Approximately 532 high school and transfer students were given the opportunity visit MSU on Nov. 5 at Mustangs Rally, which is a semester event where incoming students, from high school or transfers from other colleges, are welcomed to visit campus and adjust themselves for the next school year. These students were given tours around the campus, a chance to learn more about their intended major, and meet with students, faculty, admissions, housing, and financial aid members. 

“Giving tours for student was prettying interesting. It was prospective students so we really have to really sale the school to them in a sense, especially legacy as it is a new building so we really have kind of sale our building well as Midwestern State University. It was fun and tiring because there was a lot of students,” Dyjerlynn Peter, marketing senior and RA, said.

Many of the attendees asked the RAs about dorm life and getting along with roommates. 

“While giving tours for the residence hall, I get asked about how the students get partnered up with their roommate and I let them know that they answer some questions and based on the questions they try to gear a roommate to match that criteria. And how they’re able to once assign a roommate, they’re able to message them on the housing website,” Nichole Buchanan, education junior and RA, said. “There’s like a portal they could use to get to know their roommate prior to their arrival date.”

This year’s Mustangs Rally was more successful than last year’s, according to Admissions Counselor Mandi Peterman.

“Mustangs Rally definitely met our expectations. There was a 31.7% increase in student attendance compared to last year,” Peterman said. “The most positive elements were serving our prospective students, witnessing their enthusiasm about college, and opening their eyes to all of the resources that MSU has to offer them!”

Despite being run by the admissions office, the Office of Student Development and Orientation employees were also involved through volunteers from the different organizations such as the student ambassadors.

Mario Ramirez, assistant director of student development and orientation, said that the most important part of Mustangs Rally is that the incoming students get to see what life at MSU is like.

“It gets the high school juniors and seniors that will be attending MSU to get to know the campus and see what we have to offer from resources to academic, to organizations, to involvement, to a little bit of everything,” Ramirez said. “That is the main goal for the Mustangs.”

Even though the event was a success, Ramirez said that he wished there had been more student interactions with the organizations at the rally.

“The organizations enjoyed themselves there. I wish more students would have come and spend some more time with the student organizations. I was at the other end of that so I didn’t really get to see that interaction happen,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez did agree with Peterman and said that he thought it was a success overall. 

“We had a lot of students there and my end of the Mustangs Rally was to invite the organizations to participate and made sure they showed up and set up their booths so incoming high school students can see the different organizations we have,” Ramirez said. “It was very successful at that end. They [the ambassadors] were volunteering  in different tasks from greeting people to taking students on tours to their departments, and showing them the campus life and campus academic areas and our ambassadors did a good job.”