CEC Client Communication and Ethics 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A prospective student discloses a mental health condition during an enrollment conversation. How should the counselor handle this information?
- Share it with admissions committee members to assess fitness
- Keep it confidential and refer the student to appropriate campus support services (Correct answer)
- Document it in the public enrollment file
- Use it to determine whether to encourage enrollment
Correct answer: Keep it confidential and refer the student to appropriate campus support services
Sensitive personal disclosures must remain confidential and be handled by referring students to qualified support services.
Question 2: Which scenario represents a violation of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) ethical standards?
- Offering a campus tour to prospective students
- Paying a per-head bonus to counselors for each student they enroll (Correct answer)
- Providing written program outcome data to students
- Following up with students who submitted inquiries
Correct answer: Paying a per-head bonus to counselors for each student they enroll
NACAC standards prohibit incentive-based compensation tied directly to the number of students enrolled.
Question 3: An enrollment counselor realizes mid-conversation that a student's academic background makes them a poor fit for the program. The ethical response is to:
- Continue the enrollment pitch to meet personal targets
- Honestly discuss the fit concerns and suggest more appropriate alternatives (Correct answer)
- Transfer the call without explanation
- Downplay the academic requirements to maintain interest
Correct answer: Honestly discuss the fit concerns and suggest more appropriate alternatives
Ethical counselors prioritize student wellbeing over enrollment numbers by honestly discussing fit and presenting appropriate alternatives.
Question 4: What does 'duty of care' require of a Certified Enrollment Counselor when working with vulnerable populations such as first-generation college students?
- Applying standard practices without modification
- Providing additional context, resources, and support to ensure fully informed decisions (Correct answer)
- Expediting the enrollment process to reduce confusion
- Limiting communication to avoid overwhelming the student
Correct answer: Providing additional context, resources, and support to ensure fully informed decisions
Duty of care requires counselors to adapt their approach and provide enhanced support to ensure vulnerable students can make genuinely informed decisions.
Question 5: When a student requests a copy of their own enrollment file, the counselor should:
- Require written approval from the admissions director before granting access
- Provide access in accordance with FERPA rights and institutional policy (Correct answer)
- Deny the request citing internal privacy rules
- Only share a summary, not the full file
Correct answer: Provide access in accordance with FERPA rights and institutional policy
Under FERPA, eligible students have the right to inspect and review their education records, and counselors must facilitate this access.
Question 6: A counselor receives competing instructions from a supervisor that appear to require misrepresenting program accreditation status to students. The counselor should:
- Follow the supervisor's instructions to maintain employment
- Refuse to misrepresent accreditation and escalate the issue to compliance or an ethics officer (Correct answer)
- Omit accreditation details entirely to avoid conflict
- Mention accreditation vaguely without confirming or denying status
Correct answer: Refuse to misrepresent accreditation and escalate the issue to compliance or an ethics officer
Misrepresenting accreditation is a serious ethical and legal violation; counselors must refuse and escalate to the appropriate authority.
Question 7: Transparency in enrollment counseling primarily means:
- Sharing all internal institutional documents with students
- Openly disclosing program costs, outcomes, and limitations without omitting material facts (Correct answer)
- Telling students everything other applicants have submitted
- Providing transparency only when directly asked by the student
Correct answer: Openly disclosing program costs, outcomes, and limitations without omitting material facts
Transparency requires proactive, complete disclosure of all information material to a student's enrollment decision, not just reactive answers.
CEC Client Communication and Ethics 3
A prospective student discloses a mental health condition during an enrollment conversation.
How should the counselor handle this information?