student advisor

enrollment specialist

career coach

postdoctoral associate

faculty

Walden University

I am on the phone talking to current and prospective students all day. I help current students get prepared for their upcoming start dates by helping them learn how to navigate their student portal, get them connected to all the Universities resources, complete their orientation and ensure their financial aid is completed and ready for funding. 

I help our prospective students by learning about their personal and professional goals, what they've been doing in the past and what they see for their future. By carefully listening to where the prospect wants to go in the future I can align them with the program that will best fit their needs and be most efficient in helping them achieve their long-term and future goals.

Overall we have a decent management team. Our upper management is very detached from the Advisors and what our roll encompasses consequently often making decisions that impede our ability to our job as efficiently as possible. I find this very frustrating. Our mid management team are puppets, they will do what their told even if they know it's not going to be a productive change or be an enhancement to what we do. Having said all that I do believe the management team strives to make our working environment as healthy and productive as possible giving us a good work life balance, which is something I greatly appreciate. 

I am surrounded by a great team of people that work together to achieve our overall goals in spite of the obstacles often presented by circumstances beyond our control.

The most challenging part of my job is the lack of communication between departments often resulting in a less than desirable experience for the student.

The best part of what I do is my students, seeing them successfully complete their graduate program and hearing how impactful the experience has been for them. Seeing how they use their education to impact others and their communities.

For part-time faculty, a typical workday consists of responding to students and their writing in an online context. Telephone meetings and webinars are also common. Full-time faculty and supervisors also conduct face-to-face seminars with students in residencies, in a variety of domestic and international locations. 

In my years at Walden University as a full-time supervisor and later a part-time instructor, I learned about online course design, hybrid approaches to instruction, and online supervision. I also learned more about creating training modules for face-to-face residences that can accelerate students' online work. 

It was a pleasure to work on the Walden Management Team. Walden University is devoted to continuous program improvement, and faculty input about program functioning and user friendliness to students is regularly solicited via surveys. Information about work climate and collegiality is also solicited in the surveys. The resulting feedback has resulted in positive organizational changes. The work atmosphere is collegial and supportive, even though the work is conducted primarily online.

The hardest part of the job currently is counseling students who are frustrated with the dissertation writing process. Quality control and academic integrity are a regular part of the feedback process, and some students become frustrated with the level of rigor that is built in to our doctoral programs. It helps to remind them that all of our dissertations will be available through UMI, and the quality of our dissertations is a measure of the quality and credibility of their doctoral degrees from our university.

The most enjoyable part of the job is knowing that I am part of a university that is student centered and collegial.

After going through the required three week training, I thought becoming an Enrollment Advisor (EA) was going to be a grand, fun, experience. Once I actually served in the role it was completely different from what I expected. The position is very numbers driven, with each EA expected to make 90 calls or more a day, or have two hours time on the phone total by the end of the day. Be prepared to work at least one night a week, possibly a Saturday, and sometimes, they will ask for paid volunteers to work holidays. It can be a rewarding position, when you encounter someone who is excited about going to school, but at the same time it can be frustrating when you encounter those individuals who hang up on you, or who are extremely rude because you called their house, even though, they requested info about the school. The role is highly administrative as well, so just be prepared for the expectation of you being well balanced and having the ability to work under possible high stress environment, yet still make your calls, process your paperwork, and enroll the amount of students in which you are expected to enroll for the quarter, in a timely manner. The company culture really depends on the site where you work. The one where I worked was really big on celebrating holidays and birthdays as an office, and coming to together about once a week to talk about current things that were going on with each other, to break up the monotony,and the Enrollment teams were like family, so that helped to take some of the stress off of the position expectations.

