Jaron Levi
palmettoreport@gmail.com

(Rock Hill, S.C.) – Many prospective college students utilize campus tours to help make a decision for where they will spend their lives for the next four years.

Over the last year, Winthrop University has hosted more than 2,800 prospective students on campus tours.

“The visit is huge to us. We understand that nine times out of 10, they’re probably gonna choose the school they’re going to, based on their visit experience, and the tour is a huge portion of that,” said Whitney Campbell, assistant director of campus visits and events.

The Office of Admissions says an additional 1,100 visitors have toured the campus since September and roughly 30-35% of students who attend a campus tour or an admissions event ultimately enroll.

Campbell says the tours provide an experience that “no person or brochure can,” which may help to increase enrollment.

Winthrop freshman Ariana Wright says taking a campus tour helped her make the decision to attend the university.

“Just the scenery alone,” Wright said. “And just the amount of diversity that I saw really drew me in.”

She said the tour provided information she needed to make her college choice.

“The tour guide talked about how small the class sizes were usually, and then how personable the professors have been in our tour guide’s experience,” Wright said. “I can definitely attest to that.”

University officials say they will continue tracking the number of campus visits, as it helps them recruit students and improve the tours in the future.