More than 800 high school juniors and their parents are set to visit campus on Friday, March 27 for the Grand Valley Laker Experience Day, an event that aims to help prepare families for the next level of education.

Hosted by the Grand Valley State University Admissions Office, Laker Experience Day will kick off at 9 a.m. inside the Fieldhouse with a special presentation for the potential Lakers.

“We start out in the Fieldhouse Arena with an overall presentation of GVSU and a video,” said Jodi Chycinski, director of Admissions. “We then try and detail academic programs, as well as application and scholarship deadlines. It’s really a general overview that is applicable to any student.”

From there, students will have the opportunity to learn more about academic disciplines at GVSU through a variety of tables set up inside the Fieldhouse.

“We set up 40 to 45 tables for Seidman, College of Liberal Arts and Science, Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies and College of Health Professions,” said Libby Bonnell, assistant director of Admissions. “Then we have about another 10 tables for student services at GVSU, like financial aid, housing, career service, Padnos International Center, etc.”

At the same time, students will also have the choice to attend a number of separate presentations hosted by different programs.

“Because of interest, the numbers for some programs are bigger than others, which means we also do some presentations while the table fair is set up,” Chycinski said. “Engineering and computer sciences, College of Education and nursing all do presentations.”

Following this, students can choose to either attend information sessions concerning student services on campus or go on a tour of GVSU.

“After that part of the agenda is complete, and even while that is going on, we are doing tours of campus,” Chycinski said. “As people queue up in line from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., we’re sending tours out. We try to keep the tours to 20 to 25 people, depending on the attendance that day.”

Chycinski said Laker Experience Day is important because a campus visit can seriously affect whether a student decides to enroll in a university.

“There’s a common thread where students who visit campuses enroll at a higher rate than students who don’t visit campuses,” she said. “We target high school juniors because they are really starting their college search and many have taken the ACT. Now’s the time where they start investigating schools to start narrowing down the list when fall rolls around.”

Chycinski added that one of the main goals of Laker Experience Day is to represent GVSU accurately.

“We want students to choose GVSU because we are the right fit, so that’s why we involve so many people on campus outside of the Admissions Office, because those are the people students will interact with when they come to campus as students,” she said. “We also try to help families understand what it means to get a liberal education, because part of our mission is to make sure students get a well-rounded education.”

Laker Experience Day will also take place on Friday, April 3 beginning at 9 a.m.

For more information, contact the Admissions Office at (616) 331-2025 or [email protected].

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