The world of college recruitment looks different. While the pandemic forced many colleges and universities to rely on new technologies to power their virtual tours, the lifting of restrictions as now led to a pinnacle moment in the collegiate admissions space. While in-person visits are slowly picking back up in popularity, virtual college tours are still viewed as a powerful way to attract prospective students, faculty, and student-athletes with an unrivaled level of accessibility that transcends travel restrictions and regulations.
Find out 3 key benefits to leveraging virtual tours at your college or university.
3 Benefits of Virtual College Tours
- Streamline and personalize communication
- Save time and resources
- Attract diverse applicants
Streamline and Personalize Communication
First, virtual college tours help streamline communication to prospective students and student-athletes. Adding specific messages such as important dates, NCAA contact periods, and announcements during or after the tour also help reinforce the messaging received.
Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in video format compared to 10% when reading it in text.
Admissions offices can personalize virtual tours by only showing labs to prospective students interested in chemistry, or the weight rooms to the potential student-athletes. As coaches will say, impressing recruits before and after their official visit is invaluable.
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Saving Time and Resources
Second, students and student-athletes are doing their own research before they commit to anything that requires them leaving the comfort of their own home. By having virtual college tours available, they are able to “visit” your campus on their own time, and narrow down their list of schools.
The accessibility of virtual college tours will empower students to guide themselves even more through the application process and result in less in-person visits with positive effects such as:
- Less time coordinating and giving tours
- More time spent on engaging specific students
- Save money on tour expenses
- Spend more money on reaching additional prospective students
Athletic programs and potential student-athletes also benefit with virtual tours. If a virtual college tour can replace just one of many in-person visits, teams and families will be relieved of some of the financial burden associated with recruitment.
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Attract Diverse Applicants with Virtual College Tours
Third, virtual college tours allow anyone with access to the internet to “visit” your campus. According to the report “Our Separate & Unequal Public Colleges” by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, Blacks and Latino students account for 36 percent of the college-age population. But, only 19 percent are enrolled in selective public universities.
Virtual college tours remove one of the socioeconomic barriers posed to not only prospective students and student-athletes, but also faculty. Universities and colleges across the country are unique, and the faculty that fits each institution best can also be found across the globe.
In addition to diversity in faculty location, faculty racial and ethnic make up can also be improved. According to American Council on Education’s report, “Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: A Status Report,” nearly three quarters of full-time faculty were white.
In summary, virtual college tours serve as an additional resource for students to make educated, strategic decisions based on their own research. Admissions and athletic programs should continue to utilize virtual college tours to reinforce current operations and impress future students, student-athletes, and faculty.
If you are interested in learning how Digideck, a cloud-based presentation platform can showcase your virtual college tours, schedule a demo below!
