Prospectives flock to Owl Weekend
Owl Weekend, the annual recruitment weekend for prospective students organized by the Student Admissions Council, will be held April 15-17. More prospective students registered for Owl Weekend this year than in either of the past two years. This year, 495 prospective students signed up for Owl Weekend, and 340 students signed up to host.
“It’s going to be the biggest Owl Weekend we’ve ever had,” On-Campus Programs Committee Chair Casey Langwith said. More than 520 prospective students signed up for either day or overnight stays.
In the past, Owl Weekend has been held Thursday through Saturday, but this year, it will be held Sunday through Tuesday.
SAC Student Director Sadia Khanani said admissions officers were behind the change.
“They were trying to respond to many requests from students who requested to get more classroom experiences and [see] what teachers at Rice are like,” Khanani, a Will Rice College senior, said. “Vision Weekend has been on weekdays for two years now, and it has worked out very well. Last year, we had two Owl Weekends instead of one, and it didn’t work out very well.”
Lovett College junior Wonchon Lin said he prefers having a Thursday through Saturday Owl Weekend.
“I would just rather have it on Thursday, Friday and Saturday because Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are quiet,” he said. “There’s not really much for them to see except classes in the mornings.”
In 2005, 488 prospective students attended Owl Weekend. In 2006, SAC held two Owl Weekends, but the number of prospective students remained about the same — 497. This year, a cap was set on the number of overnight hosts and prospective students that could attend the event.
“We did decide to have a limit on overnight hosts because we just didn’t want to tax the Rice community too much,” Langwith, a Sid Rich College sophomore, said. “I know there were concerns about the date change, but we’ve really had a lot of support from Rice volunteers.”
To prevent a potentially boring Owl Weekend, SAC focused on finding events on-campus for prospective students to attend, Langwith said.
“We realized it was Sunday through Tuesday, and we realized hosts would be busy with school,” she said. “We really have a ton of great events planned, and hopefully Rice students will also have things to go to.”
There will be study breaks from 3-5 p.m. Sunday, a welcome picnic for prospective students and their hosts from 5:30-6:30 p.m., a Spontaneous Combustion show at 9 p.m. in the Grand Hall and a Rice Philharmonics concert at 10 p.m. in the Lovett Upper Commons. Prospective students will be able to attend an Astros game and “Cheap Date Night” at the Angelika Film Center Monday night.
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