College Visits Are More Important Than Ever

College Admissions offices are focusing more and more on one aspect of the college selection process – College visits.

Getting students to campus is one of the most important factors in both enrollment and retention, so many schools will dish out a large amount of financial collateral to get students on campus before application deadlines.

While it may feel like a more vintage practice, given the access to online resources and virtual tours, nothing can quite replace the feelings you get with your feet on the ground at your potential college.

Virtual visits and information tend to show you the best each school has to offer, without presenting you with the fullest picture. 

Most colleges are fantastic! However, Texans visiting the University of Wisconsin in July are going to have different opinions than Texans visiting Wisconsin during the school season in November.

You never know if that type of lifestyle is going to agree with you until you experience it firsthand.

Schools understand that their college is being evaluated through a microscopic lens when families visit, as well. Something as simple as the personality of the tour guide can persuade or dissuade a student to apply or enroll in a particular school, and those numbers mean thousands of dollars in revenue for colleges. 

Schools have been trying to perfect the college visit experience for decades now, and based on the feedback from today’s students, colleges should simply focus on personalization.

Many students feel like they’re not heard or catered to in these visits because of the number of students sometimes attending.

The schools that find ways to personalize their guests’ experiences tend to have a much higher conversion rate than those who don’t, which is why smaller private schools have a higher “success rate” on visits.

Ultimately, colleges are always trying to find the right way to connect with you on college visits, and are going to show you the best they have to offer.

When you go on a lot of visits, like me, you learn that many amenities are just about identical, so that “gut” feeling of the campus and the surrounding area mean more than anything a tour guide can tell you.