Prospective students come to see what “#1” is all about

Last Friday, the Rose-Hulman Admissions Office hosted Campus Visitation Day for prospective students. The event began at Hatfield Hall and was followed by tours given by student volunteers, a question and answer session hosted by the Admissions Office, as well as a “department fair” where all of the academic departments, as well as Rose-Hulman Ventures and ROTC, set up booths and answer any questions parents may have.

According to Jared Goulding, Assistant Director of Admissions, there were 24 seniors and six juniors that were scheduled to attend the program. “This was one of the smaller programs because of the time of year and it’s the end of the semester.” The distribution of students attending the program was mostly from the Midwest, with the majority of the students being from Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, with the furthest student being from Nebraska.

The Admissions Office’s Campus Visitation Day is intended to “condense the visit down and include all of campus in a single afternoon. It also helps to bring campus to them,” explained Goulding, “[We] use Hatfield Hall, which is a great showpiece and allows us to use a great facility on campus.” Goulding also explained that “we are able to reach a lot more students by having these programs since there are only five of us and at least 90 students and family members that attend the event.”

“One of the best parts of the program is when we parade all of those students, many of them volunteers, into Hatfield Hall for the campus tours,” explains Goulding. “We are able to split [the prospective students] into smaller groups… and address personal questions and concerns and it is as close to one on one with the families as possible. The experiences [the families] have had elsewhere is that they are in a group of at least 9-10 different families,” continues Goulding. “We go by our core philosophy of everybody matters.”

The program starts in the afternoon with a welcome from either Lisa Norton, Director of Admissions, or Jim Goecker, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. “We have had Dr. Western, the President, as well as various faculty members speak to give a different perspective outside of the admissions office.” After the welcoming, the prospective students are given tours of the campus and then return to Hatfield Hall for a question and answer session, listen to Career Services speak, as well as information about the costs and financial aid available.

The event is organized by the Admissions Office with a lot of help from Nancy Apple, Visit Coordinator, who is in charge of getting students confirmation materials as well as a list of the faculty members able to attend the Campus Visitation Day. The Admissions Office staff take turns doing various aspects of the program.

The program is put on 19 times a year, with the majority of the visits occurring during the summer, late fall, and early spring. The most popular time for students to visit campus is during March, since “more students are visiting their top choices,” according to Goulding. It’s also a popular time since the deadline for a decision to be admitted to Rose-Hulman is May 1.