admission representative

financial advisor

campus director

adjunct faculty

academic counselor

South University

Review Summary:
While the role of Admissions Representative at South University is positioned as a student support and guidance role, in reality, it feels far more like a telemarketing or high-pressure sales job — without the compensation typically tied to such metrics. There is a significant disconnect between the role's described purpose (helping students find the right educational path) and the daily expectations (hitting aggressive enrollment numbers for the current term regardless of student readiness).

Pros:

Remote flexibility is helpful for work-life balance.

Initial training is structured and comprehensive.

Opportunity to develop strong communication and objection-handling skills.

Cons:

Sales Over Student Support:
The emphasis is overwhelmingly on enrolling students immediately, rather than doing what is genuinely in the best interest of the student. If a student needs more time to prepare or prefers a later start, you will likely be questioned or criticized for not pushing harder.

Misaligned Role Expectations:
While leadership often reiterates that this is a “sales role,” the lack of commission or meaningful incentive for meeting or exceeding quotas creates frustration and burnout. You're essentially working under sales pressures without sales compensation.

Stagnant, Redundant Work:
The work is highly repetitive, and there's little to no opportunity for growth or career satisfaction. Daily huddles rarely focus on student outcomes or quality counseling but rather reinforce the same motivational sales slogans.

Outdated Processes, Resistance to Change:
There's limited willingness to reevaluate internal systems or processes in a way that supports either student success or employee retention. Frontline feedback rarely leads to any actionable changes.

Morale & Burnout:
Burnout is a real and pressing issue. The lack of autonomy, constant pressure to enroll every student immediately, and absence of meaningful recognition leads to a daily sense of dread for many employees.

Accreditation Concerns:
The university has been on accreditation warning lists, which makes it more difficult to speak confidently to prospective students about the long-term value of their education.

Advice to Management:

If South University wants to improve both student outcomes and employee retention, there needs to be a serious reevaluation of how success is defined. Align the role with authentic admissions counseling, not just quota-chasing. Invest in your employees with fair compensation models and meaningful career paths. Most importantly, prioritize students’ actual educational readiness and long-term goals over short-term enrollment gains.

My time at South University began on a high note. I had the opportunity to work alongside talented and diverse colleagues in what initially felt like a fun, well-organized, and engaging environment. Unfortunately, that positive atmosphere didn’t last. They start you off thinking you are a great sales rep ( since you are not an ADMISSION Rep) with lower-than-expectation goals, then increase them to unattainable ones. One of the biggest challenges at South University was the consistently poor call quality from students ' background noise, dropped calls, and unclear audio were daily obstacles. Compounding this issue, many students were struggling to afford a degree that cost upwards of $92,000. The financial burden weighed heavily on them, often leading to stress, disengagement, and difficulty staying on track. These factors made it challenging for staff to provide meaningful support and significantly impacted overall morale. Many high-quality employees began to leave, and the culture shifted dramatically.
The work environment became increasingly unstable, marked by constant changes, unclear direction, and inconsistent communication from leadership. Micromanagement has also become a growing issue, with little trust shown in employees’ professional judgment. This shift made it difficult to feel empowered or valued in our roles. What was once a promising and inspiring workplace slowly became stressful and discouraging.

I did what I had to do when it comes to working at EDMC.  I was attracted to the idea of helping people earn a college degree, I thought it would give me the experience needed to one day work for a quality school in their admissions department to help students enroll in school.  EDMC is not that experience.  You are sales motivated, and you are encouraged by your managers to push "Students" into starting as early as possible.  I understand the majority of schools are making a profit, but those schools have a name, and have credibility that proves jobs can be obtained. Online Education at EDMC's schools does not provide that type of name to help the advancement of a person's career.  I felt like the hardest part was trying to be a counselor, but they were pushing counselors to simply get students to start.  There was little council outside of figuring out what you could use to get these individuals to start a school program they intially did not look into.  Warm leads, more times than not were leads from a point and click website asking if a person would look into furthering their education.  Next thing you know, they were talking to us after being transfered 3 times.  It was sad, and It was depressing in some cases.  These were good people, and for anyone who truly wanted to go to school and get a degree.  They have better options from real schools who can provide real atmospheres to make you feel like your getting a quality education.

I started my journey as a collegiate English instructor with South University at their Cleveland campus. I would have given higher than a 3-star rating if the campus didn't have to close due to the parent company changing hands a number of times. 

Overall it was a great place for me to build my confidence as a new instructor, and I enjoyed working with the students and helping them build their OWN confidence when they felt they would not succeed with their assignments in my classes. I often tutored students who needed the additional assistance, and would drive to campus even on days when I didn't have classes scheduled in order to meet the students' needs. I also worked with their academic advisers if any students were falling behind and had difficulty meeting deadlines due to everyday life circumstances (many of my students were employed full-time or worked multiple jobs and were also raising children on their own).

As an adjunct faculty member of the English department, South University also gave me the opportunity to be a proofreader for doctoral students who were in the early stages of developing their dissertations for the theology department, and soon after I became a Style&Format reader for completed projects. I was thrilled to be able to use my skills as a proofreader/editor to help these individuals prepare for the last stages of their university years.

