What’s the best way to learn about a university?

When I first heard about the two campuses of EHL Hospitality Business and Hotel-Management School in Switzerland, I had a difficult time fathoming how it worked. 

“So there’s two campuses – one is smaller and the other is bigger, and although you get the same degree at the end, the pathways are different, because one is more focused on hospitality and the other is more business-focused, although EHL is known as a hospitality school…?”

I even met the representative twice, once on a school visit and once for a counsellor dinner in China, where I bombarded her with questions, resulting in pages of notes afterwards. 

Then I attended a fly-in tour to EHL, where everything just clicked. 

I looked back at what I had written. I had cognitively registered all the details and understood it with my mind – and if you had asked me to explain EHL to a student, I would have done so adequately from my notes. However, with the actual physical experience of a visit, I finally grasped all the information I had written down on a whole different level. 

I had engaged with exactly the same information about the same university – that there are two campuses. But the tangible experience of actually visiting the two campuses was deeper: almost like a different kind of knowledge. Hearing and reading about universities is absorbed through text and visiting a university is acquired through embodiment. 

This got me thinking back to my cognitive-science and psychology classes, where I learned about different levels of information processing and types of cognition. 

As college counsellors, we’re expected to know universities – that’s an essential part of our job. However, the modalities and formats of knowledge can differ and, subsequently, the depth of advice we give to our students can as well. Understanding this and linking them to relevant psychological concepts can help us to be more informed college counsellors. 

Learning about universities: some relevant psychological constructs

There’s no exact framework that mirrors precisely the varying levels of information processing about universities. However, these may be helpful terminologies to know. 

DIKW Pyramid

The DIKW Pyramid is not strictly in the discipline of psychology, but it is an interesting and relevant framework that represents the relationships between data, information, knowledge and wisdom (hence the acronym). Each step answers different questions and adds value, as it progresses to the next level.

Data is a collection of facts in a raw or unorganised form, such as numbers or characters. Examples of data about a university are its acceptance rate (for example, 15 per cent acceptance rate) or the entry requirement (for example, IB score of 36, with a 5 in maths), without further context.

Information, the next level, is data that is further contextualised and processed, making it easier to measure, visualise and analyse for a specific process. For instance, information is knowing that a 15 per cent acceptance rate means that a university is highly selective and that most applicants are rejected.

Knowledge is information applied to how we achieve our goals. Continuing the analogy of the acceptance rate, knowledge would be preparing the student to build a strong profile across academics, extracurriculars and essays, given this acceptance rate. 

Wisdom is knowledge applied in action, when we answer questions such as “Why do something?” and “What is best?” Going further, wisdom is questioning if just blindly aiming to get into a university with a 15 per cent acceptance rate is the right path, and entering other factors (such programme strength or location) into the university search process alongside the acceptance rate. 

Modalities of learning

Have you heard of learning styles? For instance, a student may rationalise that they can’t learn effectively through textbooks, but can learn through videos, because they are “a visual learner”. 

Learning styles is one of the most pervasive myths in education, and has been busted over and over again by researchers. It still lingers because of its perceived intuitiveness and simplicity. 

However, even though learning styles don’t exist, modalities of learning do. They are: visual (images, diagrams, charts, videos), auditory (hearing, listening, verbal), reading/writing (written words), kinaesthetic (physical activity, doing, touching). 

The moral of the story from the debunked myth of learning styles is that we shouldn’t pigeonhole ourselves into one mode, as all of us are multimodal learners, drawing from all modalities, which results in more effective learning. 

Levels of processing

Two psychologists in the 1970s proposed that memory is a by-product of the depth-of-information process. Simply put, the way information is encoded, or processed, affects how well it is remembered. 

Not surprisingly, information is easier to recall when the level of processing is deeper. And levels of processing vary from shallow to deep. 

The psychologists identified three processing levels: structural (surface features), phonemic (sounds/patterns) and semantic (meaning). They tested this with whether participants were able to recall words. This can’t really be overlapped neatly to learning about university, but the fact that levels of processing can vary still applies. 

Another aspect that would result in deeper processing is whether you have had an opportunity to interact dynamically with the source of knowledge – for example, to learn about a university in a tour and ask questions – rather than its being a one-way process – for example, watching a campus video tour. 

Levels of knowing for each modality 

The following are different ways we commonly learn about universities. Each is denoted with their modality, type of knowledge gained and levels of processing.  

Reading

Reading is likely the easiest and most accessible form of gaining information about a university. 

Reading about a university on a website

This is an absolutely essential first step that can theoretically yield all that you need to know about a university: entry requirements, student life, research opportunities, housing, values – you name it. 

