On the Road: A Day in the Life of an Admission Counselor
I’m sure you know that, every fall, admission counselors hit the road to meet with students like you. But do you know what that looks like for us? My name is Lucy, and I am going to take you through a day in the life of an admission counselor while on the road. Our office operates on a territory management basis, which means that each one of our counselors works with specific geographical territories and schools within those areas. Follow along as I visit some of my schools in the bay area!
7:45am - First stop of the day: coffee. I have at least one cup of coffee every day on recruitment to make sure I have enough energy throughout the day.
8:10am - I arrive at my first school visit of the day and make sure to leave time to set up before the students arrive. At this school, I spoke to about 15 students. They had great questions about double-majoring, adding minors and what to include in their applications. I also had the chance to speak with one of my favorite counselors before my presentation and catch up with her on what’s new at her school.
9:30am - I had a little break before my next visit, so I decide to stop at a local park with Japanese gardens to walk around for a while. This is a fun way for me to spend some time in nature and get some steps in between my visits.
11:00am - It's time for my next school visit. This school is only about 5 minutes away, so it’s not too bad of a drive. This gives me plenty of time to set up and meet with the counseling team before speaking with the students. This group had around 10 students, and they mainly asked about applying Early Decision vs Early Action.
12:30pm - My third visit of the day is a little bit further away, but in this area that just means 20 to 30 minutes. This group was around 15-20 students, and they were very engaged throughout the presentation. No matter how big or small the group is, I always try to give the same quality presentation and answer as many questions as I can.
1:45pm - I am a part of our Blog Squad in our office, so one of my responsibilities is to write and edit the blogs that are on this website you are currently visiting. Our team has weekly meetings, so I hopped on that call while stopping for my favorite food, sushi.
3:00pm - My final visit of the day is an after-school visit, which means there will probably be a decent number of questions after. I presented to a group of 20 students and then stayed a few minutes after the presentation was over to make sure all of their questions were answered.
3:45pm - Once I am done with my school visits, I like to find a local park or nature preserve to walk around and get some fresh air. Sometimes I will stay there for a while as I wrap up my day and look over the notes from my visits. Other times I will go back to my hotel or find a restaurant and wrap up work there. Today I found a beautiful trail by the bay to walk around before going back to my hotel.
6:30pm - In my opinion, one of the best perks of recruitment travel is that I get to try new restaurants in my territories. My favorite food is sushi, so I always ask the high school students and counselors for their top recommendations. Tonight, since I already had sushi for lunch, I went to a local restaurant with live music. It was a great experience, and I had a delicious piece of salmon for dinner.
8:00pm - Now that I am back at my hotel, it’s time to get set up for another day of visits. I have my first appointment tomorrow bright and early at 7:45am, so I want to make sure I set myself up well to start the day on a good note. After that, I will wind down and get ready for bed so that I get a full night’s worth of sleep. I want to make sure I have a good amount of energy for each group of students that I meet with tomorrow.
Recruitment travel days are busy and full, but they’re also one of the best parts of the job. Meeting students where they are, hearing about their dreams, and helping them picture themselves at USC is what makes travel worthwhile.
Written by: Lucy Jordan, Assistant Director, USC Office of Admission