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Kathy Cabrera Guaman not only survived the nail-biting process of applying to college; she got into three.
But the celebrations were short-lived. Now she was sitting somberly and absorbing how much work comes after that triumphant moment of acceptance and before she sets foot in a classroom in the fall.
For incoming students at most colleges and universities, this has long meant slogging through endless and complex steps they’re left mostly on their own to figure out — financial aid, loans, majors, placement tests, class registration, housing, roommates, textbooks, a meal plan, health insurance, public transportation, immunizations.
That’s what brought Guaman to a conference room in the admissions offices of Augsburg University, where she’s decided to enroll and where admissions director Stacy Severson was walking her through those logistics.
Severson explained what Guaman’s financial aid would and wouldn’t cover, when to register for classes, where to look for outside scholarships — even which express bus to take to the campus if she chooses to commute.
The support Severson was offering is part of a surprisingly novel approach now being rolled out nationwide to try not only to make the process of admission simpler, but to enlist admissions officers as guides for students navigating the equally complex process that confronts them after that.
As generations of applicants to college have experienced, this is not the traditional role of admissions counselors, who have historically been sealed off behind closed doors and not available to help with any of these things — gatekeepers in a process seemingly meant to emphasize the exclusive nature of their institutions.
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