Scannell & Kurz Enrollment Management Blog

Tour Guides. Student Ambassadors. Experts in Walking Backwards. Whatever you call them; they can make or break a prospective family’s visit experience. Is being a tour guide a premium job on your campus? It should be. While it isn’t necessary to give them all matching polo shirts (although this can save discussions about inappropriate attire), here are essential elements of a successful tour guide program: A selective nomination and interview process: solicit nominations from faculty and other staff that know the students best, have applicants give a brief mock tour, and include current tour guides in the interview and selection process. A robust training program, including: shadowing experienced tour guides, conducting supervised…Read more

The importance of the campus visit has risen to the top of the priority list for deans and directors of admissions at colleges and universities across the country – public and private, large and small. In fact, a cottage industry of experts has even surfaced focused on evaluating and recommending how each campus can “put its best foot forward” with the campus tour, open house, and accepted student day events. So it’s clear that colleges have gotten the message: “We only have one shot to make a good first impression.” Lots of creativity is now pouring into making the campus visit a memorable one, creating WOW moments and WOW connections with the campus community. But there’s a fundamental piece of the puzzle missing – selling…Read more