Eastern’s open house will give prospective students a tour of the campus and in-depth information about admission and student life, with the open house beginning Monday, Oct. 8.

Check-in for open house goes from 7:45 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Black Box of the Doudna Fine Arts Center, and walk-ins are welcome.

Event coordinator Molly Button said open houses give interested students a full day to learn as much as they can about Eastern in order to decide if the university suits them.   

“(Open house) is an opportunity for prospective students, admitted students, anybody that’s applied, to come to campus,” she said. “They get to talk to faculty members that day, hear from financial aid, housing (and) the admissions staff. If they haven’t applied, we offer that they can apply on-site for free that day.”

Button said students also learn about the community of Charleston and important information about residency when they come to open house, and they get to hear from a student panel and staff at Eastern.

“Everybody wants to just showcase Eastern so students can have an understanding of what we can offer them,” she said.

Director of admissions Kelly Miller said open house gives potential students an inside perspective they cannot get anywhere else.

She said that is important for determining if Eastern is the best place for them.

“A lot of (open house) is ‘Do you see yourself here? Does this feel like home?’” she said.

Miller said open house is the one date every student interested in attending Eastern should keep in mind, especially if they have heard about Eastern and never had a tour.

“I think (open house) is especially an important day for students who have heard about Eastern,” she said. “They haven’t been on campus yet, so this is really important.”

Stephanie Beltran, a junior biology with pre-physician assistant major and tour guide for open house, said there are two different times students can take a tour of campus: from 7:45 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. are the early bird tours and the rest of the tours go from 12 p.m. until 1:30 p.m.

Beltran said the tours are of the entire campus. During the tours, students enter Booth Library, the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union, the Doudna Fine Arts Center, two rooms in Thomas Hall and later on they can choose to see other residence halls.

Communicating with students and families is an important part of being a tour guide for open house, Beltran said.

“If we’re not doing (early bird tours), then we’re just mingling with the prospective students and their families t o just make them feel welcomed,” she said.

Families and students have a lot of questions when they get to open house and tour guides have to be prepared to answer all of them, Beltran said.

“At the beginning (of the tour), I always ask (students) what their majors are in, what their intended major is (and) any extracurricular (activities) that they’re interested in doing on campus so I can tailor the tour to them,” she said. “I just want every tour to be a different experience for every student … I want to incorporate them with a lot of the information I give, and I try to answer their questions as truthfully and honest as I can.”

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].