South University used to be a pretty respectable university with a large on ground presence but since covid it's struggling to fill classrooms and resorting to online courses which are terrible for students who are struggling to learn. Tuition is higher than before and if you're looking to get a bachelor's degree you're spending $90,000 and over $103,000 if you want a Nursing degree.  Employees have a fair compensation but we don't have any room for growth. Very seldom do you see anybody promoted and if that promotion ever happens it does not come with a pay increase. Read that again. They expect you to do more work without compensation. Longevity also does not matter at South University. You get a little bit more vacation time and that's it. Management is very much out of touch and Senior Management is even more out of touch with the reality on campus. This is one of the few jobs I've ever had where employees are regularly fired for lack of performance yet inept managers seem to have job security. I've never seen anything like it. So in conclusion this is a fair place to work for about a year or two but not longer. It's also a great place to be a manager but not a good place otherwise if you want growth!  

Well, it's a solid 3.  It's a job.  If you're fine with the daily grind,  you'll do well here. 
I was in admissions so it's basic stuff.  Make calls, talk to prospective students, get them registered.   it's very high-touch, so anybody who does this job has to be highly organized and great with follow up.  Management is iffy, the teams are small and there are a couple of people at the top driving all the decisions.  Annoucements come out of nowhere.  Staff is nice, but I think there's poor communication across the board.  it's a "nothing ever really changes" type of environment.  I loved helping the students register for classes, particularly those in the healthcare fields, this is much needed.  

I am administrative staff, not faculty, so it's not critical to have a doctorate or even a master's degree, but it is a university, so the better positions are going to require a mix of business and education.   Unfortunately, higher-level positions don't seem to last here and it seems to have higher turnover than expected, so think up and out.  I also don't think there's any tenured track for professors like there is at larger universities. 

My position in the Admissions office at South University mainly consisted of assisting new students find the right program to enroll in, aid them in the enrollment process and ensure they had a great student experience with their college education.  I learned many ways to implicate my interpersonal communication skills on a daily basis to build solid personal relationships with students to help increase South University's student body.  
    The management structure at South University composed of campus directors, team managers and team leaders which oversaw admissions representatives who all collaborated to help a new prospective student through the enrollment process all the way to graduation.  Working with my co-workers was one of the most enjoyable parts of this position because I've always valued the importance of superb teambuilding skills, which I acquired from my college football experience.
    The most enjoyable part of this job was being recognized by the student for helping them reach their educational goals and having the satisfaction of knowing you genuinely helped an individual turn a large task into a small task.

South University-Novi was a great working environment with the prior President, unfortunately the current President lacks academic and leadership qualifications. It's embarrassing when the president of the university only has a bachelor's degree in theater when 85% of the entire staff has a Master's degree or higher.  This is not the norm for colleges and universities in the state of Michigan. The fun environment that was there before has diminished significantly since the leadership has changed and many of my coworkers have been terminated for minimal reasons or have quit because of micromanagement. It's unfortunate that the students will ultimately suffer because the employees are unable to provide them proper assistance due to the negative working environment and improper leadership of the school.  The tuition that has to be paid to the school for many of the programs, will not pay off for the students.  The leadership only seems to be worried about getting bodies in seats, putting on a show for the students, but not ensuring that the students are getting the value for the very high tuition.  It's unfortunate that the President is more worried about being liked by the students instead of ensuring that they obtain a valuable education.

The university seems like it might be moving in the right direction under the new ownership. However, change is slow and rare. Success or failure in the admissions positions were numbers based and few admissions reps ever felt true job security. 

The pay is among the best in the industry for the position. Admissions reps should be prepared to make a lot of phone calls, working many leads that did not intend to send an inquiry. (lot's of leads simply clicked on a pop-up or felt they needed to complete a survey to move on in a separate application)

The culture is finally starting to become more student-centric, however, which may ultimately push the school in the right direction! 

Highly personable people who like to have an impact on the lives of others will do well here. 

DO NOT apply here if you are easily frustrated by not having your voice heard by management or if you are easily exhausted by a lot of social interaction. You also need to be competitive and willing to be challenged by difficult, sometimes nearly unreachable, goals.

The best part about South University was working with my kind coworkers and direct manager. However, the system itself is broken and beyond their control. Management tends to maintain the status quo to keep their jobs, which leads to willful blindness to real issues.

The work culture is fake positive and toxic, leaving no room for genuine growth or honest conversations. Goals are unrealistic, and the quality of incoming calls is poor. As an admissions representative, you’re basically a glorified babysitter for adults—chasing down students to keep them enrolled and meet targets, often while dealing with inconsistent and unsupportive management policies.

You will work overtime and face burnout due to the emotional toll and systemic obstacles. You often have to do other departments’ work to meet your goals, all while being held to high standards.

This bureaucratic system wears down even the best employees, which explains the high turnover. If you choose to work here, have an exit plan.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Admission representative 16 salaries reported	$58,250 per year
Financial advisor 7 salaries reported	$49,643 per year
Campus director 2 salaries reported	$131,250 per year
Adjunct faculty 9 salaries reported	$600 per week
Academic counselor 3 salaries reported	$49,500 per year

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