The campus visit is changing (opinion)

I recently participated in a virtual meeting with about 20 vice presidents of enrollment from across the country, and all but one were very worried about campus visit trends. In short, campus visits seem to be decreasing, and this is creating anxiety for all.

One of my colleagues shared that it seems as though “students no longer visit to determine where to apply, but instead apply to determine where to visit.” This comment was met with an unusual amount of agreement among the group. Such a dynamic no doubt changes what many of us have thought about the college search for decades.

I must confess: This is happening in my own home and I hadn’t even thought about it. I am the parent of a high school senior currently going through the college search, and I recently asked my wife about visiting a number of colleges on our daughter’s list. She responded, “Let’s wait to see where she’s admitted before arranging those visits.” I nodded in agreement but hadn’t really thought much about how easily that nod came until after that meeting.

I also thought about my older daughter’s college search (she enrolled in college in the fall of 2021) and the fact that—even during a pandemic—we visited nearly all her college choices before applying. We are not doing that this time around and, as a parent, I am completely comfortable with this.

Things have changed relatively quickly, and I think there are a number of reasons for it:

• The return on investment calculation starts before tuition comes due. At Augustana College, we have a question on our application about whether students have visited the campus, and we often ask applicants if they plan to visit. They now almost always reply that they don’t plan to visit until they’ve been admitted. This can be viewed as a consideration of ROI.

• TikTok and Instagram offer a more authentic view of college life than what is often perceived as a manufactured college tour experience. This is more real than I wish it were, but I hear from my daughter that she learns more about a college and its students through social media than she could ever learn through an information session and campus tour. The reality is that social media content is the new front door to the campus visit and now plays the same role as those first exploratory campus tours that students used to take during spring break of their junior year and the following summer.
• The cost of visiting has become too high. Travel expenses have increased considerably post-pandemic, and I believe more and more families are limiting travel. With increased fuel prices, long trips and airfare have become serious expenses. When you throw in a hotel room and meals, it can get very expensive for almost anyone, no matter their socioeconomic status.

Given the circumstances I describe above, my counterparts and I can either lament the trend and pop some more Tums, or we can change. I believe there are a number of things colleges need to consider to remain competitive in this changed world:

• Admission offers need to happen sooner. Colleges will most likely have to adapt their processes to either extend earlier offers or start “winking offers,” signaling to some students that they are clearly admissible before actually sending an official offer of admission. This will be uncomfortable for many colleges, as well as for our partners on the high school side. Accelerating the offer of admission to inspire a campus visit will undoubtedly result in new time frames for applying, increased incentives for applying early and more automatic admissions standards.

• Demonstrated interest is a relic of the grand old days. Colleges that still rely on demonstrated interest through a campus visit as a major factor in deciding whom to admit should phase out this practice. In all candor, the time a student spends watching TikToks about a particular college, and the time spent on a virtual tour, are probably more accurate demonstrations of interest today than a campus visit taken prior to admission.
• Every campus visit is now a yield program. Given the stakes of a post-acceptance visit as a one-and-done opportunity, colleges must have the so-called red carpet out for every single post-admit visit and visitor, and get that red carpet ready as soon as offers of admission begin to fly out the door. The luxury of the traditional large yield event in late April—serving the best food in the dining hall, greeting students with the marching band and asking committing students to ring a bell of some kind—are going to be a thing of the past. With more students compressing their college visits into a shorter, post-acceptance time frame, there just are not enough Saturdays in the spring for every college to host these events.
• A final consideration is extending the date by which a student must make a final college choice. While not all colleges expect student decisions by May 1, those that do have conditioned much of the marketplace to focus on that date, too. But if students are going to wait to visit until they’ve been admitted, it’s very likely that May 1 will be too early to complete all visits. While there are certainly consequences to extending decision day, the risks of students being forced to choose a college sight unseen have consequences, too.

I lament this change in behavior, but I understand it and recognize that I need to embrace the change as a professional in the same way I have as a parent. Meanwhile, I need to go order that red carpet and the confetti drop for our post-admit visitors to make their first visit—which may in effect be the final test—as special as possible.