Prospective MTSU students and their guests attending the upcoming Fall Preview Day will be beneficiaries of changes made by the university to improve the visit.

“All of our campus recruiting events are upgraded and expanded this year,” said Dr. Deb Sells, vice president for Student Affairs and vice provost for Enrollment and Academic Services.

This fall, MTSU has one preview day and three True Blue Experience days, the last of which will be Friday, Nov. 16. High school and transfer students can attend both the preview and True Blue Experience days, both of which have been expanded to better serve the potential MTSU students and their parents or guardians.

The Saturday, Oct. 20, Fall Preview Day already has more than 1,000 people registered, including approximately 330 prospective students and about 670 guests (family and friends). Online registration closed on Thursday, Oct. 18. To register for any of the remaining special events for prospective students, visit http://mtsu.edu/admissn/_RSVP.php.

The Fall Preview Day includes department presentations, opportunities to meet faculty and staff from the academic areas and student affairs and take campus tours. All high school and prospective transfer students are encouraged to attend.

In past preview days, when there might have been two or three events each fall and spring, participants browsed the department fair and took the campus tour.

“This year, the True Blue Experience days have the tour of campus, plus time to speak directly to college representatives in small groups,” Sells said. “The Preview Day will be an expansion upon that — there will be the browsing fair, a general welcome to the university, sessions with the advisers of each college, tours and lunch.”

First-year recruiting director Melinda Thomas said “feedback from the campus community and visitors” stimulated upgraded visit days for the prospective students.

“We wanted to make sure that, moving forward, our campus visit program was competitive with others around the state,” Thomas said. “Hence, we went back to the drawing board and revamped our campus visit opportunities and programs.”

Thomas said Rob Patterson, an assistant director for admissions events, has revamped the Blue Elite student tour organization.

“With our new program, True Blue Experience, we have witnessed an average 90 percent attendance rate of those that register,” Thomas said. “We are hoping to see comparable attendance for Fall Preview Day.”

“The staff have expanded all these events to be sure that prospective students get the full experience of the MTSU campus and have the chance to get all of their questions answered,” Sells said. “We’re getting a great response, which makes me think these new formats are really hitting the nail on the head.”

In addition to the Fall Preview Day, other upcoming special events include:

• Wednesday, Oct. 24, Memphis-area high school and transfer student reception (5 to 7 p.m.) and high school and community college counselor luncheon (11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Both will be held at The Great Hall, 1900 S. Germantown Rd., in Germantown;

• Thursday, Oct. 25, Jackson-area high school and transfer student reception (5 to 7 p.m.) and high school and community college counselor luncheon (11: 30 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Both will be held at The Aeneas Building, 405 East College St.; and

• Friday, Nov. 16, True Blue Experience at MTSU. It will start at 10:15 a.m. in the new Student Union Building. A printable campus map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTParkingMap12-13.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)