Wildcat preview days were reimagined this year to give families and prospective students a new way to experience what ACU has to offer.
There are three types of visitation days: daily visits, pre-senior preview days – called wildcat preview days, and admitted student days. In the past, all three visits were formatted the same way, causing participants of multiple visits to have the exact same experience with tours and informational sessions.
Associate Director of Campus Visits, Leslie Hayes, said the new format offers different ways to see all of campus, from a golf cart tour to a walking tour led by a student-guide, a tour led by an admissions counselor to stations where tour guides remain all day or an audio tour around the Lunsford Trail.
“We want people to come back and do multiple visits and not just do something they have already done in the past,” Hayes said. “We are trying to really make our wildcat preview days energetic and really target our pre-seniors.”
A Saturday visit day on Nov. 3 will be added this year to give prospective students a chance to experience tailgating and a football game. There will also be a second presidential scholars day in the fall.
Tour guide and senior finance major from Colorado City, Colorado Austin Browning said that having tour guides stationed at various spots all day instead of having tour guides give walking tours was a positive change to preview days.
“It really worked well, because families knew when they would be getting all of their information versus when they would just be socializing with the admissions counselors,” Browning said. “That defined line made it easier for families to get better and more accurate information.”
The preview days were also cut shorter by a few hours and will now only last from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. A local popsicle shop will be brought in to give students and families free popsicles at the end of the day.
“It keeps the energy up, so that tour guides, admissions counselors and families don’t feel drained by the end of the day, but that they have had a lot of fun,” Browning said.
The next Wildcat preview day will be Sept. 28, and the new changes will be implemented.
