By Lake DiStefano
Arts & Entertainment Editor
The College recently launched Visit TCNJ, a new app that allows families to virtually tour the campus themselves. The app features a virtual map of the campus in which different buildings show descriptions and videos when interacted with.
“Campus visits are a huge part of college admissions, and during the year we have ambassador-led tours,” said the College’s Associate Vice President for College Advancement David Muha in an interview with The Signal. “We have open houses, and we encourage families to participate in those. But there are portions of the year where we don't have any tours running, and sometimes that doesn't always coincide with the times that we do have tourists.”
Before the Visit TCNJ app, there were other methods of self-touring for families at the College, but most proved impractical and unsustainable.
Muha explained how around seven years ago, the College used to produce a tour book, with about 16 different stops on it. However, a one to two year supply of those would cost about $20,000 to print, whereas the cost to produce the app was “probably less than a hundred dollars,” according to Muha.
It was also difficult to keep the tour book current, because Campus Town’s shops change periodically.
This cost of the app is mainly made up of the fees related to hosting the app on the Apple and Google Play stores, along with the licensing fees related to using Google Maps within the app’s navigation systems — which is a “fraction of a penny” per use, according to Muha.
Inspiration for the app came when Muha was walking over to Armstrong Hall from Green Hall. While on the path between Kendall Hall and the math and physics building, he was almost run over by a woman in a Jeep Cherokee.
“She was a visitor to campus, and she had put in a specific building on campus, and Google Maps was driving her to that building,” Muha said.
After this, Muha proposed a challenge to a member of his staff, Adam Holsten, a front-end web developer for the College.
“I asked him if he would consider taking on a challenge to kind of migrate the campus tour, that we had been doing physically, to an app that would marry Google Map navigation technology with our campus buildings and allow a family to come to campus and give themselves a tour,” Muha said.
The app has been in the works since then, with its release now allowing future prospective students this alternative means of touring the campus.
“It'll certainly be integrated into the Visit TCNJ website that admissions has, and that page highlights the different ways to visit campus,” Muha said.
Muha clarified that the app’s purpose is not to replace the already existing in-person tours, but to merely accommodate those whose schedules are unable to align with that of the open houses.
“I imagine that when a visitor arrives at Trenton Hall, at a time when tours aren't available, that there would be a sign, maybe with a code that would allow somebody to download the app,” Muha said. “Ultimately, we would want a visitor to engage with the admissions office and a live person.”
There are plans to continue to update and develop the app in response to user feedback, as the app is still in its infancy.
“The videos that this app features, my team developed a few years back during the pandemic. My team worked with admissions and the ambassadors to film those videos as a way of letting families then tour the campus remotely,” Muha explained.
The app is intended to eventually feature tours tailored to specific interests about the campus. Muha mentioned one such planned development would be having a specific tour for the athletic related facilities on campus for any curious student athletes.
Despite the app’s target audience mostly being prospective students, current students can still engage with it if they are keen on learning about the various buildings on campus.
“I love that the images of the school are high quality,” said Kaitlyn Balestrieri, a sophomore mathematics and secondary education major. “It is also very easy to navigate, which is great for students who may not have knowledge about the college application process.”
The app is also able to get students in contact with admissions, acting as another avenue for prospective students to express interest in the school, and ask any questions regarding touring.
However this secondary purpose is a smaller focus, as the open houses still exist for this reason.
“I went on the website and registered for a Lions Day visit, which was really self explanatory, and the school followed up with me,” said Madisen Stearns, a senior public health major, when asked about if the open houses were difficult to navigate to begin with.
The app is currently available for download on both the Apple and Google Play stores.
