Prospective students pass by Scott Hall during a campus tour Monday afternoon.
Miami University re-evaluated its campus tour experience this summer with the help of consulting firm Target X, which concluded Miami should focus on making the tour experience more personal.
"We know how important the campus visit is," said Laurie Koehler, director of admission. "The evaluations we get from prospective students are strong, but we want to ramp it up."
With funding from the provost, Miami contracted Target X, a Pennsylvania-based recruitment strategy firm, to study the campus tour holistically, looking at parking, signage, tour content, tour guide training, physical facilities and the overall experience, Koehler said.
Target X urges university clients to stage better experiences and maintains that campus visits should be authentic, memorable and fun. In Ohio, the company has also worked with clients like Ohio State University and the University of Akron.
"I think that if you look at a state like Ohio that has a large number of both public and private universities, and a declining high school graduation rate, plus an economy that got kind of hit - and though Miami is a bit different as a national research school - it is just important for schools to begin to make sure that the prospective students that are coming to their campuses get as authentic an experience as possible," said Jeff Kallay, experience evangelist for Target X.
After meeting with the consultants once, the Office of Admission has implemented most of the firm's suggestions. The changes they have made include providing more guides per tour time, scheduling smaller tour groups and emphasizing personal stories instead of building facts.
"The campus visit is an experience," said Kristine Taylor, assistant director of admission. "With the tour, most campuses want tour guides to know buildings, but building identification is not why students tour. The student story is where they gather information about the university."
Tour guides are also no longer required to walk
backward, which tour guide student manager Lucas Goldbach said creates more of a conversation.
"The student is paying attention to the guide and is not distracted if they are going to fall," Goldbach said.
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To complement the updated tour strategy, the Office of Admission has also developed a new tour route. The new path tries to capture a broader view of campus and takes advantage of new construction like the Goggin Ice Center, the Farmer School of Business and the School of Engineering.
Approximately 25,000 students take the standard tour at Miami every year, Koehler said, and according to research by Art & Science Group, a market intelligence firm, the campus visit is the single most influential recruiting component. Art & Science Group found 65 percent of students polled ranked the campus tour as the top influencer in their decision to apply and enroll. Parents, current students and printed materials were also significant influencers, so the campus visit, while important, is not the end-all in enrolling students.
Chris Gluvna, a first-year from the Cleveland area, said while the campus visit was one of the factors in his choosing Miami because the campus is so nice, he was more influenced by his parents, who are both Miami alumni.
In a time of extremely competitive college admissions, Miami's move to audit its campus tour is just one of many efforts focused on increasing the number of students who enroll. The university is also looking at how it distributes merit aid, how it markets itself and whom it targets, Koehler said.
This reflects the ultimate goal of Target X, which Kallay said is not simply to make a smooth and appealing tour, but to attract the kinds of students to Miami who would probably enroll.
"We want to help Miami stage campus visits that help them connect with more best-fit students," Kallay said. "That's the bigger picture of it all. It's not about doing hokey stuff or trendy stuff. It's about helping more students that Miami is a great fit for them, that are going to make it a better place, that are going to graduate from it, that are going to give back as alumni - it is about connecting with more of those students."
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