KTLA

Thousands of California students getting ready to apply for college admission face virtual recruitment

A lone jogger runs past Royce Hall on a nearly empty UCLA campus in Los Angeles on Aug. 13. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

In a normal year, Northern California high school senior Alain Kanadjian would be touring college campuses, attending college fairs in gyms or convention centers and meeting with college recruiters at his campus. All in person.

But this is not a normal year for Kanadjian and hundreds of thousands of other California students getting ready to apply for college admission. During the pandemic, those face-to-face options to help them decide which schools best fit their interests, aptitudes and wallets have all evaporated.

Instead, the college application and recruiting process — like classes at most high schools and universities — has switched to virtual connections. Enormous college fairs are being held online. Campus tours are virtual. And college representatives are visiting groups of high school students via Zoom.

Whether the virtual options work will help determine whether colleges and universities get the enrollment and tuition revenues they need next fall.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.