Rather than just making initial contact, relationships are established with the graduating students beginning with a first call placed to juniors in the summer before entering their senior year. Follow-up calls are then made to the same group in the fall and spring. The current group of telecounselors who have been with the program for more than one year, have actually witnessed the fruits of their labor and forged friendships with students they helped recruit over the phone. One of the students now living in the dorms came up to me at the beginning of the year and said that one of the primary reasons he selected UMFK was because of the calls I placed to him. The students aren't the only ones impressed.
Many parents are really happy that students are calling rather than staff.
Every attempt is made to have the person who has established the relationship over the phone conduct the tour. It's all about building and fostering interpersonal relationships. Many of the students who show initial interest in UMFK do so because of the personal attention they expect to receive.