Mateo Remsburg, assistant vice president for enrollment management and executive director for undergraduate admissions, said there are 5,160 students who did a campus tour visit and afterward expressed interest in applying for enrollment for the Fall 2023; of those, 39% confirmed their intent to enroll at OU.
Students will confirm their intent to enroll beginning in December of the previous year through August, while the vast majority of students confirm by May 1, the National Decision Date, Remsburg said.
“About 37% of admitted students have visited campus either through our daily campus visits or one of our larger open house-type events,” Remsburg wrote in an email. “However, those students who are admitted and do visit campus in some manner confirm their intent to enroll at about 80%.”
Maire Stonecipher is one of five desk coordinators for the tour guide program, and she said the program offers different events – throughout the year – to engage with potential and admitted students.
During the Fall Semester, the tour guide program offers OHIO Discovery Days, which give students an overview of OU, an opportunity to listen to students speak and a resource fair displaying all aspects of the university. There are also OHIO Experience Days, which allow students interested in a specific major to visit the university and shadow a student in that field.
Also, during the Spring Semester, admitted students have the opportunity to engage in the OHIO Up Close program, an open-house-style event where tour guides serve as featured student speakers, give campus tours, guide families into residence halls or provide personal student experiences, Remsburg said.
Stonecipher said she thinks it’s not only important for the university to track how many students commit to OU after going on a campus tour, but also motivating for tour guides to see how their tours helped influence a prospective student to enroll.
“The moments where you actually see a freshman walking on campus, and they're like, ‘you gave me my first tour, and you made me want to come here,’ are honestly the most rewarding thing in the whole world,” Stonecipher said.
Associate Director of Visits and Events Brian Heidlebaugh said the tour guide training process entails a combination of informative sessions, mentoring, and shadowing, taking about a month to complete.
Also, each new tour guide is assigned a mentor. Each mentor will show examples of how to give the tours, where to go and key talking points, Heidlebaugh said. Mentors are also responsible for monitoring the trainee’s progress throughout the training period and go on real tours to step in and help if needed.
“(The mentors’) valuable input and constructive feedback contribute to the enhancement of the trainees' performance,” Heidlebaugh wrote in an email.
After prospective students complete a guided tour at OU, they are sent a survey to rate their visit experience. On average, there is about a 15% response rate to the surveys across all visits and events, Remsburg said.
Stonecipher said it’s important to leave a long-lasting impact on the families who book tours and give a good representation of the university. Ultimately, the goal is to encourage students to come to OU.
“We want to make sure (potential students are) getting to see every aspect of campus and not leaving feeling like they need to come back for any reasons other than to come here,” Stonecipher said.