People visited MTSU from as far away as the Atlanta, Georgia, area and Knoxville, Tennessee. Tullahoma, the Five Points community in Lawrence County, Chapel Hill, Columbia, Greenbrier and Murfreesboro were among other Tennessee hometowns for the campus guests.

Prospective students, most accompanied by parents or siblings, became the initial group to visit MTSU Friday (Feb. 13) in the first of three special Friday tours to recruit students wanting to transfer from community colleges and four-year universities.

It marks the start of a bold initiative by MTSU to recruit transfer students.

“This is for transfer students to come in and meet other students their age and their year of study,” said Audrey Welch, transfer enrollment coordinator, who provided a 20-minute introduction utilizing PowerPoint and a video.

“We will do a campus tour with them,” Welch added. “We will do a credit evaluation. We’ll go over transfer scholarships, transfer credits, housing for transfer students, grouping them together. We will answer questions and do one-on-one interviews. We’ll talk about financial aid and about the (MT) One Stop center. We’ll do a little bit of everything.”

The MT One Stop, a one-stop shop to help meet an array of students’ enrollment management needs, is located on the second floor of the Student Services and Admissions Center, 1860 Blue Raider Drive. The transfer tours begin in Room 110 in the same building.

MTSU Blue Elite tour member David Parente leads the transfer student tour group leaving the Student Services and Admissions Center Friday (Feb. 13) during the special tour for transfers being recruited by MTSU. Parente, a senior marketing major in the Jennings A. Jones College of Business, transferred to MTSU from the Motlow State Community College campus in Smyrna, Tennessee. (MTSU photos by Andy Heidt)

Miles White, 21, of Tullahoma, will be transferring credits he received while serving in the U.S. Army. He visited MTSU for the first time with his sister, Emily Lange, of Nashville.

Planning to study criminal justice in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, White said he was impressed with both the Science Building and College of Mass Communications.

Destiny Caughorn of Knoxville, a student at Pellissippi State Community, plans to study in the School of Nursing. Her plan is to transfer in spring 2016.

“I liked everything (about MTSU),” said Caughorn, who visited with her sister, Kristen. “Everything’s available. I feel like there’s lots of opportunities.”

MTSU senior marketing major David Parente of Murfreesboro led the tour. He transferred from the Motlow State Community College campus in Smyrna, Tennessee.

Future transfer-specific tours will be held starting at 9:30 a.m. Friday, March 13, and Friday, April 10.

For more information, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/schedule-a-visit/index.php or call 615-898-5670.

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

Destiny Caughorn, second from left, of Knoxville, Tennessee, and her sister, Kristen, receive a packet of information from MTSU Blue Elite tour coordinator Chris Hardman and Emaly Cox Friday (Feb. 13) in the first floor lobby of the Student Services and Admissions Center. Destiny Caughorn, a student at Pellissippi State Community College, plans to study nursing and start at MTSU in spring 2016.