Private colleges focus on drawing visitors

At Sweet Briar College, about 50 percent of the prospective students that visit the school’s pastoral campus in Amherst County end up enrolling there. The challenge is getting them through the front gate, said dean of admissions Ken Huus.

While Sweet Briar’s matriculation rate is high, the annual number of prospective students to visit its campus each year hovers around 400. The goal, Huus said, is to boost that number by 20-25 percent.

“We have a very focused campaign to increase campus visits,” said Huus. “Assuming that 50 percent enrolling stat holds, that would mean a lot to the size of the incoming class.”

Even in our technology-driven culture, nothing replaces the value of an on-campus visit, said local admissions officers.

This week, 25 private colleges across the state expect to experience an influx of campus visitors for Virginia Private College Week — an annual open- house program for rising juniors and seniors.

Four schools are participating from the Lynchburg area — Liberty University, Lynchburg College, Randolph College and Sweet Briar. Though each college faces distinct challenges, all four place the campus visit at the forefront of recruiting efforts.

At Sweet Briar, where enrollment was about 675 students last fall, the biggest challenge is promoting the strengths of an all-female school in a landscape where co-ed colleges dominate, Huus said.

“High school girls, often, their first thought when they hear women’s college is, ‘Oh no, I don’t want to do that,’” said Huus. “Our first challenge is to get them past any preconceived notion they have of a women’s college.”

The high cost of a private education is another challenge, especially in a turbulent economy.

“Cost is a hurdle and we know that,” Huus said. “We want to help families understand not only that there is assistance available, both merit and need-based, but also that there’s a significant value delivered for any marginal difference in cost.”

Once students decide to visit Sweet Briar, they get an intimate experience, which Huus said is a reflection of Sweet Briar’s culture and small size.

Most prospective students take a one-on-one tour with current students, plus meet with admissions counselors and sometimes professors. Last summer, Sweet Briar began giving students the option of filming their visit with a flip camera so they can walk away with a DVD of their experience.

“If a student invests time in visiting us, it’s an indication in the level of interest they have . . . and the clarity that they get in visiting is critical to them understanding if Sweet Briar is the right fit,” Huus said.

At Randolph College, campus visits have increased in recent years, averaging about 800 visitors annually, said Margaret Blount, RC’s associate director of admissions and director of recruitment.

This year, campus visits went up by 10 percent, and the admissions office hopes to see that number continue to rise, Blount said.

Meanwhile, Randolph has revamped how it connects with prospective students during campus visits.

Tour guides are now taught to focus on sharing stories about themselves and classmates during tours, a departure from the traditional approach of focusing on things like campus history and facts and figures.

“We’re letting the tour guides know the best information they can share is their own experience,” Blount said. “It’s not a script. It’s not walk three steps and point to the left to the plaque on the wall.”

The goal, Blount said, is to help prospective students envision what their own campus experience might look like.

“As much information as there is available on the web, nothing replaces walking on the campus, talking with the students and the faculty and gaining an understanding of what it would be like to spend four years there with your own eyes and ears,” Blount said.

Lynchburg College is also making a concerted effort to increase its campus visits, said Rita Detwiler, vice president for enrollment management.

During 2009, LC had about 3,570 prospective students visit campus. In 2008, that number was closer to 3,400.

“We have definitely seen that campus visits have held very steady even through this difficult economy, and in some cases, increased,” Detwiler said.

Detwiler, who has worked in college admissions for 26 years, said that visiting a campus is the most important decision a family will make during the college search process.

“We know that if a student who is admitted to the college makes a campus visit, the possibility of them enrolling is very high,” Detwiler said.

The admissions office encourages campus visits through e-mails, high schools visits, newsletters and telephone calls. With all the technology out there, what Detwiler called “word-of-mouth marketing” remains one of the most effective ways of reaching students.

“Students have a good experience here and they go tell other students,” she said.

With its size and strong growth, Liberty University is something of an anomaly among Lynchburg-area colleges. The school had a record turnout at its College for a Weekend in April, with about 2,400 prospective students.

The logistics of hosting that many students were so daunting, LU decided to cap the size of its next College for a Weekend program at 2,000 students, said Luke Enns from enrollment management.

“We only have so many beds,” Enns said.

Liberty hosts “College for a Weekend” four times a year. The four-day event allows prospective students to stay in dorms, attend classes and convocation and immerse themselves in campus life.

In 2005, a total of 5,360 students visited Liberty through its College for a Weekend program. In the past year, that number has reached 7,726.

Liberty also hosts tours and information sessions throughout the year, but Enns said students who attend College for a Weekend have the highest matriculation rate of all LU’s recruitment methods.

“When they come, they seen the energy that’s on campus,” Enns said. “I mean it’s contagious.”