A prospective student might form an impression of your college based on a pair of Ugg boots.
That was one of the more unexpected findings from Dr. Justine Whitfield’s research into how campus visits influence college choice. One student Whitfield interviewed specifically noticed that all the women she saw on a particular campus were wearing black leggings and Ugg boots. Other students noticed aesthetics, interactions, and the campus’s general “vibe.”
In other words: The campus visit is about a lot more than the campus tour.
We recently spoke with Whitfield, an admissions and enrollment professional whose dissertation, Beyond the Campus Tour: The Impact of the Campus Visit on College Choice, explored the many factors that shape students’ impressions during a campus visit.
We highly recommend reading our full conversation with Whitfield, but if you’re short on time, here are five takeaways for enrollment and admissions teams.
Five Campus Visit Takeaways for Enrollment and Admissions Teams
1. The Campus Visit Is Bigger Than the Campus Tour
Weather. Construction. Bulletin boards. Current students. The person a family asks for directions.
Prospective students are taking in far more than the information an admissions office intentionally puts in front of them. As Whitfield told us, “Everything does matter”—including communications, perceptions from family and friends, athletics, news, and current events.
It reinforces something we’ve been thinking about at The Parish Group: Prospective students don’t experience admissions, facilities, academics, student affairs, and the rest of campus as separate departments. They experience one institution.
2. Control What You Can—and Prepare for What You Can’t
You can’t stop it from raining on tour day. You can have a better plan than asking prospective students to trudge through it.
Whitfield recommends preparing tour guides to answer difficult questions about everything from construction to current events—and, importantly, preparing them to answer those questions “in their own words.”
Admissions teams can also regularly walk tour routes, pay attention to what visitors will encounter, and develop backup plans for bad weather.
You may not control everything a visitor experiences, but you can pay close attention to the things you do.
3. Authenticity Requires Preparation
Whitfield feels strongly that campus tours shouldn’t be “scripted and memorized.” But that doesn’t mean tour guides shouldn’t be thoroughly trained.
While working at William & Mary, Whitfield taught an academic course for tour guides that included reflection on their favorite classes, professors, and traditions. The goal was to equip students to tell their own stories rather than recite someone else’s.
Prospective students and families, she says, “can sniff out inauthentic moments.” Prepare your guides to tell the truth about your institution—not to perform a perfectly polished version of it.
4. Students Are Trying to Picture a Life
Whitfield has a name for the moment when a prospective student realizes they can picture themselves somewhere: the “say yes to the dress moment.”
And seemingly small things can contribute to it. How far is Target? Is the campus near the mountains or the beach? Will they need to drive? What does the surrounding community feel like?
Whitfield’s test is surprisingly simple: “When the weather is bad, and you still like the surroundings, it’s likely a fit!”
Students aren’t simply evaluating what they’ll study. They’re imagining what it might actually be like to live there.
5. A Post-Acceptance Visit Is a Different Kind of Visit
More families are waiting until after admissions decisions—and sometimes financial aid offers—to make extensive campus visits.
That changes the stakes.
By that point, Whitfield says, students have already formed impressions based on an institution’s communications, brand, and everything else they’ve encountered during the application process. Now they’re asking a much more immediate question: “Could I see myself here in a few months?”
And things that might have registered as minor turnoffs during an early exploratory visit can become much more significant when a student is deciding whether to deposit.
The campus visit may be changing, but Whitfield says one thing her years in enrollment have reinforced: it remains an important part of college decision-making.
For institutions, that makes understanding the whole visit—not just the tour—more important than ever.
The Campus Visit Still Matters
The way students approach campus visits is changing. Social media has introduced countless new voices into the college search. More students are waiting until after acceptance to visit. And concerns about cost, financial aid, and outcomes increasingly shape when—and sometimes whether—families make the trip.
But one thing Whitfield says her years working in enrollment have reinforced is much simpler: “Campus visits remain very important in decision-making.”
The challenge for colleges and universities is recognizing just how much constitutes the campus visit. The tour matters, certainly. But so do the people, the surroundings, the unexpected interactions, and all those seemingly insignificant details that help a student decide whether they can actually picture themselves there.
Want to think more broadly about what prospective students experience when they visit? Read Dr. Leah Beth Hubbard’s Your Whole Campus Should Be a Recruitment Opportunity for a closer look at why every space, interaction, and touchpoint can shape a student’s perception of your institution.
