4 Questions To Ask After A Student Visits Campus

The campus visit experience is one of the key moments when a prospective student’s mindset significantly shifts during the college search process. They’re now either more excited or less excited about the idea of being a student at your school.

This situation presents a great opportunity for admissions counselors and recruiters to do proactive and personalized follow-up outreach.

The goal of that outreach should not be to “check in” and ask what questions everybody has. That’s not intentional enough.

While I definitely want you to answer any new questions that a student or parent/guardian has, the way you discover those needs to be more direct and purposeful.

Instead of asking a student “What questions do you have?”, ask “What's something that didn’t get talked about enough or maybe at all that you’re still wondering about?” Or, “What’s one thing you wish you’d asked while you were here but didn’t?”

Here are three more direct questions I encourage you to incorporate during your visit follow-up conversations, especially with rising senior inquiries.

“What’s one thing you saw or heard during your visit that surprised you in a good way?”

“When you compare <Your School’s Name> to other schools you’ve seen or other schools you’re excited about, what stands out to you as different about us?”

“Walk me through what you see happening next for you (or if it’s the parent(s)/guardian(s) - for <Student’s First Name>) in this whole process”

Whatever questions you choose to ask, the information you receive back should help you better understand what concerns a student or parent/guardian has, and/or what needs to happen next before the student will consider starting their application.

And if the conversation is overly positive, ask the student if they’re feeling ready to start filling out your application this week.

A BRAND NEW PODCAST EPISODE JUST DROPPED!

Healthy disagreement is essential if you want your team to grow. Kevin Thomas from Central Arkansas joined me on my Mission Admissions podcast and he really drove home the point that many leaders and teams fall into the trap of mistaking polite silence for agreement. You can listen to our conversation on Apple, Spotify, or right here.