Those clusters of wide-eyed kids walking aimlessly around campus are not freshmen — they are prospective students on Penn’s campus tours.
Penn campus visits have risen 8-10 percent this year, according to Admissions Dean Eric Furda, and admissions experts say this trend is surprising given the economic downturn and lack of similar increases at other schools.
Furda said the significant rise in the number of people taking Penn campus tours is a “point-in-time comparison” from this year to last year. The rise began in the summer and will likely continue into May, he said.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have more families visit campus, which could be because of our earlier outreach efforts to families,” Furda said.
He attributed the increased number of visitors to outreach, promotion of the campus visit and Penn’s overall affordability messages.
“Hopefully these pieces are all adding up for more individuals to visit our campus and have a positive experience,” he said.
Furda said despite these possible explanations, attributing the trend to a single factor is difficult.
College junior Evan Philipson, who has been a tour guide for the past two years, said he has not noticed this dramatic increase in student visitors compared to this time last fall, but that visits are “always busier in the spring than in the fall.”
Sally Rubenstone, a senior advisor at CollegeConfidential.com, wrote in an e-mail that she had heard anecdotally that “college tours were up.”
She attributed this growth in Penn’s tours to a rise in news articles about touring and media warnings that students who do not visit college campuses decrease their chances of getting into those colleges.
“High-school students are realizing that an ‘under-the-radar’ visit won’t be recognized by the admission folks and thus may fall short when it comes to ‘showing interest,’” Rubenstone added. “So more and more are attending official info sessions and taking guided tours.”
Both Furda and Rubenstone said this trend runs contrary to expectations because of the current economic downturn.
According to Rubenstone, some high-school seniors are postponing campus visits until they are accepted to schools, rather than visiting during their college search, in order to save money.
“In some cases, it’s the reach schools that won’t get a look-see before April and in other cases it’s the safety schools,” Rubenstone wrote.
Furda said national trends demonstrated that “students and families were going to visit fewer campuses because of travel expenses and … the overall economy.”
