Kirkwood Community College offers many opportunities for prospective students to visit campus. These include individual and group visits throughout the year but also include Friday visit days.
Friday visit days require an all hands-on deck approach as prospective students are on campus for more than three hours. Prospective students and parents are given the opportunity to win some prizes before learning the basics for what Kirkwood has to offer. The parents and students are separated as the admissions staff splits up and gives a presentation to both groups.
Students are later divided into groups based on the major that they selected prior to attending the visit. This allows students to get a more tailor-made visit rather than having just one single generic experience. In these “break-out” sessions, the cost of attendance, degree potentials and even career paths are discussed for the students to consider.
Following the breakout session, all guests are invited to stay for pizza and other snacks as a thank-you for visiting. Prospective students are also encouraged to take a free t-shirt as well as a small bag of candy.
After the lunch session, Kirkwood Student Ambassadors lead tours around the campus. These tours generally last around 30 minutes and focus primarily on the amenities offered in Iowa Hall, classrooms and other key locations such as the Library and Bookstore.
As a result of last year’s campus visits, 70 percent of the students who visited chose to attend Kirkwood. According to the Admissions Office, 1,705 students have already taken the time to visit campus since the fall (up 16 percent from the total for 2021-22) and there are still four more visit days left.
Current students interested in helping with visit days can email Nick Kettmann at Nick.Kettmann@kirkwood.edu for more information.
Staff Writer
Categories: Feature
