Colleges set up virtual campus visits, online meetings with admissions

Spring season is a busy time for high school seniors and juniors visiting college campuses.

Most seniors have already decided on a college or have received an acceptance letter.

Then there are those seniors still undecided close to making decisions by the traditional May 1 deadline. Maybe they had planned to visit a college campus and meet face-to-face with a faculty member in a major they might consider.

With the coronavirus pandemic basically shutting down any prospects of campus visits and one-on-one meetings with admissions counselors and financial aid officers, colleges have adapted – quickly.

King’s College, Misericordia University and Wilkes University have followed a trend other colleges throughout the nation have instituted by offering virtual campus visits and on-line private meetings with admissions counselors, financial officers and faculty members.

“We switched everything to online appointments,” said Dr. Tom Landon, executive director of data enrollment services at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre. “We’re offering online appointments, set up for one hour with our enrollment management team where students and their parents have a face-to-face conference and live interaction with an enrollment professional.”

“What we have done in response to COVID-19 is we put up one hour blocks, virtual tours to show what campus life is about, faculty and classroom buildings, dining services, student residence halls so students can watch on-line,” said Michelle Oliva, director of undergraduate admissions at King’s College.

Misericordia University last month began Virtual Campus Visits where a high school senior or junior can schedule a meeting with an admissions counselor and a virtual tour of the campus.

“This coronavirus happened pretty suddenly and we knew it might limit visits to our campus,” said Glenn Bozinski, vice-president of enrollment management at Misericordia University. “One of our first things we did was put together virtual visits with our admissions counselors. We know that is no substitute to an actual hands-on visit but the high school seniors who remain undecided and juniors can still visit our campus. This also applies to transfer students.”

Kishan Zuber, vice-president of enrollment services and marketing at Wilkes University, said the virtual campus visits at Wilkes has so far been a success as high school seniors have taken advantage of the on-line services by meeting with admissions counselors, faculty members and financial aid officers.

“Our virtual visits is kind of like a live walking tour of our campus and we put up videos of our residence halls, faculty classrooms and even our dining area. We have also been working closely with high school guidance counselors to make sure seniors in high school can register for different sessions with our admissions counselors.”

Zuber said Wilkes University has many on-line classes so instituting virtual campus visits and meetings with admission counselors on the school’s website was not too difficult.

“The cool thing about it, we have more online classes and features anyway but the coronavirus pandemic forced us to put things in multiple platforms so we could reach a multitude of students,” Zuber noted.

Bozinski acknowledged virtual campus visits are a way for high school seniors and juniors to maintain contact with their colleges they are interested in enrolling, and vice versa.

One issue officials from the three schools agree upon is how the coronavirus may impact enrollment of out-of-state students.

Landon said King’s College usually averages an incoming freshman class of 550 to 600, Bozinski said Misericordia’s freshman class is 400 to 500 and Zuber said the incoming freshman class at Wilkes is 550 to 600.

Officials from the three schools say they expect the 2020 freshman class at their schools to be about average from previous years but it may include more students from Northeastern Pennsylvania instead of New York and New Jersey.

“Although we’re expecting our incoming freshman class to be about average, we understand the financial aspect of the student’s family. They may have had a financial plan that has been interrupted and we’re here to work with them. We are expecting some students may want to stay closer to home and commute to a college closer to their home. It’s quite possible our incoming freshman class may be more local students,” Bozinski said.

“It’s really hard to tell in numbers of where we will land,” Zuber said. “We’re still expecting our freshman class to be average and we’d be fooling ourselves to expect to exceed our numbers. There are too many unknowns right now but we are doing our best.”

“We’ve been working with students and their families and their situations if they have experienced any financial hardships or circumstances but we anticipate the same enrollment as previous years,” Oliva said about King’s College.

As May 1 is traditionally the deadline for high school seniors to accept admittance to a college, King’s College, Misericordia University and Wilkes University have extended to June 1.

Landon said there is flexibility for a student to decide if they want to attend King’s after June 1.

“They can decide on the day when classes begin. It makes for more paper work but we will certainly work with each student and their family in these uncertain times,” Landon said.

Tuition deposits, usually $300, to guarantee enrollment have also been extended at King’s, Misericordia and Wilkes.

Colleges have also adapted on accepting a high school senior’s academic transcripts.

“We know the current situation students are in and they may graduate later and all colleges require the final high school transcript to be presented to us. We’re going to give the students all the time they need,” Bozinski said.

“We’re going to be really flexible to our admissions policy when it comes to high school transcripts as we understand students are impacted by the coronavirus,” Zuber said.

Links for more information of virtual campus tours:

https://www.kings.edu/admissions/admission_events

https://www.misericordia.edu/page.cfm?p=1

https://www.wilkes.edu/admissions/online-wilkes-experience/index.html