COVID-19 pandemic caused chaos all across the United States. One of those things was the shutdown of college campuses during the last half of the 2019-2020 school year. Now that campuses have reopened across the country, college visits have resumed as well.
When campuses shut down in March, college visits came to a halt. This put many juniors and seniors in a hard situation. College visits are a common way for students to find out if a college is the right fit for them.
There is significant controversy about whether or not it is a good idea to invite high school students to college campuses. Common concerns include the chance a high school student may catch the virus and bring it back to their school or expose the campus to it if they’re already infected.
Senior Alex Thorne believes resuming college visits is beneficial to both universities . “I think as long as the tours are socially distanced and the crowds are smaller than they have been in the past it should work,” he expressed. This should minimize the danger surrounding COVID-19.
Due to COVID-19, colleges have had to adjust how they handle visits to campus.. Senior Jacob Townsend recently went on a visit and described the precautions that are taken. “Everyone had to be masked up, there was no contact allowed between us and the students on campus and we had to get multiple temperature screenings throughout the day,” Townsend explained.
These new precautions are the standard for most colleges around the country as more and more begin allowing on site visits. These visits are still not the same as before. Students can not go into areas that have a high flow of students, such as classrooms, dining halls and dorms.
A handful of students took visits before the chaos ensued in March, but many had not had the opportunity when it came time to apply to colleges. Senior Joey Borbeck found it hard to talk to and visit schools, especially for sports. “It was really difficult to find the right college when I couldn’t visit any schools. All meetings with coaches happened online and we couldn’t ever meet in person,” he commented.
Although the visits are different, they are still more beneficial than the virtual visits provided in the past few months. However the visits look, they can still provide benefits for students to find the right fit for them.
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