NU hosts largest open house to date

Stephen Hodgson
Norwich Guidon Staff writer

Norwich University recently had the biggest open house that the school has ever hosted. The school has four a year, and with the passing of each, more and more people are attending them.

On Saturday, Nov. 10, 2002, Norwich had one of its annual open houses. There were 216 families who attended the open house, and of those, 169 prospects interviewed with admissions, according to Stephanie Doherty, customer service director.

The open house started at 8:30 a.m. with a meet and greet session. All of the clubs at school, along with all of academic departments and the ROTC detachments, have tables set up with information. All of the faculty and staff are there on their own time. They are giving up a Saturday morning to come and help out the school, according to Lt. Col. Skip Davison, Director of Corps recruitment.

The school then shows a video about Norwich and tells people about the school. Members of Maroon and Gold Key then gives tours of the campus.

"A very large part of making a successful open house is Maroon and Gold Key," said Davison. "We don't have admission counselors here doing our tours; we have students doing the tours."

The families then went to lunch and attended a meeting in White Chapel. While in White Chapel, the families learned about the financial aid offered by the school. Finally, the corps of cadets special units did a display.

A panel of students was available to help answer families' questions about the school. This is a question and answer session that is always very informative for families, according to Stephen Law, 22, a senior criminal justice major from Watertown, Mass.

Parents are always saying that Norwich has the best open houses. At other schools, there is a short presentation, a tour, and that's it, but here it is much better, according to Davison.

This open house, there were families here from all over the US. "Normally, our long distance travelers don't come until our April open house," Doherty said. "This year, they're coming not only a lot more but from a lot farther."

"In the last five years, I've seen the evolution of the open house take place, where every time we conduct one they just seem to get better and better," Davison said.

The school and the faculty keep bringing bigger and better displays and more pictures and computers and projectors, so they can show off their department and the school as a whole, according to Davison.

"When I was a prospect here, open house was actually held in Milano Ballroom," Law said. The open houses five years ago only averaged 50 families, and now this most recent one was over four times the size of that, according to Doherty.

Open houses are what make this school bigger. "Any volunteers are always welcome," Law said.

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