Online Virtual Tours
These are a great way to get to see the highlights of any campus including buildings, green spaces, dorms, dining halls, etc. On my resources page, you'll find a list of virtual campus tour websites that likely will have a tour of the colleges you are considering. Some of these tours are led by the admission counselors, while student volunteers lead others. Check out both so that you hear about the campus from the student and admissions counselor's perspective. Also check out the College Virtual Tours spreadsheet curated by Rebecca Chabrow. This list has a lot of information about the colleges themselves and the virtual presentations they have available on their websites.
Online College Fairs
With the outbreak of the coronavirus this spring, many college fairs moved online. Strivescan's Strive Virtual College Fair is a great resource with presentations by colleges about their campuses and college planning topics. This virtual fair runs through May 28th, 2020, and has presentations by over 500 U.S. and international colleges and universities. College consortiums like the Coalition for College Access are also offering virtual college fairs. Be aware of virtual college fairs that require you to pay a fee to participate - you shouldn’t have to pay money to learn about colleges!
Compare Campuses
Get creative and use your imagination to understand the setting where you want to spend your college years. You can do this by finding local/regional colleges close by and exploring them to get a sense of what that campus feels like. Doing this can help you understand what it is like to study in a big city, rural town, on a campus of 50,000+ or 800 students, etc. Although this is not a perfect way to determine if the you want to attend a college it can help you identify your preferences for city size, campus location (suburban, rural, city center), size, etc. Those preferences can be used to further direct your college search. The College Board’s college search tool tells you a lot about these kinds of campus characteristics. The College Virtual Tours spreadsheet also has a breakdown of size, location, and student enrollment data that can help you with this comparison!
Phone a Friend
Use your family and friend network to see if a friend or family member would be willing to take you on a FaceTime tour of a college campus you are interested in. Not everyone is comfortable going out and about right now, but if they are, they could help you explore a school that is too far away to visit at this moment. They may also be able to tell you their perspective about the school and the surrounding community.
Let’s get going!
Now that you have these tools on hand, it’s time to explore! By using these resources over the summer, you should be on track to visit your shortlist of schools once campuses open for visits again!
