Admission launches virtual tour
New site gives viewers from anywhere a stroll around campus
by Rick Waters '95
Admission has launched the TCU Virtual Experience, a digital trek around the buildings, programs and people that make Horned Frog Country unlike any other.
The campus tour has always been, perhaps, the influential moment for students and parents considering TCU.
As Office of Admission dean Ray Brown has said before, "If we get them here, such as on a Monday at TCU, a vast majority leave impressed. Very impressed."
Starting today, that quintessential look around the quad now can have guests in their pajamas. Admission has launched the TCU Virtual Experience, a digital trek around the buildings, programs and people that make Horned Frog Country unlike any other.
The site features an 11-minute overview of the university with 14 stops around campus, guided by senior J. Mack Slaughter. Users can skip to any section at any time, watching just the parts they want, or watch the full tour. The site also has six high-definition videos of different parts of the TCU experience, such as student life, academics and athletics.
More than a dozen students, some of whom graduate on Saturday, share personal accounts of their lives as Horned Frogs.
"It's not static photos like students see in a view book," says Liz Rainwater '00, director of Admission Marketing. "They're videos and it stimulates more of the senses than just sight.
In one scene, you can hear Frog Fountain splashing in the background. That's what it sounds like when you walk in the Campus Commons. When they show Market Square, you can see and hear the hustle and bustle."
Perkins also likes that students narrate on camera throughout.
"People can see students' facial expressions and see that what they're saying is coming from the heart," she said.
The site was created by TCU's Office of Web Management and Ardent Creative.
Rainwater said the site is already a hit among admission counselors who have taken a DVD version of it out recruiting on the road.
"We think this will continue to make TCU a very attractive option for college-bound students," she said.
On the Web:
www.experience.tcu.edu
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The viewbook goes digital