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(The Girl’s college sweepstakes update: eight down, one to go …)
Having been through about a half dozen pre-COVID tours with The Boy a few years ago, and another seven (so far) in COVID times with The Girl, I couldn’t help but respond to Monday’s Inside Higher Ed piece about college tours.
It outlines ways in which virtual tours are slowly improving. Based on TG’s experience, I’d put the emphasis on “slowly.” A dispiriting number of them didn’t include even basic and predictable points of interest like “this is what a freshman dorm room looks like” or “this is how far from the dorm to your classes.” Far too many virtual tours were essentially interchangeable.
When TG started looking, COVID lockdowns were in full effect, so virtual tours were the only option. She did a few, partly out of curiosity and partly to establish “demonstrated interest,” but she came away underwhelmed. Each tour was pleasant enough, but they were basically infomercials, and each one felt pretty much the same.
Later we were able to visit the physical campuses of some places she had toured virtually. In person, no two places blended together; each one had its own distinct personality. That’s true almost despite the tour guides, who were pleasant enough but generally stuck to the script.
Even with some buildings closed off—notably dorms—the biggest difference with the in-person tours was the serendipity of them. A virtual tour can be tightly controlled, but a physical campus mostly can’t be. You can give us a tour guide with carefully vetted talking points, but as we walk along, we’ll notice what we notice, both about the campus and about the town. (That was particularly true at the campus we visited at which the tour guide’s microphone wasn’t up to the task. She may or may not have hit her talking points; there’s really no way of knowing.) The fact that it’s beyond the control of the marketing department is part of what makes the physical visit valuable.
For example, one place that The Boy and I visited a few years ago—I will withhold the name as a professional courtesy—featured the most stressed-out-looking group of students either of us had ever seen. We both came away with the strong sense that life is too short to spend years like that. That wouldn’t show up on a virtual tour, but in person the feeling was palpable. A campus that we visited with The Girl was far more desolate in person than anything online gave reason to suspect; it went tumbling down her list after we saw it. In other cases, either the campus or the town was far more inviting than its relatively generic marketing or reputation would have suggested. Those are the things you pick up by walking around.
Since the singular goal of this blog is usefulness, I’ll end with a few suggestions for colleagues at residential campuses who would like their tours to be more helpful.
First, give some pointers about off-campus places that students might find interesting. I don’t mean tourist attractions; I mean cheap food of the sort that students might actually get. What do young people with limited budgets do?
Second, address up front whether (or how) it’s possible to feel fully included in campus life if you don’t have a car. You’d be surprised how many places just don’t mention cars one way or the other. A great town doesn’t mean much if you can’t get around. Here I’ll give the University of Pittsburgh a shout-out for its student IDs working as passes on the local buses. That sort of thing matters.
Third, mention Career Services early and often. It’s one of the very best amenities on which to compete.
Finally, and I really can’t stress this enough, give the tour guides microphones that work. It really shouldn’t be that difficult.
Meanwhile, decision day looms …
