College Tours in a Pandemic

Juniors and seniors have always felt pressure when searching for their perfect college. To view the individual features each campus has to offer, many students typically choose to go on tours of the school. This year many colleges have taken away the opportunity to participate in physical campus tours due to the pandemic. While picking colleges may be more difficult this year, tours don’t have to be with an official guide on campus.

Fortunately, in our world of technology, students can take virtual college tours. Although it may be unconventional, there are multiple online resources available to allow you to view your potential college. First, you may want to consider taking a virtual 360 tour of the campus where you can view the inside of some of the school buildings. Second, you may want to view your college from Google Street View to get a sense of the campus from the outside and surrounding areas. Third, many college websites offer Zoom experiences and meetings with students and staff to aid in your decision process.

“Over the summer and throughout the fall, I have been taking self guided campus tours through most of the universities’ websites that I have been interested in,” senior Jillian McNaught said. “They really helped me to kind of see the school without actually being there, the way they’re filmed they make it so that it almost feels like you’re walking through the campus as the tour is going along, so I really enjoyed that aspect of it. A feature that I really liked, was it kind of took you inside the main buildings, so I think most of them even had a sample dorm that they did a panorama of. Usually there was the library and even the dining area had some pictures, but it kind of took you all the way through.”

Some students may still feel that a virtual tour just isn’t enough. If so, a safe alternative is to give yourself a walking tour of the campus if you have taken the necessary Covid protocols for the state in which it is located. When going on a walking tour, avoid going inside of buildings, keep your mask on while on campus, and make sure to fully explore both the campus grounds and the surrounding area.

Although you may not be able to have the traditional college search experience this year, there are multiple safe alternatives that can help you make your decision. The first step you should take before even considering tours is perusing the website of your preferred college.

“A lot of times there’s a lot of information on the [college/university] website about what academics they offer, what the admissions requirements are, what kind of student life things that there are, what kind of dorms [they have],” Northwood guidance counselor Telisa Hunter said. “They– a lot of times– have virtual tours where they will kind of take you through campus, you’ll see classrooms, you’ll see what a dorm looks like, kind of what you would actually do if you were on a [in-person] tour.”

Another way to discover if a college is suitable for you is to talk to someone who is knowledgeable about that specific campus.

“They could reach out and talk to alumni, they could talk to people who are attending there now– sometimes that’s an option,” Hunter said. “Unfortunately, it is difficult to get a true feeling of a campus without some kind of personal interaction. There are some college fairs; this year they have almost all been virtual. They can attend a virtual college fair, maybe talk to the admissions person.”

To help judge whether a school is right for you, you need to know what you’re looking for.

“I would probably put learning style first [in considering whether a college is a good fit], then major, then of course student life after that,” Hunter said. “If you don’t have those couple of pieces, you may not be successful and you may not be happy.”

Choosing a college may be difficult, but keep in mind that the name of the school isn’t the most important part of your journey.

“It’s not always where you go to school, it’s what you do with your time there,” Hunter said. “Networking is a big thing when you’re in college because meeting people… who have the same likes and dislikes as you, are interested in the same fields as you– that’s important for when you want to go find a job. It’s very important to make the most of your time while you’re in college. Make those connections with people, maybe do an internship, maybe do some volunteerism, do something to prove your skills.”

McNaught advises to not let these times drag you down because you have your whole life ahead of you.

“Don’t let this situation [coronavirus] be the reason that you don’t put all you can into trying to get into these schools,” McNaught says.“Make sure that you are still keeping up with everything, with applications, and make sure that you are taking advantage of these opportunities like these virtual tours, so that you can still get to know the places that you are trying to go [to]. Just don’t let this pandemic be an excuse.”