by Dan Christensen, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
Your recruits want to spend time with your team on their campus visit. A lot of it.
If the prospect has made the commitment to come visit campus, your school has probably already checked a lot of boxes for them.
You have their major. You’re within range of how far they want to go from home. The cost of your school is in the ballpark of what they are able to pay.
The box that has not been checked is if they will fit in with your team. And that is the biggest box on the list.
To figure that out, recruits want to spend at least half of their visit just hanging out with the athletes on your team.
If you’re concerned that there isn’t enough time on your visits to do this, here are two ways you can create more team time for your prospect when they come to campus.
1. Involve your team on campus tours and meals
Whether your prospect comes for a four-hour day visit or a two-day overnight visit, they’re probably going to be doing some kind of touring and eating at least one meal.
When they do these activities, have some of your team join. A campus tour is enhanced when the recruit has someone their age to talk to and who can share their own experience as a student on campus. And this conversation will give the recruit some insight into whether or not they will fit in with the team.
If it is mealtime, have your recruit eat with some of the athletes on your team. And then the coaching staff can eat with the parents of the recruit. This gives that recruit the team time they need and opens up an opportunity for the parents to ask you some questions they might have that they didn’t want to ask in front of their kid.
2. Get meetings done over Zoom ahead of time
If your prospect is going to meet with a professor, academic advisor, athletic trainer, or other support staff during their visit, try this instead. Set up a few Zoom calls before the prospect comes to campus. Give them an opportunity to meet with these people before they even come on their visit.
What this does is allow you to free up their visit itinerary. Instead of several meetings with these people, they can now spend more time with the team.
Often, when there is a string of meetings like this, the visit becomes overwhelming and sometimes boring. So, we have solved this problem as well by doing the Zoom calls.
Do these two things so you can give your recruit that critical team time that will help them make an informed decision.
Need help constructing your campus visits? This is part of the work that Dan Christensen and the staff at Tudor Collegiate Strategies do with nearly 600 programs around the country. Email Dan with any questions at danchristensen@dantudor.com.