Hi everyone. We understand the value of campus tours because it provides an opportunity for students to learn what KCC has to offer. But what I would like to know is does these Tours help your students make informed decision on their post-secondary education plans? Should we be presenting something different that better prepares them for college like effective communication skills, attention to deadlines, and career exploration (just throwing those out there)?
Another reason why I am asking is to ensure our campus partners the impact of Campus Tours. As their responsibilities increase, I want to be able to have Campus Tours on their radar. In order for them to justify participation in Campus Tours, it would help to know the level of impact.
Please post your responses. It will help us immensely as we start to re-shape how we re-design and implement campus tours. Thanks!
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I think campus tours are extremely helpful for students, perhaps more important than college fairs, especially for those who may not be able to afford flying to another state to visit a college. Ideally, campus tours give a broad overview of the campus and how to use it, including various support services available. One of the things my students were most surprised by when they visited KCC was how big it was! I think they had always heard that community colleges are small (or have small classes), and the tour helped them realize it is REAL college with a variety of areas of study offered and a vibrant campus. They are also often able to refine their interests, especially if the tour includes specific programs. Other students, and this is equally valuable, learn that a certain college is not for them, and they revise their own criteria. For example, I had a student go on college tours after applying to six or seven mainland colleges, and he returned to tell me he must go to a college on a hill. This was not in the initial criteria set but for reasons that may be hard to explain, was very important and quickly narrowed the options. It would have been better to do the college tours sooner so that he could have revised his criteria earlier. Students learn more about themselves as they actually visit potential schools of interest, awareness of self within the world of possibilities is what we are shooting for.
ReplyDeleteHaving just toured KCC's campus with 42 of my students, I'd say the impact was high. Several students said they'd never envisioned the campus as being so green, so large, and so full of students. (The view from the road is very different than the view from the quad.) As someone who has been on many a college campus tour, I see tours go off the rails is when the tour gets 'hi-jacked', so to speak, by ill-informed professors, tour-participants, or tour guides. Seeing campus is nice, having someone lead the tour who has correct information, strong control of the group, and an agenda of what to accomplish on tour can make a campus shine. I also see time and again that students don't like to be forced to ask questions, but they do need to know that questions are encouraged. If one more professor on our tour asked my freshmen, "What are you going to major in?" I was going to lose my mind!
ReplyDeleteA car salesman once told me that once a person comes onto the car lot, they don't know it yet, but they've already decided to buy a car. I think campus tours can be similar. If someone has made the effort to visit, they are hooked, you just need to reel them in. I have found that tours that put the touring students into the shoes of "already enrolled" students are very effective. Little things like saying, "When you enroll at KCC, you'll do XYZ in this building... As a KCC student, you will do your XYZX labs here and then your professor's offices will be right there for you..." that sort of thing. Students are touring because they are trying to envision themselves on your campus, help them complete that vision.