Western Carolina University opened its doors to prospective students for the second open house on Saturday, Nov.22. The day was designed for potential students and their families to explore academic opportunities, campus life and the area.
Open House takes a long time to organize. Administration support specialist in Admissions office, Bonnie Adams, said that there are between 70 to 80 staff and students who help organize the event. This time there were around 750 students and over 2,000 guests who came to Cullowhee.
“This is one of the events I also suggest for prospective students to attend as they are going to get a lot of valuable information from it. If they cannot attend, then I recommend a school campus tour,” admission staff, Doug Bailey, said.
Makayla Anderson, was assisting the Communication Department for the event.
“Open House is very important for prospective students and their families because the students are able to talk to the department that they are interested in and get more information on the requirements for the major,” Anderson said.
For forensic anthropology junior, Zoe Plyler the event is a good way to interact and create strong bonds with people who are already in the department.
For many of the families, open house is not only a first glimpse at Westerns campus but also a chance to see how the university works and where things are at.
Eten Leise and his family was one of the attendees. She is from Chicago and is already admitted to WCU as a Physical Therapy major.
“I selected Western Carolina University because I love the Carolinas’, and I feel strong that WCU is a good home for my future self,” Leise said.
Lexington native and future Education major, Kaitlyn Shaw also selected WCU because of the area.
“I love the area, I love the mountains. I selected WCU just because of that, the mountains,” said Shaw.
The view is not the only reason prospective students selected WCU. Nathan Carens, from South Carolina, likes WCU because of the size.
“WCU was selected because is not big school, it’s not overcrowded,” Carens said adding that this will make it easy to get around campus and smaller class sizes will only add to his success.
The next open house is at the end of February. To register and find more information about it check the Open House website.
