Discuss prerequisites with a prospective student

A prospective student asks whether work experience or an old course lets them skip a prerequisite. The honest answer is that you do not know yet, and saying that out loud is harder than it sounds when someone is staring at you for a fast yes. Enrollment advisors sit closest to this question, but the decision belongs to the academic department. Your job is to gather the right evidence and point the applicant to the person who can actually rule on it.

Why this conversation goes wrong

Applicants want a quick answer because they are building a schedule, a budget, and sometimes a resignation letter around a start date. That pressure pushes them toward a yes or no question. An advisor who wants to be helpful can slide into answering it as if the decision were theirs to make. Say something like "that should probably count" and the applicant hears a ruling, not a guess. They register for the next course level, skip the prerequisite section of the website, and tell their employer the program is settled. When the real review comes back different, you are unwinding a plan the applicant already built and told other people about. The fix is not to sound distant or unhelpful. It is to be precise about what you know, what you do not know, and who actually decides.

How to prepare before the call

Know the prerequisite policy for the programs you support well enough to describe it without pulling up a document mid call. Know which office reviews prior learning for each program. Some schools route this through the academic department, some through a credential evaluation office, and some through both depending on whether the record is a transcript, a workplace certificate, or coursework from another country. Know what evidence each path actually accepts. A transcript is not the same as a certificate of completion, and a letter describing job duties is not the same as either one. Keep a short, current list of the documents a reviewer will look at, and know roughly how long a review takes so you can give an honest timeframe instead of a vague one. If you do not carry this in your head, you will end up improvising an answer that sounds confident and turns out to be wrong.

What to say

Maria tells advisor Devon, "I spent four years running quality control in a manufacturing lab. Can that cover the chemistry prerequisite for the imaging program?"

Devon says, "That experience is worth putting in front of the program. Which course are you trying to get into, and do you have a transcript or any credential records connected to that lab work?"

Maria explains she took biology years ago and holds a certificate from an internal training program at her employer.

Devon says, "The academic department sets the prerequisite policy for that course, and I am not able to approve a waiver from this seat. What I can do is show you the course description, tell you exactly which documents the reviewer accepts, and get you in front of the program advisor who makes that call."

Maria asks whether she should register for chemistry now, just in case.

Devon says, "Hold off on that until the program advisor has looked at your certificate and transcript. Let's get them the right documents first, so you choose a schedule based on an actual answer instead of a guess."

Devon then confirms the course name, the term Maria wants to start, and notes the certificate and transcript as the two records to send ahead.

Mistakes to avoid

A few mistakes show up again and again in these calls.

1. Guessing at eligibility because the applicant's story sounds reasonable. Four years of lab work sounds substantial, but that judgment is not yours to make in place of a documented review.
2. Telling an applicant what to register for before the reviewer has responded. Even a soft line like "you'll probably be fine" gets treated as permission.
3. Skipping past the paperwork because the conversation feels resolved. If you do not name the exact documents and route them somewhere specific, the applicant is left holding a vague plan and no next step.
4. Being so cautious that you refuse to explain anything at all, which pushes the applicant to guess on their own or walk away from the program out of frustration.

Each of these mistakes comes from the same instinct, wanting the call to end with a clean answer. Prerequisite reviews rarely give you that in the moment, and pretending otherwise costs the applicant more than a short delay would.

How to practice and score it

Practice this scenario with a blank course description and see whether you reach for the reviewer's name and the document list without being prompted. DealSpeak's Education practice conversations hub includes several prerequisite and eligibility scenarios built for enrollment advisors, and running one with a manager watching is a useful gut check. Have the applicant character name the program they want, the prior learning they are bringing, and the term they hope to start in. Then see how quickly you get to a document list and a named reviewer instead of an opinion.

A manager scoring the call should look for the same three things every time. Did you avoid stating or implying an eligibility decision. Did you capture the specific documents the review actually needs. Did you tell the applicant who reviews the file and roughly when they will hear back.

The same discipline applies outside academic prerequisites. If you also work with institutional buyers, Map a procurement review before a platform demo walks through gathering the right information before committing to next steps, and Ask better questions about a procurement timeline covers the same idea for timeline questions. Both follow the same principle as this call. Get the facts on record before anyone commits to a date.

Prerequisite questions feel small until an applicant builds a semester around your tone of voice instead of an actual answer. Stay precise about what you know, gather the documents, and hand the file to the person who can actually decide. That keeps the applicant's trust intact even when the real answer takes a few extra days.