Identifying concepts that influence high school students during a college campus tour

by Spoon, Adrea N.

Dr. Kathryn S. Hoff, Advisor The problem of this study was to uncover the concepts and structure that positively influence students during a campus tour. Included in the literature review were topics highlighting types of tours, characteristics of campus tours, trends in tour guide programs, planning the campus visit, components of a campus visit and influence of campus tours. Three focus groups were conducted to explore the opinions, critiques and creative thoughts of first year students. The focus groups included students from the Chapman Community in Kohl, Honors Program and UNIV 131. The results of the focus groups provided four themes that need to be considered when examining the success of a campus visit. The need for personalized attention, the need to visualize themselves as current students on campus, the need for a welcoming tour guide and the need for certain campus tour stops were the themes. These themes can be explored by the Office of Admissions staff to help create an unforgettable campus visit to Bowling Green State University. iii