We try to be optimistic about college planning at Collegewise. But there’s one time when we always assume the worst–when a family misses a meeting or two and doesn’t return our phone calls.
Back when I first started Collegewise, a family that had just left another private counselor came to us. They had recently flown to Houston so their father could receive emergency treatment for an aggressive form of cancer he’d just been diagnosed with. And while they they were gone, they missed an appointment with their private counselor. The only phone call they received was, apparently, to notify them that they now owed a $75 fee for their missed appointment. Another counselor’s mistake became a free lesson for us.
We expect kids to be responsible, to remember their appointments, and to show up on time. But when they don’t, we call the family to let them know that we hope everything’s OK. If we don’t hear back from them, we call again and send an email. And if we still don’t hear back, we mail an old-fashioned letter home letting them know how worried we are, asking them to please check in when they can, and to let us know if there’s anything we can do.
97% of the time, the missed appointment can be chalked up to teenage forgetfulness. But we approach it assuming the family is in the remaining 3%. We’ve had occasions where students have been in serious accidents. We’ve had scenarios where parents didn’t know that a reluctant college applicant had been skipping his meetings. And there have even been a few occasions when it was our mistake and we’d written the appointment wrong in our calendars. But whatever the reason, we’re always glad we gave that remaining 3% the benefit of the doubt and assumed the worst.
And once we know everyone is fine, then we can get back to our usual optimistic selves.