Reading about a university through other means

Sometimes, a book can offer information that a website alone cannot. This is most prominent with US universities because there are just so many of them (more than 3,000), and specialised publications have evolved to help students and parents make a decision. I’m thinking about books such as Fiske Guide to Colleges, by Edward B. Fiske, or The Hidden Ivies, by Howard Greene. 

• Modality of learning: reading/writing
• Type of knowledge: data and information (website) and knowledge and wisdom (book)
• Level of processing: shallow or deep, depending on how you’ve read it
• Interactivity: one-way.

Watching 

With music and video, watching can elicit emotional reactions and add a new layer of understanding that text alone cannot. 

A promotional video about a university 

When university representatives lead a presentation, some of them play a video to start it off. These videos are only two or three minutes long, but they’re edited masterfully, giving an attractive overview of the university, with emotional music playing in the background. 

Campus tours

If you can’t visit a university in person, universities may offer video campus tours on YouTube (not interactive) or on platforms such as YouVision (interactive).

Short-form videos

There is a proliferation of short-form videos, created by students about university life, on social media platforms. 

• Modalities of learning: visual and auditory
• Type of knowledge: information and knowledge
• Levels of processing: deeper
• Interactivity: one-way. 

Conversing

Talking with a rep 

Universities send out admissions officers or recruiters to talk to students and parents. In the age of easy information dissemination per previous methods, there’s a reason why this method still exists: it’s effective. 

Talking to university students

This is the less formal and official way to speak to students, but it can yield a host of interesting information not available on any website, book or brochure. 

Talking to AI

We can’t discount AI in 2025. Students can find out information about a university through asking the usual suspects (GPT, Claude, Gemini or Deepseek) or by heading to tailor-made platforms such as CollegeGenie. 

• Modality of learning: auditory and visual
• Type of knowledge: information, knowledge, wisdom
• Levels of processing: deep
• Interactivity: two-way. 

Visiting

Beyond researching and talking about a university, you can actually visit it. This will yield not just information but experiences and memories of a place. 

Campus walk

You can just visit the campus and stroll through it, provided it’s an open campus. You don’t get to talk to student tour guides, but seeing the students chat and actually walking through hallways can give a sense of place that no video can.

Campus tour (day)

If a campus organises structured tours, this affords a more informative experience than just walking through by yourself, as a guide can explain things in person.

Overnight campus tour/summer camp for students/fly-in for counsellors 

The chance to stay in a hall of residence overnight can help a prospective student understand the feeling of actually waking up in the university grounds. Universities that offer summer camps on their premises often market the camps as the opportunity to learn what it’s like to be a university student. 

• Modality of learning: tactile, auditory, visual
• Type of knowledge: information, knowledge and wisdom
• Level of processing: very deep
• Interactivity: two-way.

Attending

The final, most effective way to learn about a university is to attend it. This is why your alumni who have attended a university suddenly become a valuable source of information, knowledge and wisdom. If you decide to host a teacher university fair (teachers representing the university that they attended), you’re aiming to draw from the pooled wisdom of your staff. 

• Modality of learning: all of the above
• Type of knowledge: all of the above
• Level of processing: deepest
• Interactivity: two-way.

Applying the levels of knowing

Strongly encourage visiting universities

The reason why counsellors (especially in the US with its plethora of universities) emphasise visiting universities is that visiting a university provides students with a wealth of knowledge and wisdom. 

Prompt reflection

If a student is learning about a university through various means, follow up on these different modalities of learning: “What did visiting tell you that reading about the university couldn’t?” or “How did talking to a student change what you learned from the brochure?”

Combine formats 

Even if you or a student cannot visit, you can still learn about a university immersively. Combine multiple online formats – official virtual tours, student vlogs, live Q&A sessions – to approximate multimodal learning. 

Connect with a rep or alumnus

Introduce ways of learning about a university through conversations by inviting a rep or alumni. Prepare students with specific questions that tap into experiential knowledge. (“Describe a typical Tuesday” or “What surprised you most after arriving?”)

Encourage gathering sensory details

When students can’t visit, help them gather sensory information through other means: cafeteria menus (food culture), campus events (social atmosphere) or student-newspaper archives (campus priorities). 

Go to fly-in tours or visit universities yourself

This brilliant article talks about fly-in tours – I hope it helps motivate you to visit universities. 

Accept the limitations of your current counselling situation 

If your resources do not allow you to actually visit universities, it’s OK. You’re there to learn about universities to the best of your ability and share that with the students. Websites, videos and books still yield incredibly rich information and knowledge. 

Inspired by conversations with Ice Dengqing Wang from Jurong Country Garden School, and Isabel Veit, UISG alumna.

For more on student life and experience, you can direct your students to THE Student.