Distinctive

By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D.

We’re a year into the pandemic, and it’s safe to say it’s going to be a while before we can properly visit colleges again. Most campuses have completely shut down their in-person admissions programming, and some won’t even let non-community members onto the property. This is making it difficult for prospective students to get a real sense of schools.

Or is it?

After mentally storing information about online visits during application season, I’ve started to attend online information sessions and tours myself. Now through a couple dozen of them, I think I can confidently say that colleges have successfully moved most of the prospective student visit online! 

There are information sessions and virtual tours, and in some cases student Q&A panels, professor webinars, and even model classes to help you experience life at the schools. Nearly everything once offered in-person is now available from the safety of your home without the agonizingly long car drive or expensive hotel stays! I definitely believe that you should take advantage of these opportunities, and here’s why:

Same slideshows. Same stats. 

If a campus visit has been primarily an informational experience for you, nothing has been lost in the transition. It doesn’t matter if you visit Temple University in Philadelphia, PA or Temple University in your home, an official admissions rep still presents stats and information about their admissions process accompanied with pictures and videos (I do, however, miss picking up swag from the baskets in the waiting area)! 

It’s easier to take notes.

I lug my laptop around with me on campus visits to type down every last piece of information that will help me remember what’s special about a school, and sometimes on tour, I’m shifting between typing in the Notes app of my iPhone and running to catch up to the group. With the online experience, however, my shoulder isn’t breaking under the weight of my bag and I’m not tripping up flights of stairs trying to multitask (so far, I’ve only destroyed one iPhone and cracked another’s case)! Instead, I’m sitting at my kitchen table sipping coffee between typing and leaving my computer where it is once I’m done. And best of all, there’s no damage to me or my equipment.

They’re still interactive. 

With the live online information sessions, you get the same opportunity to ask questions in the chat as you would have had you been there in person. In fact, I think that students are asking more questions than ever, because of the anonymity that the virtual visit provides. Admissions reps are finally starting to hear what matters to students (rather than their parents), and students are feeling more invested in their search. Plus, some colleges have integrated online surveys, which is a fun way for them to get to know who’s “in the room” and for you to feel noticed.

No more circumstantial, bad impressions.

I can’t tell you how many students have discounted great-fit colleges, because they either visited on a grey day or got a bad tour guide. With the online visit, those unlucky circumstances have been largely taken out of the equation. The campus always seems sunny and the student ambassadors are always performing under the watchful eye of an admissions rep, so no missteps occur. That’s not to say that all online visits are equal in quality, but it does mean you can focus on what matters the most – the offerings, location, and spirit of the school. 

You can go anywhere.

I have always planned campus visits around vacations or their proximity to my home. For colleges that are fantastic, but more remote, the virtual visit has now opened them up to you and the rest of the world in ways that were not previously available. I had always heard great things about Denison University and Vassar College from alumni and families who visited, but I never had a chance to drive to Granville, OH or Poughkeepsie, NY. Now, with the virtual visit, I’ve been to both and I can promise you I’ll be making my way all over the country in the months to come!

This surge of online visit options has also been a game changer for international students. Many used to plan one-time journeys to the US to tour as many colleges as possible within the span of one or two weeks. Now, they have just as great of a resource as American students do to figure out which colleges are right for them. 

No more getting lost.

I can’t tell you how many times I have made wrong turns, parked in the wrong parking lot, or forgot the campus map that an admissions office sent, and then ended up late to an admissions visit. In-person visits require a lot of advanced planning and time cushions for when you make mistakes. Now, we can all rock up to the event in our sweatpants and with bed head, save on gas and parking, and still make it to the information session on time. 

As you can see, there are many advantages to the online visit; yet, many of you are still yearning for the in-person experience. I get it. Virtual visits are curated, so you don’t always get a great sense of the students who attend or of the surrounding area. You also can’t pull an admissions representative aside and ask a bunch of questions, and probe what he really meant by a statistic he shared. You can’t try the food, which is a real loss for colleges like Pitzer College or the University of Richmond, which offer amazing dining options. Plus, most do not post pre-recorded sessions, so the information session and tour schedules are all over the place. 

With that said, colleges have really done an amazing job of making the campus visit accessible to everyone. So while you wait for the time when you can step foot on the lush green lawns of campuses once again and play college tour bingo with your parents, I hope you’ll at least enjoy the beautiful simplicity of the virtual experience and agree that it really isn’t all that bad.