The college visit is a longtime tradition where rising sophomores and juniors get in a car or board a plane with their parents and visit prospective college campuses. Since the outbreak of COVID, virtual college tours have become more prominent. Today, they continue to stay relevant as students who can’t travel to colleges for reasons such as distance, finances, or illness can easily access college tours virtually.
Virtual college tours help you decide which universities you want to apply to when it’s time. They also allow you to eliminate schools which might not be a good fit. To guide you through the journey, we’ve provided information on why virtual college tours are important and where to find virtual campus visits.
Why Are Virtual College Tours Important?
To make sure you don’t make a rash decision and apply to a college that won’t support your interests and goals, you need to get a sense of a campus’ setting, its resources, faculty, major offerings and more. Through a virtual visit, you can not only see the different parts of campus and its academic and recreational facilities, you can also learn from a virtual tour guide—usually a current student—about what makes each of the resources unique, and why their school might a good one to add to your list.
Websites That Offer Virtual College Tours
If you’ve decided that you do want to attend virtual college tours but you aren’t familiar with how to get started with attending a campus visit, don’t panic. You don’t have to contact every single school’s admissions office and ask them how to arrange for one. There are several websites that allow you to tour and compare almost every college and university in the United States. These tour sites provide you with interactive maps, photos, videos, and testimonials so that you don’t miss out on any of the experience of a real life tour. Some of the most effective and popular places for virtual college tours are:
- YouVisit: Arguably the most popular virtual tour site, YouVisit’s interface is aesthetically pleasing, user friendly, and packed with 600 campuses for you to visit. Each campus features a current student as your online guide who walks you through what makes the different parts of campus unique to that particular college. YouVisit tours also offer prompts that pop up asking students for any input or questions that are then sent to college officials directly. This helps the website improve and add more information on what students would like to know and want added to future tours.
- CampusTours: CampusTours is one of the most popular sites for visiting a campus from the comfort of your home. Its advanced search feature allows students to specify exactly what they’re looking for out of the college experience, such as their desired tuition amount or location. Most campuses you can visit through this website also give you access to insights from current undergraduates. Like YouVisit, CampusTours offers a feature that enables visitors to ask questions while they are on the tour that directly go to college officials to provide you with a similar experience of an in-person visit.
- Appily: If you have a list of specific criteria that you want the schools on your list to match, Appily offers a useful tool. The site allows you to narrow your searches according to different criteria that you might prefer such as location, major, and student body size. You can eliminate schools you wouldn’t be interested in by applying filters like “suburb,” “midsize” and “computer engineering” and tour campuses that include exactly what you are looking for.
- CampusReel: Although not exactly a virtual tour site, CampusReel is a good place to check out during the college search process, as its database contains over 15,000 student-generated videos offering you multiple perspectives on campuses. Each school’s page is divided into different categories, such as “dorm room tour,” “weather and seasons,” and “social life.” While you won’t be controlling the visit with the click of your own computer, these students will take you on personal tours of their residence halls and academic buildings in order to give you a picture of what campus life is like.
As you build your college list and visit campuses virtually, make sure you take notes of what stands out to you, as well as ask questions to campus representatives so that you can gain a better understanding of whether the school is right for you. You can also take advantage of online tools and screenshot, bookmark, and screen record different parts of the tour. Happy touring!
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