Executive management focuses on educational programs that can sustain large enrollments (1000s of graduates per year) at the expense of curriculum that truly prepares the student for the student’s profession. Their strategy requires making the degree as easy as possible to achieve, sacrificing academic rigor to retain students. Admission standards are minimal which results in students who lack preparation for their degree program. To retain students (to retain revenue), leadership team finds excuses to retain students who are caught cheating or plagiarizing. Faculty with higher academic standards, resulting in lower assigned grades, are eventually dismissed. Faculty who will give “easy A” grades are retained. Similarly, courses that students find difficult or too much work are soon modified to be easier. Courses must have at least 80% of students receive at least a ‘B’ or the course is considered a low quality courses. A course that has 100% of the students receive an ‘A’ is considered a success, resulting in institutionalized grade inflation. Bottom line, an example of what is fundamentally wrong with for profit higher education. 

The company still operates as a small organization even though it is very large. Management cannot get their act together to take the organization in one focused direction for a consistent amount of time and feel the way to solve a problem is to hire more high level managers while laying off the "worker bees." There is also very poor communication from the top down.

The parent company, laureate, is notorious in the industry for underpaying staff and not promoting employee advancement. While the health benefits are good, there is no actual human resources support. In my years there, there was never a person in HR I could go to for support or grievances. They are essentially set up to "hire and fire."

I know a lot if people within walden who felt extremely under appreciated. By the time I left, I would classify walden as having a toxic work environment for employees. I don't recommend working there if you want to develop a career and feel appreciated.

The culture was reflective of career advancements offered through the buddy system. Managers were advanced internally without any previous management experience or knowledge of departmental processes. Ideology was that managers focus is to direct people and did not require any leadership skills or need for development. Managers were not viewed as a viable value-added resource. 

The hardest part of the job was adjusting to the various management styles; there was no standard in place and most managers had no previous management experience. There was no talent management or career development offered. Employees were rewarded based on acceptance, not performance or employee contribution to aligning with the organization's strategic goals.  

The most enjoyable part of the job was the work/life balance. Very flexible with personal matters when required by employees.

A typical day at work included about 40+ calls from online students per day depending on the day and when the new Quarter/Semester started. 

I learned how to be even more patient with people especially when they aren't as tech savvy as they should be when attending school online. 

Management is okay. I didn't have any negative experiences. I would like for the communication between different departments to be better though. 

The work environment was okay. Seemed to be a bit segregated when it came to the different departments. 

The hardest part of the job is maintaining a calm tone when speaking with students on the phone. Some students get very upset over things that can't be controlled by tier 1 support teams. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was the thankfulness & gratitude received after solving a students problem from technical to financial.

Walden University and its students value their instructors. The online classroom and Blackboard are catching on. Students and faculty expect prompt responses to inquiries. The school's missions of social responsibility and diversity are staples of the institution. Students come from all part of the country and the world to share their experiences, which enrich others. The most enjoyable part of being a Walden Ambassador is sharing the good news with others.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Even though new ownership requires a return to office where there are office campuses, they have allowed staff who reside outside those areas to remain fully remote.  Also, (most) managers truly care about employee self care and work-life balance. Not all policies reflect that, but individual managers do their best for their teams. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Time off is stingy. If you have a few doctor appointments or medical procedures requiring time off throughout the year, it leaves little time for actual vacation days to relax and recharge. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Most teams function like they really care about each other. Lots of team effort to help each other out.

A typical day consists of reviewing applicant's file's for admission into Walden University's Undergraduate program.  I've learned countless processes and procedures and developed a great work ethic.  I learned how to be more productive in group settings and how to appreciate the hard work in a team setting.  My co-workers are all great and easy to work with and always willing to work through any issues any of us might have.  The hardest part of my job is the ever changing requirements of our admissions department.  Being able to organize email's that introduce changes in requirements is essential in keeping up with those changes.  The most enjoyable part of my day is admitting a student and know that I played a small part in helping them achieve their academic goals.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Student advisor 22 salaries reported	$26.05 per hour
Enrollment specialist 12 salaries reported	$25.06 per hour
Career coach 19 salaries reported	$26.23 per hour
Postdoctoral associate 6 salaries reported	$2,820 per month
Faculty 3 salaries reported	$2,233 per month

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