
Cybervisits Allow Universities to Keep the
Lines of Communicati
on Open
Tough ec
onomic times have forced many Americans to curtail their travel, and university administrators are no excepti
on. But admissi
ons officers are coming up with creative alternatives to keep the
lines of communicati
on open with high school students. An admissi
ons officer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently c
onducted a cybervisit to a Fredericksburg, Virginia private school without ever leaving her office. She used a webcam to communicate with 15 students via Skype.
Wake Forest University also used Skype to c
onduct pers
onal interviews with applicants after it became the first top-30 nati
onal university to adopt a test-opti
onal policy. Knowing that some applicants would opt not to submit standardized test scores, the university admissi
ons committee decided to be more individualized and deliberate about their decisi
ons. While they interviewed many applicants the old-fashi
oned way — in pers
on —- they invited others to interview via webcam or through a written,
on-line interview.