NACAC 2025 reminded us of three things that still matter.

Admissions has felt heavy lately. The student pool shrinks, budgets tighten, and every click or campus visit is expected to prove it was worth the effort. Layer on the cultural pressures, where even saying the wrong word can draw scrutiny…it’s no wonder the work can feel exhausting. But at its core, admissions is still about people, and the small moments that tip a decision one way or another.

That’s what made the 2025 National Association for College Admission Counseling Conference (NACAC) feel like a reset. For a few days, the focus shifted. You could feel it in the buzz of the packed rooms, in the hallway conversations that stretched long after sessions ended, and even in the line at the Fordham Pizza Shop takeover. Again and again, the talk came back to three themes: emotion, focus, and perspective.

1. Building brands that make people feel something.

Brené Brown’s opening keynote offered us an important reminder: Joy creates meaning, and meaning keeps us going. The irony is that, in admissions, joy often gets shoved to the bottom of the list. 

But that’s actually the lesson here. Students remember the moments that feel personal, surprising, and joyful: the acceptance letter that makes them cry, the tour that feels like home, the event that makes the decision feel obvious. Those things don’t always fit neatly into a spreadsheet, but sometimes joy on its own is enough.

At NACAC, we had a hand in bringing joy to an unexpected place: a pizza joint across the street from the convention center. Ologie and Fordham University turned it into the Fordham Pizza Shop, offering free slices (with cheeky names) that had conference-goers lined up down the block…and it was a moment worth talking about even after the takeover (and the conference) was over.

2. Leading with steadiness in uncertain times.

AI is rewriting workflows, policies keep shifting underfoot, and pressure of enrollment drop-off  hovers like a storm on the horizon. In times like these, it’s tempting to lunge at every change, like a six-year-old on the soccer field, kicking at whatever’s in front of you, even if it’s not the right play.

For the strongest leaders, steadiness matters more than speed. They pause long enough to take in the bigger picture, create spaces for their teams to process what’s happening, and lean on coaching and honest conversation. Then, when they do move, it’s with intention.

Brené Brown described this as the ability to hold two truths at the same time: joy and fear, clarity and complexity, structure and flexibility. This paradox is part of the work of leadership, and it showed up again and again in the stories leaders shared.

That same principle runs through how Ologie thinks about branding. A brand will never erase uncertainty, but it can anchor your institution in your purpose and give your leaders steady footing when everything else is shifting.

3. Keeping your head up to stay connected.

Admissions often defaults to “heads down” mode: running events, visiting schools, updating spreadsheets, moving through the list. That work matters. But when your head never comes up, you risk missing what’s headed your way.

The strongest leaders know how to shift between the two approaches. They dig in when it’s time to execute, but they also look up often enough to anticipate change, scan for opportunities, and guide their teams toward what comes next.

“Heads up” work is more than reading industry news or carving out reflection time. It looks like walking across campus to feel the energy on a Saturday morning admitted-students day. It looks like listening to parents, talking with prospective students, and sitting in on a class or a practice to see how culture is built. At NACAC, Johnnie Johnson of Washington College described how he went to classes and practices so he could see and then share what made his institution distinct.

A few easy ways (by us) to stay heads up:

• Walk across campus on a busy day and take in the energy students bring.
• Sit in on a class to see how faculty teach and connect with students.
• Attend a practice, not just a game, to watch how coaches build culture.
• Join a club meeting or campus event to hear what matters to students right now.
• Call a handful of parents or prospective students to listen, not pitch.
• Schedule regular check-ins with colleagues outside admissions for a fresh perspective.
• Skim higher ed industry news once a week to spot trends before they land on your desk.
• Protect a block of time on your calendar for thinking, not just meetings.

“Heads down” keeps things running. “Heads up” grounds the work in reality and keeps your institution moving forward.

Finding meaning in emotion, focus, and perspective

As you step back into the work, think about what you want to carry forward. It might be the spark of joy that helps your students feel they belong, the steadiness that keeps your team moving through uncertainty, or the habit of looking up often enough to see the bigger picture. Alongside the metrics, these are the signals that keep admissions moving forward with meaning.