This is an opportunity for readers of this newsletter to anonymously ask me a question about any aspect of student recruitment, leadership, and professional or personal development. Each week I’ll post my answer for everyone to read.
Q. A Campus Visit Coordinator asks:
“Can you give me one easy change to the campus visit that can make a big impact?”
A. Thank you for your question! My answer is, do something different with your information session/presentation. Much like most of the marketing and recruiting communication pieces that colleges send out, these all look and sound the same. And if your school is like most and you do this piece at the beginning of the visit prior to your walking tour, you risk boring the heck out your prospects and decreasing their excitement level for the rest of the visit.
Furthermore, prospective students tell us that most of the academic, student life, and other information you give them they either already know from your website, or in some cases just doesn’t matter very much in their minds.
If you’re going to talk to prospective students about something, choose a topic that’s different and will keep their attention. For example, how is college different than high school, or what’s it like to live with a roommate?
When it comes their parent(s), why not consider doing a separate coinciding session about financial aid, safety, or value/life after college.
Change is rarely easy, but the campus visit is such important factor in a student’s final decision that I believe this warrants at least a discussion.
Let me leave you with this quote from Ben Rapp, a rising high school senior who wrote an article titled “Applying to college is a lot of work.” that I linked in today’s newsletter. “Most of the presentations seemed very similar to me. They inform you about the programs that are offered and boast about their greatness. There is a presentation on the financial aid requirements, which, from what I have seen, are identical…For me, these information sessions and tours became extremely repetitive. By my third one of the week, I almost fell asleep.”