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Abstract
As the world changes, institutions of higher education are constantly adopting new business practices in order to ensure future success of their institutions. While enrollment managers are focused on their marketing and recruitment tactics, high school students are being inundated with recruitment materials including invitations to visit campus, a traditional method of promoting a college experience. Although students who visit a college campus are twice as likely to matriculate as students who do not visit prior to the application process, there is a lack of knowledge on what specific factors of the visit influence that process. This generic qualitative study used Strange and Banning’s 2015 campus ecology framework as a model to examine the experiences of seven first-time freshmen and understand which aspects of a campus visit at a small, four-year institution in the Southeast were most meaningful as they moved through their individual college search process. This study concluded that the campus visit experience of prospective college students was influential in their college search process, and although students often visited campus with a specific set of priorities, other factors emerged as a result of the visit and become important priorities. Ultimately, multiple visits to campus impacted students’ college choice process as they were able to begin to understand the campus culture and better envision themselves attending the institution. The results of the study include suggestions for institutions of higher education as they continue to invest in campus visits and shape the institution to meet students’ expectations.