Episode summary introduction: Students have a right to Dream BIG. The challenge for College Counselors is to morph those BIG Dreams into achievable ones, while still harnessing the arrogance of youth.

Nitin Jain, Co-founder of Oncourse, discusses how they set and manage students’ College expectations using Counseling Tenets they have developed over the last 10 years.

In particular, we discuss the following with him:

• How to deal student expectations
  
• The process evaluating potential and recalibrating expectations
  
• Keeping students motivated along the way
  

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Tenets of Student Engagement [1:56]
  
• The First Meeting [6:17]
  
• Setting Markers and Ongoing Student Assessment [9:38]
  
• Decision Points [13:33]
  
• Keeping Students Motivated [15:47]
  
• “All on the Same Team!” [18:03]
  
• College Happiness Index [20:10]
  
• Managing Expectations is a team effort! [23:43]
  

Our Guest: Nitin Jain,  Co-founder Oncourse, Gurgaon India, focuses on international college applications to US, UK, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Memorable Quote: “I think the underlying principle, in my mind, is preference of fitment over brand.”

Episode Transcript: Please visit almamatters.io/podcasts.

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