NSU launched a virtual campus tour in Novemeber so that prospective students can visit the university without stepping foot on campus.
The tour, which took more than a year to produce, features students’ and professors’ anecdotes about what it is like to study and work at NSU. The tour also spotlights sports, residential life, and academic programs.
Liza Romansky, director of undergraduate marketing, said NSU launched the tour to increase the undergraduate population.
“The university is putting a lot of commitment toward growing the traditional undergraduate student population,” she said. “And in order to do that, we have to utilize marketing and specific communication tactics that a traditional student looks for.”
Romansky said that one of the most important components in the admissions process for prospective students is visiting a campus. She said statistics show students who visit a campus are more likely to enroll in that school. She also said students often use Web sites as their primary source of information about a university.
“They want to get a feel of what it’s like to be a student on campus and to hear — from students via video, via chat, via blog,” she said.
Romansky said the students featured in the tour are involved in the honors program, the dual admissions program, leadership, student government and clubs and organizations.
“We selected students who were very well-rounded and involved in a wide variety of activities,” Romansky said. “But we wanted to make sure that, first and foremost, we had a representation from across the university. So we had a faculty member from the Oceanographic Center and an undergraduate student in Performing and Visual Arts and a dual admissions pharmacy major.”
One of the professors featured was Jaime Tartar, associate pro-fessor of psychology. She said she was honored to be a part of the tour. She said she believes the overview of NSU’s features makes the virtual tour special.
“When I bring my colleagues here from other universities, I think they’re always pretty surprised about not only how the beautiful campus is, but also about the cool and innovative things we have going on,” Tartar said. “A lot of people can see, without ever actually having to come to campus, what a great university it is and what a great campus it is and all of the wonderful things that we have here.”
Andi Schaeffer, first-year graduate public health student, said she watched the tour and thought it was a good resource for potential students and their parents. However, she said it could be improved.
“If undergraduate students were their focus, they did a really good job,” she said. “But if they added a little section for graduate degrees that would have been good. I couldn’t visit from Connecticut before I came here.”
Campus Tours, Inc., created the tour. It also created tours for the University of Miami, the University of Denver and the Capitol at Washington D.C.
To take the tour, visit www.nova.edu/tour.
