviewbook.com · College Board Strategic Advisory Services, [email protected] · Caylor Solutions, caylor-solutions.com

More on the secret roundtables — this time, what's actually going to be discussed. Megan Cooley on email marketing: what happens when nobody has time to think strategically about what they're sending, and where the gaps in the nurture sequence tend to sit. Teege on staff morale and enrollment success: how the draining parts of this work don't just hurt your counselors, they hurt your numbers. Jeremy Tiers on leadership and culture: coaching instead of lecturing, and how a team's culture shows up in your results. Mary Grondahl of 3 Enrollment on standing out in a crowded market: how to position an institution when every school in the country is saying the same three things. Thursday, October 8, one block from the NACAC convention center. No slides, no laptops, five to fifteen people per table. Sign up and we'll send you the location a couple of days ahead. For folks working inside a college admissions office. Sign up for details here.

Everyone's posting. What's actually landing? This week we're asking what moves a student versus what's just noise we're all making at each other ... the polish-versus-authenticity question, who should be holding the account, and whether anyone under 18 cares when a building was built. Influencer guest: Horzy Genao, college counselor at The Franklin School in Jersey City, New Jersey. Practitioner guest: Adanna Smith, admissions counselor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and president of Michigan ACAC. Join us for the most productive lunch meeting you'll take all week. Sponsors: · Caylor Solutions, caylor-solutions.com · Square One Consulting, squareoneky.com · College Board Strategic Advisory Services, [email protected]

Season 12 starts where the fall always starts: on the road. This season we're asking one question: what actually works? Not what's trendy, not what we've always done. First up: recruitment travel. What makes a high school visit worth the drive? When is a college fair actually doing something for students? And how do you decide a territory isn't worth it anymore? Influencer guest: Brian Ford, Assistant Principal of School and College Counseling at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Practitioner guest: Mary Randers, Vice President for Enrollment at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. Join us for the most productive lunch meeting you'll take all week. Sponsors: · College Board Strategic Advisory Services (Email [email protected] to schedule a conversation) · Caylor Solutions, caylor-solutions.com · Custom Viewbook, customviewbook.com

A short one, and a quiet one. Teege and Megan Cooley are running a series of secret roundtables on Thursday, October 8, a block from the NACAC convention center. No slides. No presentations. No laptops. Just five to fifteen people around a table talking about the work. Four discussions: Jeremy Tiers on culture and leadership, Mary from Three Enrollment on standing out in a crowded market, Teege on improving morale to improve enrollment, and Megan on email marketing. There's no website and no signage. Sign up and you'll get the where and when a couple of days ahead. This one is aimed squarely at college admissions folks — directors, deans, VPs, senior associates. School counselors and IECs, we love you, but this one isn't built for you. Sign up for more information here.