Virtual college tours help you decide which universities you want to apply to when it’s time. They also enable you to eliminate schools which might not be a good fit. Check out our blog to learn more about which schools offer these tours. However, you might still have questions about exactly what to do when you’re “touring.” To guide you through the journey, we’ve provided some tips on how to take advantage of these virtual visits.
Make use of technology at hand
Virtual visits come with technological benefits that are not available during in-person tours. So, be sure to use these resources to your advantage, and screenshot, bookmark, and screen record different parts of the tour. Doing so can help keep your memory fresh, especially if you’re attending multiple virtual tours. Instead of trying to jog your memory when you prepare for an interview in the future, you can easily revisit a screenshot and remember a campus building that stood out during the visit.
Take notes
As you attend virtual college tours, make note of what stands out. Not only will knowing what stands out about different colleges help you during your college list building process, it will also let admissions officers know concrete details about what appeals to you about their school when reading your “why this college” supplemental essays. For example, the sentence “I was excited to learn about NYU Stern’s Program for Undergraduate Research on my campus tour, as the program can help me reach my career goal” gives the reader a far clearer picture of who you are and why you’re interested rather than just saying “I want to attend a business school in New York.” Taking notes can help you achieve this!
Keep track of the things you’d notice on a physical tour
Of course, there are factors that you can get a better sense of on an in-person tour that you can’t on virtual college tours, such as the weather or the distance between certain buildings. However, most college visit websites allow both a street-view as well as a bird’s eye view of campuses. You can play around with these settings to figure out the distance between different parts of campus and try walking the same number of miles from your own home to get an idea of how much you might have to walk. As for weather, you can always check your phone for the temperature at any place on a given day. These factors can make a difference in your decision of where to attend, so don’t forget to take them into account.
Write down questions that come to mind
As admissions officers have a lot on their plate, they could take time to get back to you via sites such as YouVisit. So, you might not get all your questions answered in real time on the tour. As a result, it’s important that you jot down any points or questions that arise while you’re attending virtual college tours so that you can bring them all up at once when you’re communicating with a representative of the university.
Once you’ve finished touring a campus, you’re going to have questions. Whether it’s about course selection, or on-campus facilities, you’ll want to reach out to someone. Admissions offices might redirect your question to a current student or you might find yourself in a conversation with an alum of the college. In such circumstances, having your notes in hand will help you ask school reps different questions about their experience that can then guide your decision of where you wish to apply.
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