This study was conducted to examine the perceptions of potential college students after participating in a recruitment presentation of a university. The focus was to conduct user research to establish some causal relationship between the design of a university marketing tool and a behavior such as the interest of potential students in the university. The theoretical framework of telepresence guided the design of the dependent variables. This phenomenological research study employed an experimental design. Included is a brief explanation of phenomenology as research paradigm, followed by a description of the experimental research design for this study, encompassing the location of the research participants, details regarding informed consent, the data-gathering and storage methods used, and the explanation of the data. Participants were divided into two groups: the control group and the experimental group. The control group viewed the campus via the website and the experimental group viewed the campus using virtual reality. The qualitative data were analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U test to see if there was a difference between the virtual reality campus tour and website. The results indicated that there was no difference between the virtual reality tour and the use of the website for perception, interest, and the possibility of attending a graduate program at a university. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]