Despite an upward trend in the number of campus tours during the last couple years, Duke saw a significant decline in summer tours, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag confirmed Tuesday.
The decline occurred primarily in June and July, he said, with about 10 to 20 percent fewer tours given in those two months than in June and July of the previous year.
Guttentag noted, however, that for the month of August, the trend was once again beginning to shift upward.
"We are in the process of compiling data for August," he said. "While I don't have the final data, earlier in the month it appeared that the trend we saw in June and July was reversing."
Although officials said they had no clear indication of why the decline had occurred, they thought the continuing lacrosse controversy likely had an impact.
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"Obviously, you can't ask people who didn't visit why they didn't," Guttentag said. "I expect the negative media coverage of Duke had some effect."
In the spring, as the controversy unfolded and media trucks descended on campus, the number of tours still remained relatively consistent, said senior Allana Strong, head coordinator for the tour guide program and president of Blue Devil Tour Guides.
Both Guttentag and Strong added, however, that they were uncertain whether the number of visitors who came to the University during that time also remained approximately the same.
Aside from the lacrosse scandal, admissions officials also cited a number of other factors-including rising gas prices-that could have contributed to the decline.
"Unlike in the Northeast, where people can easily visit a considerable number of very selective colleges in a short series of days, there are not as many selective colleges that near to us, so a trip here takes a little more effort," Guttentag said.
Beyond identifying the reasons for the decline, it is even more uncertain what this data suggests about the ultimate number of applicants in the coming year, because the admissions office rarely investigates the correlation between the number of visitors and the number of applicants.
Guttentag emphasized, however, that drawing predictions from these statistics was, at best, an imprecise forecast.
"The decision of a student or a family to visit or not visit in July of 2006 is not going to be the only factor driving their decision to apply by December of 2006," he said. "I would absolutely not predict one from the other."
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