Saturday, prospective students and their families saw Kansas State’s campus with live music at Bosco Student Plaza, bouncy houses scattering the lawns and a lot of purple. It was obvious there was only one thing they were there for: K-State Open House.
Many of K-State’s departments and student organizations set up booths at the event to show prospective students what they could expect if they decide to come to K-State, even if bouncy houses are not to be expected all the time, said Zoe Woolsoncroft, sophomore in agribusiness and new student services ambassador.
Woolsoncroft was one of the tour guides during Open House. Tours started in the K-State Student Union, leaving every 30 minutes and lasted about an hour.
“When we do have students on campus, it’s really fun for students to be able to see how kind students actually are to everyone and just kind of get a feel for K-State,” Woolsoncroft said. “Also get a feel for where things are, since we are kind of a close campus.”
Woolsoncroft took her group of about 12 high school students and their families around campus to see the different types of classrooms, the concrete canoe and talk about what to expect in some of their possible future classes.
She also took the group to the Leadership Studies building and through Hale Library, walking backward for most of the one-hour tour.
“A lot of people think we had a lot of training for (walking backward) and everything, but actually the first time I walked backwards was for my first campus tour,” Woolsoncroft said. “It looks like it’s harder than it is actually, but it is kind of an art that we like to think that we master pretty easily.”
What the tour guides do get trained in is how to answer questions prospective students and their parents might have about campus. During her tour, Woolsoncroft answered questions about class sizes, laptops and wait lists, though she said she also gets questions about campus construction and the upcoming changes in concealed carry gun laws.
“Lots of parents will call in worried or they will ask on tours,” Woolsoncroft said. “We kind of try to not mention it, just so we don’t have to have that confrontation, but it’s also a topic that is going to happen on campus and we can’t help it so it’s something we need to be OK with talking about.”
The tour ended in front of Hale, though people were encouraged to explore campus more. Many went back to the Union to see more of what was there.
Jehu Mette, senior in economics, helped at the economics department’s booth, hoping to get students interested in economics.
“I’ve seen a lot of young students who are very excited about coming to college,” Mette said. “Our job is to just be honest the best we can to tell them about what we do and what is interesting to them.”
Other booths gave prospective students information about Housing and Dining Services, band and many of the clubs offered on campus. Along the Spirit Wall, several people lined up to take photos with the new Willie bench.Related:
Life-sized Willie statue in Union
“I like the campus,” said Logan Krause, sophomore at Rose Hill High School. “I was just going through all the departments and all the booths and everything I was interested in, and I liked what I saw.”
Krause came to visit K-State the day before Open House for Sophomores Only Day, and said he found the campus to be very unique.
“I’ve been to other colleges for camps and I haven’t really been to a college like this before,” Krause said.
