By: Chloe Reidy

The Coronavirus pandemic has changed many aspects of the college admissions process. For the class of 2022, this has made it a lot more difficult to research colleges students might want to apply to. Since the spring of 2020, most colleges have stopped offering in-person tours, forcing students to try and do their college search online. Most colleges have now started offering online visits, which offer helpful information on the strengths of the school and why you should apply. A main disadvantage of these tours is that colleges have much more complete control of what prospective students learn about, so it can be difficult to compare schools. Every school only shares the best aspects of its education.

As we have become more accustomed to living during the pandemic, some schools have started to reopen to in person visits. For example, Northeastern, Tulane, and SUNY Binghamton are allowing students to take a self-guided walking tour of campus while Brandeis allows prospective students to register for a self-guided driving tour. Northeastern is planning on restarting official tours of campus in May. While these in-person visit options offer hope that juniors might be able to visit campuses before finalizing their college lists, travel restrictions currently make it difficult to travel between states to visit schools outside of New York.