One Super-Easy Way to Improve Your Campus Visit
I'm going to make it very, very easy for you today.
A big focus for many coaches that we meet with, or who we get to serve as clients, are curious about how to improve their on-campus visits with recruits. Among all of the complicated, in-depth strategies that we might suggest, there is one which any coach can put into practice immediately.
No dent in your budget, no extra time involved on your part. It's easy.
Here it is:
Stop having your visiting prospects meet with professors and sit in on a class.
Let me explain why this is one of the best things you can do as a college coach interested in securing a visiting prospect, and also two reasons why you might be hesitant to actually follow through with erasing it from your campus visit schedule.
First, why is it such a good idea? Simple: Your athletes tell us. Quite regularly, in fact.
Just about every week, we're on campuses leading workshops for coaches and athletic departments. As a part of our review and research for those projects, we conduct detailed focus groups and surveys with current college student-athletes. When we do, one thing we ask them to tell us are what factors were most important - and least important - in helping them choose a college program. Without fail, nearly 100% of the time, student-athletes tell us that sitting in on a class and meeting with a professor or dean is the least effective, least important aspect of their visit to a college campus.
"A big waste of time". "I was bored the entire time, and it was way too long". "I would have rather just hung-out with the team". All of these are actual comments from your recruits.
So is it smart to make that a significant part of your campus visit? No.
That being said, let me give you two reasons why you will probably not make any changes to this part of your campus visit, even though most of your prospects would be much happier with their visit to campus if you did:
- Campus culture. Your friends in admissions, and the deans who are a current integral part of your campus visit routine, might protest your decision to change this part of your campus visit. Everyone has a role to play during a campus visit, and you'll be reluctant to eliminate their role in the process.
- "But we're a college. Shouldn't they experience a class?" Let me answer by telling you what many of your athletes have told us: "It's a college...we get it...they have classrooms." In other words, it doesn't matter. Now, let me clarify: If you have a prospect who asks to meet with a dean or sit in on a class, that's a different matter altogether. However, for the vast majority of athlete prospects visiting your campus for a short period of time, they would rather spend time interacting with your team. Still, chances are you won't be able to get around the whole "college...classroom...professor...must make them see it" line of thinking.
So there you have it. One easy solution to better campus visits, along with two major hurdles standing in your way.
The ball is in your court now, Coach. Are you ready to start revamping your campus visit by starting with this one very easy and inexpensive fix that's based on national research and advice from the very people you are trying to attract to your program?
We have more campus visit strategies ready to talk about at this summer's National Collegiate Recruiting Conference in Chicago. You should be there, Coach!
The discounted early registration price expires soon. Register today!
And by the way, if you can't make it but still want all the information from the conference, order our DVD and notes...it's the next best thing to being there.