By Jeremy Tiers, Senior Director of Admissions Services
2 minute read
The “feel” of campus and the visit experience continues to be one of the two most important factors for students when they make their college decision.
Our ongoing research also shows that after the campus visit students have a different mindset about a college or university. They’re either more excited or less excited about the prospect of being a student there.
Because of that, it’s extremely important for admissions counselors to ask direct and targeted questions as part of their post-visit strategy. Doing so can provide counselors with some of the best information possible during a critical point in the student recruitment process.
Before I provide some effective questions you can use, let me offer some other important advice.
If your counselors meet one-on-one with a student or family after the walking tour or near the end of the visit, avoid launching into a bunch of questions, including asking “What questions do you have now?”
It’s not that it’s not helpful, but most students and families are still trying to process everything they just saw along with all of the information they received throughout the day. Often times you’re going to get vanilla, very generalized answers if that’s the approach you take.
Instead, consider the following strategy that continues to work well for our clients as well as others who utilize it.
During your individual conversation with the student or family, offer to answer any burning questions they have may have, but make it clear that you understand it was a busy day with a lot of people and a lot of information, so you want to give the student a little time to process everything and talk things over with their family, friends, etc.
Next, I want you to recommend setting up a short phone call together a day or two later. Make it clear that the goal of that phone call will be to answer any questions that have come up as well as discuss the student’s next step. Be sure and schedule that call before a student or family departs campus.
During that subsequent conversation, consider asking one or more of these questions:
- Did your visit here change how you feel about <School name>?
- If you came back for another visit, what would you want to see or experience again?
- What did your parents say they liked about our campus and the whole visit?
- What are your parents telling you to do at this point in the process?
- What do you think the best part about living on our campus would be?
- What are one or two things that you wish you could change about our campus now that you’ve seen it?
- Do you have any other college visits coming up?
- Are you planning on filling out our application?
- What do you want to see us talk about next?
- Can you walk me through what happens next for you?
Each one of those questions will allow you to gain some insights into how the student and their family are now viewing your school as well as their overall process.
Don’t ever assume the visit answered all of their questions.
Want to talk more about something I said in this article? Just hit reply or connect with me here.
And if you found this article helpful, I encourage you to forward it to someone else on your campus who could also benefit from reading it.