Colleges Are Investing Heavily in the Campus Visit
Colleges are putting serious money into campus tours, and Inside Higher Ed reports on why. Studies have found that visiting is one of the strongest predictors of whether a student enrolls, and in a summer Niche survey, 92 percent of enrollment leaders at small colleges named the campus visit their single most important strategy for building a class.
The result is tours that look very different than they did a decade ago. Because facts like cost and majors are easy to find online, students now use visits mostly to get a feel for a campus, and colleges are personalizing accordingly. Some, including the University of Dayton and Albion College, pair visitors one-on-one with a guide who shares their intended major. Trinity University lets families add experiences like sitting in on a class or having lunch with a current student. Interest is up as well: Albion’s tour numbers have risen about 23 percent since 2022, and John Carroll’s have grown 46 percent.
Several colleges also help students who couldn’t otherwise afford to visit. Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles pays for flights and lodging for out-of-town students at certain events, Marquette has flown in admitted students and families since 2022, and John Carroll sends buses for local high schoolers. Hofstra flies in counselors from across the country for an overnight visit, a good example for anyone interested in counselor fly-ins. We’ll actually be putting together a post later this Fall covering the top counselor fly-in/campus visiting opportunities. Some schools go further, offering application fee waivers or scholarships to students who visit. Albion, for example, gives $2,000 per year to any enrolling student who took a tour.
The goal is to convert visitors into enrolled students. Encourage students to ask whether a college offers travel support or fee waivers for visitors, to request a tour built around their major, and to look past the shuttle and the swag to the things they’ll live with day to day.
