In any other year, Washington University’s campus would be filled with campus tours of hopeful prospective students and their overly eager parents. They’d be led through the Danforth Campus by a backward-walking and cliche-joke-giving tour guide who is equipped with historical factoids about the bunny statue and trivial statistics about the University.

But for incoming freshman Arjun Singh and the majority of Wash. U.’s incoming class of 2025, the view of the campus was limited to the 13-inch screen of a laptop, restrained to the four walls of a bedroom, thousands of miles away from St. Louis.

Universities around the country worked fast to rework their admissions portal to adapt to COVID-19. At Wash. U., administrators designed a virtual campus tour to replicate the in-person experience and enforced test-optional policies for applicants of high school seniors graduating in 2021 and 2022.

“I did attend the tours in my pajamas,” Singh joked. “But a low point was the repetitive nature of everything being on the computer, staring at a video screen. Being able to experience campus in person is a completely different feel. When you go through ten different online tours back to back, everything starts to blend together.”

Even from the comfort of his bed, Wash. U.’s virtual tour stood out to Singh. A student voiceover accompanies the click-through guide of the Danforth campus, allowing Singh to immerse himself in the landscape instead of spending time reading lengthy descriptions at each stop. A drop-down menu on the left-hand side of the screen enables users to “walk” through several landmarks on campus and includes popular student areas such as Forest Park and the Delmar Loop.

Still, Singh felt the unique pressure of committing via early decision to a school he has never seen in person. He relied on quantitative statistics based on GPA and test scores through the college readiness software Naviance to factor into his decision.

“Making that decision to commit was harder this year than others,” Singh explained. “I ended up making a lot more choices based on what was realistic for me considering Naviance or how students last year did, and less upon the actual campus itself.”

Other members of the incoming freshman class turned to social media for honest insights into student life at universities.

“I was on all the Reddits and whatnot,” said incoming freshman Ben Ewer. “It surprised me how useful it was because a lot of people were asking questions on there that were similar to what I had.”

Ewer appreciated the straightforwardness of Reddit users who ranged from alumni to Ph.D. students and helped him paint an accurate description of several schools he was interested in.

Despite Wash. U. making an effort to replicate the in-person experience, students who were able to tour the University before the pandemic agreed that it was a major deciding factor in committing early decision to the school.

“I remember just being very elated at everything I was seeing,” explained incoming freshman Elie Weitzman, who came to campus in Feb. 2020. “Everything felt like it fit, like a puzzle coming together.”

Despite the relief of getting the chance to visit schools in person, the COVID pandemic affected all aspects of the college process. Under his high school’s current hybrid model, Weitzman attends school in-person only half the week. His guidance counselor’s in-person days rarely overlap with his, restricting him from communicating with her for weeks. Moreover, she juggles over 300 seniors going through the same difficult process.

The anxiety that came with the new challenges of this year only increased when, between May and August, several SAT and ACT testing dates got postponed and then ultimately canceled due to pandemic-related concerns.

As seniors stood by and watched the cancellations, they debated whether it was worth it to send their standardized test scores to universities.

“My friends who had taken the ACT and didn’t get the score they wanted were extremely stressed,” incoming freshman Pema Childs explained. “They were conflicted, thinking, ‘Do I submit the score and show them that I got a score that isn’t up to their full expectations, or do I not submit a score and let them think that I didn’t try hard enough?’”

Those who have committed to Wash. U. in either early decision round have made it out of the grueling college admissions process. Some had to use more imagination than others to picture themselves on the Danforth Campus. One thing unites them all: They hope that they’ve picked the right home for the next 4 years.

“There’s that fear factor that I haven’t been to campus,” Singh said. “Will I really enjoy my life on campus? Do I think I’ll fit into the community? I tried to get as much as I could out of the virtual tours but there’s only so much you can get. I’m most looking forward to getting to see campus with my own eyes for the first time.”