Chenyao Liu

CHS will offer virtual college visits this fall. Visits are accessible through Naviance, beginning on Aug. 31 and continuing throughout the school year. The virtual visit schedule is subject to change, as more college representatives take part in virtual visits. In order to participate, students must sign up through Naviance at least two hours before the scheduled visits. Students should log on to Naviance in order to access the virtual visit links. Visits will occur between 11 a.m to 12 p.m. on Gold days. According to Melinda Stephen, College and Career Programming and Resources Coordinator, many of the visits will be held via Zoom. 

“Some (virtual visits) are going to be via Zoom. Some are going to be via WebEx. Most of them, from what I can see, look like they’re from Zoom, and some of them are going to be purely a presentation.”

Stephan also said that college recruiters will have more freedom in how they will structure their college visits. “Some might be 30 minutes. Some could last as long as an hour, and the reps are gonna set them up differently as well. We kind of left the reps in charge of how they want the visit to go.”

In response to the college visits going virtual, Stephan said, “I think we would always prefer to do things in person for that human connection for students to see that our college reps are people too. They’re not scary, they want to help you figure out how to find a good college fit. I think that can still happen virtually. I just think it’ll be different at first.”

According to Ashley Hartman, senior, who plans to participate in a virtual visit, virtual visits will not be the same. She said, “I feel like it’s really hard to do virtual college visits because the point of college visits is to be on campus and also learning information. I feel like I can see a lot of information online so I’m super upset that I won’t actually be able to see the campus.”

Jennifer Potts, University of Alabama Regional Admissions Recruiter, agreed with this. She said via email, “I think that it’s harder for prospective students to engage with current students in the virtual space and make real connections that are probable during an in-person visit. Ultimately, I hope students are able to visit campuses in-person because although I think questions can be answered virtually, there’s no substitute to walking around a college campus to see how it feels.”

In addition to the virtual visits during school hours, the CHS counseling center is working with colleges to promote other virtual visit opportunities. A list of college visits is available in the Canvas Counseling page and is updated weekly.