A new way to tour colleges

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eCampusTours provides virtual tours of over 1,300 colleges. Hopefully as the website’s popularity continues to grow, more campuses will be added.

For some, college visits are exciting; they indicate the end of high school and the beginning of independence. For others, after thinking about the time spent traveling and touring, the process may seem more time consuming than necessary. This is especially true during the school year, when homework and after school activities take up most of the day.

Thankfully, technology has a solution for those facing the issue of time. eCampusTours is a handy little website that offers virtual college tours. There are 38 North Carolina colleges that can be viewed on the website for free alone.

For The University of North Carolina at Asheville, for example, eCampusTours offers a 360° view of the main hall, gardens, library and fitness center. By dragging the screen around, users can see every square inch of these places on campus.

In addition to providing virtual tours, users can take at their own pace (while in the comfort of their own home), eCampusTours also lists quick bits of information normally discovered during in-person tours. This might include the tuition costs, different admission statistics or facts about the student body

Although eCampusTours is a great idea, there are obviously many aspects of in-person tours that it lacks. For most schools on the website, not all parts of the campus can be viewed virtually. In addition, not every school is available. NC State is just one of the many schools missing from their archives. This leaves a lot to the unknown, a problem easily avoided by visiting campuses in person. eCampusTours also doesn’t give users the chance to talk to alumni/students to get a feel for the atmosphere the college provides. Sometimes, knowing a college’s “energy” is vital to the decision making process.

If a person is serious about attending a certain college, they should definitely make an effort to actually see the college in person. How will a person know if a college is right for them based on 360° pictures? Therefore, eCampusTours should be used as a quick tool to view potential colleges, but should not be fully relied on.

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