Due to the pandemic and no in-person tours, Ohio State now offers virtual campus tours, student panels, event days and one-on-one question and answer sessions. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
With the loss of tour guides walking backward across campus, Ohio State has found ways to bring forward-thinking prospective Ohio State students to the Columbus campus.
Due to the pandemic, Ohio State now offers virtual campus tours, student panels, event days and one-on-one Q&A sessions, Gigi Kerber, a fourth-year in health sciences and University Ambassador captain, said. Kerber said the usual campus walking tours now take the form of a one-sided Zoom webinar featuring two University Ambassadors and 360-degree photos of campus.
“We talk about a lot of the same things we talk about in our in-person tours, so things like residence life, the RPAC, campus dining, that sort of thing,” Kerber said.
Avery Hooser, a senior at Minerva High School in Minerva, Ohio, and admitted student for the fall, said as someone who has never visited Ohio State, she found the virtual tour she attended in July helpful.
“It was a lot of things that I never would have thought to ask someone, and it was just nice to get an understanding of the campus and the area before going down for the first time,” Hooser said.
Even though the virtual event made her feel like Ohio State was a good fit for her, Hooser said she still wanted to visit campus in person, even without the option to take a formal tour.
“I have a lot of friends that go down there, and they always talk about how much they love it and I was like, ‘OK, I definitely need to go when school is in session and just see it,’” Hooser said.
Hooser is not the only prospective student wanting to visit campus after attending a virtual tour. Kate Holmes, a senior at Unionville High School in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, said she’s planning a trip after attending a virtual tour in the fall.
“[The virtual tour] definitely was not enough to sell me on a school 100 percent or turn me off of a school,” Holmes said. “I definitely need to see the school in person.”
Although the choice to self-tour is popular among future Buckeyes, Kerber said University Ambassadors recommend following COVID-19 safety precautions and not coming to campus in person. She said it is uncertain when the University Ambassadors will host in-person tours again, but they are keeping a close eye on university guidelines as they continue virtually.
Holmes still plans to make the eight-hour drive to Columbus before she makes her final college decision, but she said she is weary of touring without a guide.
“When you’re just walking around the school just yourself, you don’t really know what you’re looking at, you’re just looking at a bunch of buildings, basically,” Holmes said.
Holmes has never visited Ohio State before, so she said she is planning her trip around recommendations from other families and plans to have a current student show her around campus.
Hooser said she chose to meet up with a current Ohio State student she knows so she could see different academic buildings and residence halls that she wasn’t able to see on the virtual tour.
“I think going in person was a necessary thing for me because, for a long time, I wasn’t entirely sure,” Hooser said. “I thought I wanted to go to Ohio State, but I didn’t know if the campus was going to be too big or if it was going to seem overwhelming, but once I actually went down and saw the campus, I realized that it was exactly what I wanted, and then going to other schools, they just didn’t measure up.”
Hooser said she will attend Ohio State in the fall.
Although many prospective students have deemed in-person visits necessary, Kerber said virtual programming has improved accessibility for students who aren’t able to physically visit campus before applying to Ohio State. She said University Ambassadors plan to continue virtual programming even when they resume in-person tours.
“We’ve seen our application numbers go up in a lot of underrepresented groups, out-of-state students, all of that, so we are definitely planning on continuing with virtual events for the foreseeable future,” Kerber said.
