With the weather warming up, many people spend time walking around campus and viewing the sights of Kent State, including high school students who want to learn more about the university through Admitted Student Days and campus tours.

Arayla Caldwell, a high school senior from Warren, Ohio, attended Kent State as part of the Upward Bound program, a post-secondary program at Kent State.

Caldwell said she considers attending Kent State as a public health major, but she also considers going to Eastern Michigan University as a business major or Howard University as an undecided major.

“Well, I really don’t want to go here, because I’ve been here,” Caldwell said. “I want to go somewhere new. But another good thing is, though, I would know the campus if I went here. So I wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost or anything like that. I already know people and have a good networking system.”

Still, she attended the Admitted Student Day and said she learned a lot more than she thought about the campus, busing system and her possible major.

“As an Upward Bound student, I honestly think I know everything,” Caldwell said. “But I learned today that I didn’t.”

High school seniors Khyla Parsons and Greer Neess waited for their campus tour to start in the admissions office in the Michael Schwartz Center.

Both students are from New Richmond, Ohio, have both applied to Kent State and decided to tour the university because they want to learn more about how to be involved on and off campus.

“I want to have a home away from home,” Parsons said. “I don’t want to feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere, but you know what I’m saying — get familiar with everything and have things to do.”

Neess said she is looking into a fashion merchandising major and toured Kent State’s Fashion School last year.

“I went through the museum and everything,” Neess said. “And then it was a special event where I also got to see the dress rehearsal for the fashion show last year, so I thought that was really nice … I got to meet so many people and see step-by-step all the different classrooms and stuff, so that was really helpful.”

Alex Sammons, a senior at Cincinnati’s St. Xavier High School, said he has been looking into architecture as a major and heard about Kent State through emails and his advisor, a Kent State graduate. He said he knew very little about the university and hoped to learn more about the architecture program on the tour.

He also considers attending the University of Cincinnati.

“(UC) is much more closer to home, as well as it has a prestigious architecture program,” he said.

Sammons wrote in an email that after the campus tour, he took a tour of the College of Architecture with an assistant dean of architecture, which affected his decision about what university to attend.

“I was rather leaning towards another school before coming to Kent State, but that visit caused me to come back to the center, although I am still undecided with my other choice since I haven’t fully toured their campus yet,” Sammons wrote.

During the tour, students listen to a 30–minute presentation about the campus, followed by a 90–minute walking tour, where they see various aspects of campus life, such as model dorms and other living, eating and recreational facilities, Parsons said.

Parsons, who said she is an exploratory major but is leaning more towards English, felt more knowledgeable about Kent State after the tour and could see herself attending the university in the fall.

“I could definitely see it,” she said. “It’s like a really, really great possibility.”

Alicia Balog is a news correspondent for the Daily Kent Stater.

Contact Alicia Balog at [email protected].