It was a Monday morning in early September of 2013. A day marked by gloomy clouds threatening rain during the time of year when the warm hug of summer’s weather is beginning to pull back. My Dad and I drove to Holland from Ann Arbor while my Mom and sister were visiting the University of Michigan’s theater school. Rain poured down throughout the two hour drive, but as we came closer to Holland the rain gave up and the occasional rays of sun shone through.
This was my first college visit and I was nervous.
We made our way into the Admissions office; I signed in and was given a folder with my schedule which only contained the campus tour I registered for. I signed up for the minimum, not really knowing that there are so many more opportunities to experience a college through a visit beyond a campus tour. For more information about all of Hope’s visit choices click here and check out the column of options on the left! So, I was asked if I would like to meet with my admissions counselor and talk a bit more about Hope. Realizing I definitely should take advantage of making as much out of this visit as possible since I live seven hours away, I agreed. As a Pennsylvania prospective student my representative was Barbara Miller.
[Curious who your Admissions Representative would be? Click here to find out!]
This meeting was my first experience with the kind of people that are at Hope. Talking with Barb was relaxed, informative, and enjoyable. She talked about Hope College and more specifics about my personal admissions process related to ACT/SAT scores and scholarships, etc. However, she also asked about my high school activities and life. I particularly remember a topic of conversation about a mutual love for Golden Retrievers 🙂
Finally, she asked if a Christian atmosphere was important to me in a college.
Throughout my college search “Christian School” was not one of the items that was a necessity on my checklist, but I was intrigued by its significant presence at Hope. Barb asked if we would like to attend a Chapel service with her prior to the tour. So, we walked over to the Chapel and joined the crowd of students taking their free block of 20 minutes in their schedules to attend this service. We piled into a pew near the back by a blowing fan and behind what must have been members of the basketball team in a beautiful Chapel packed with students in the pews and even standing along the edges of the room. I enjoyed the service and was impressed by the amount of all kinds of students who attended because they wanted to be there.
Next was the tour which consisted of me, my Dad, and our tour guide. It was a brief, personal and fun tour. Hearing a student’s perspective is interesting and one of the most important things to me as a prospective student. We ended our day eating lunch in Cook with a couple students who were, as now seemed typical of Hope’s community, friendly, welcoming and truly interested in getting to know you.
Over the next three months college visits continued including my second visit to Hope in November for a Fly-In Weekend! I’ll be writing more about the Fly-In Weekend visit opportunity next week, but if you are dying to know more now you can check out this page 🙂
I hope you have a fantastic Thursday!
~Erin
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