Admissions 101: College Admissions Advice From Jay Mathews

Students most influenced by campus tours

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Students most influenced by campus tours

posted at 10/26/2009 11:23 AM EDT

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Jay_Mathews

First post: 5/21/2007
Last post: 11/27/2009
Total posts: 271

A new Lipman Hearne survey of 1,264 high achieving high school seniors provides major support for many parents' gut feelings about the college choice process. No matter how hard mom and dad worked to give the kid all the relevant information, no matter how many meetings they attended with college reps from Amherst to Xavier, it was the child's emotional reaction to seeing the campuses that had the most impact on the final decision. The firm said 85 percent of those surveyed had gone on a tour of the campus they eventually selected, making that the fourth most used source of information, and it was the most influential source of information out of 30 choices given the respondents. Does this reflect reality, or does the student just see on the tour what they already want to see? Is this very human response to eyeballing the product a good thing, or does it produce bad decisions?

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campus tours a must

posted at 10/26/2009 2:19 PM EDT

lisamc31

First post: 6/22/2007
Last post: 11/26/2009
Total posts: 4628

My daughter had narrowed down her choices to two schools and we took both tours on the same weekend. While I was more comfortable with the small, self-contained campus of Pratt, it wasn't in the best of neighborhoods and my daughter wanted the excitement and hustle and bustle of NYU and the Village.

She is thriving, loving it, and has made Dean's List every semester. We, on the other hand, are broke, but glad she is happy. ;-)

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What are you worried about?

posted at 10/26/2009 11:50 PM EDT

harrumph1

First post: 4/9/2009
Last post: 11/21/2009
Total posts: 18

It is probably the rare student who has such a specifically narrow focus of interest that they will match a school based purely on academics. Other than the big choices between large university vs small liberal arts college, city vs rural, and some notion of the "quality" or "ranking" of the institution, why shouldn't the feel of the place matter the most?

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Campus Tours MUST be taken before making a decision

posted at 10/27/2009 10:00 AM EDT

MONARK

First post: 9/24/2009
Last post: 11/9/2009
Total posts: 4

As an Admissions professional, I feel that campus tours MUST be taken before a student makes their final decision.

The viewbooks, the brochures, the videos, the CD-ROM's, the web sites ALL show what we want to the student to see. The campus visit allows the student to get out and about the campus and see the "real" school. Students and parents can talk to actual students (not just the campus tour guide or our students that make our phone calls) but honest-to-God-real-life students.

I recruited a young man from Florida one year who ultimately enrolled in a school in Texas. He called me after his first few hours on the campus and indicated he wanted to transfer. He enrolled sight unseen and discovered he was the only black student at the school.

I had another young man from Connecticut come down to the school I was working in North Carolina at the time. He kept saying he couldn't afford to visit the campus and he would see us in August. He buys a one-way ticket and flies down to NC, I pick him up at the airport, and then take him to his residence hall room. I get home and a few moments later the tennis coach is on the line telling me the student wants to go home. Evidently in his 60 minutes on campus, he realized he made the biggest mistake of his life and didn't want to enroll after all. I drive back to campus and talk with the student, the coach, and we call the parents. The next morning the student buys a one-way ticket back to Connecticut. He paid over $1,500 for his less than 24 hour experience.

I have a third story which is positive, but have already taken up to much space on the negative. Needless to say, we'll just call me a PROPONENT of students taking campus tours.

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In the main, good decisions

posted at 10/30/2009 12:15 PM EDT

drrico

First post: 12/13/2007
Last post: 11/18/2009
Total posts: 228

I don't know, Jay. Should people look at a house before buying it, or just buy on the basis of the listing?

When students look at campuses they are asking several questions. Are there enough people here who look like me? Can I see myself living here? Does it look as though people are doing what I would do, whether it's talking with professors or playing guitar under a tree or just hanging out? Can I get around this campus? Does it have the dance or sports or lab facilities I want? Is the surrounding area okay? Can I get the food or haircut I need? They may not be able to articulate these questions, or even the answers to them, but that doesn't mean the questions aren't legitimate. Yes, of course tours are important and they should be.

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Devil's advocate

posted at 10/30/2009 12:38 PM EDT

patrickmattimore1

First post: 6/12/2007
Last post: 11/18/2009
Total posts: 446

Okay let me play devil's advocate
here for a moment. Who are the #1 cheerleaders for campus visits? Why the colleges of course. Why? B/c like the car salesman who knows that one of his most persuasive allies is the test drive, campus people know that if they get a kid to campus that's one of the best ways of hooking her.
Now let's look at a couple negatives.
#1 Kid is likely to make judgment on "feeling." Is that feeling really all that important? I don't have an answer but if we are talking about a four-year (or longer) experience why should the few hours matter?
#2 Kids probably make more campus visits today than they ever have. So if feeling is such a good thing, why do we have higher transfer rates than ever?

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Re: Devil's advocate

posted at 11/2/2009 11:07 AM EST

MONARK

First post: 9/24/2009
Last post: 11/9/2009
Total posts: 4

Replying to:

why do we have higher transfer rates than ever?
Posted by patrickmattimore1

I think one reason is because in today's economy, too many students and parents look strictly at the bottom line and choose a college or university strictly based upon the final price they would pay. Maybe not at your elite Ivy league schools, but at your state schools. I hear students tell me they wish they had enrolled at my school when they were freshman, but enrolled at the other school because they received better scholarship offers.

I really like it when a student tells me that they are transferring from the private university to the public because no one ever told them how expensive the school was.

Why do we have higher transfer rates than ever? Because junior did not play on the football team this fall. Nope. Never saw a moment of playing time on the field at all. So mom and dad are letting him transfer to our rival up the road (he'll sit out one year due to NCAA regulations) and will sit on the bench up there as well.

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