Case Study: University of Virginia achieves up to 50% student engagement in career advising with Olark

How a university career center uses live chat to help more students fit in last-minute guidance

The University of Virginia Career Center helps students plan post-college careers but struggled to reach undergraduates who procrastinate, need last-minute guidance, or find the Center’s off‑campus location inconvenient. To provide timely, low‑stress support without adding staffing burdens, the Center sought a simple live‑chat solution that would give students instant access to advisors.

They chose Olark for its ease of use and key features—co‑browsing, transcripts, chat routing, and tagging—that let advisors troubleshoot issues, route chats to the right specialist, and import conversations into appointment tracking. Adoption was rapid: within a month 30+ advisors logged nearly 400 chats, and Olark now handles up to half of the Career Center’s one‑on‑one student engagements, improving accessibility and timely support.

University of Virginia

Nathan Hunsaker

Associate Director of Technology and Data