Residence Life Tour Room Gives Prospective Students an Authentic Taste of ResLife Housing
When prospective students take tours of Rutgers—New Brunswick this fall and spring, they’ll be stopping at 90 Davidson on Busch Campus, where they will tour a two-person bedroom that models the standard on-campus housing option.
“The idea for the tour room came out of our focus on engagement, innovation and consistency,” said Ryan Kassis, who serves as the director of administration and operations in Residence Life. “We wanted to give students, parents, and families a better idea of what we do, what our residence halls look like, and the role of Residence Life at Rutgers.”
Prospective students and families enter the building through the main entrance, passing through a hallway that features pictures of past students, as well as the Residence Life mission and vision.
The room itself is split in half. On the left, there is a gallery area for prospective students and families where they can wait for others to finish looking at the tour room. On the right, there is a mock bedroom with two beds, two desks, and two dressers. Across the hallway, two bathrooms model the regular bathrooms that students will find in residence halls across the New Brunswick campus.
Kassis emphasized the transparency and honesty in Residence Life’s presentation of on-campus housing.
“This is a realistic display of on-campus housing,” Kassis said. “It would have been very easy to display a room that was our ‘newer’ residence hall, but we can only get 300 out of 7,000 students in that hall.”
“It’s unfair to show something to someone that you know you can’t give to them, so this is a much more accurate portrayal of the median residence life room on the New Brunswick campus.”
Since Residence Life introduced the tour room in July 2024, the room has accommodated thousands of visitors. By Residence Life’s estimates, about 300 students and family members visit the room on active days, and over 20,000 will visit it on an annual basis. Visitors are accompanied by Undergraduate Admission’s Scarlet Ambassadors and Residence Life staff.
“As the parent of a college student, I think that we’ve created an experience for prospective students and families,” said Alexandra Cupello Waters, who works as an associate director of operations for Residence Life. “They’re not just walking away with an idea of what our rooms look like; they’re learning about our staff, our amenities, and how we support students in their living spaces.”
Beyond giving these students an accurate idea of Rutgers—New Brunswick’s on-campus housing, the tour room also provides an opportunity for Residence Life to strengthen its partnership with New Student Orientation and Transition Programs, as well as the Rutgers—New Brunswick Undergraduate Admissions.
Kassis emphasized the importance of these connections.
“One of our most significant successes in the past few years has been our relationship with enrollment management, admissions, and orientation,” Kassis said. “We’re now involved in the recruitment of students, in the orientation of students, and our introduction is now spread out across more parts of the university.”
Moving forward, Residence Life sees their tour room and their increased engagement with prospective and incoming students as steps in a broader engagement plan.
“The goal here is for us to be the standard,” said Michael Tolbert, the executive director for Residence Life. “We want to be innovative. We want to provide the best for our students, to engage our students and parents, and to be forward-facing from the moment you walk through the front doors of our office.”
“That’s our vision and mission, and that is the goal of what we’re doing with this tour room.”
You can sign up for a tour of Rutgers campus here, and you can learn more about Rutgers Residence Life here.
