Overnight Stays For Prospective Students
Overnight stays are wonderful ways for prospective students to get to know Loyola better before making their final decision on a school this spring! Prospective students can sign up for overnight stays through the Undergraduate Admissions Office and will get the chance to stay overnight in a Loyola dorm with a current freshman. This is an exciting way to be sure of your decision. In this post, I will be discussing overnight stays and the benefits of participating in one!
This past weekend, I hosted my first overnight stay from Sunday night to Monday morning. My roommate and one of my friends also hosted, so we were able to do things together and the students were able to meet some of their possible classmates! The night began when we picked up our guests from the Damen Den and went to dinner at the Damen Dining Hall. The guests are all given dining hall passes so they were able to get in and experience what dining at Loyola was like! Over dinner, we were able to talk with our guests more to discover what their interests and hobbies were. This gave us a great chance to bond with our guests and to make them feel more at home with Loyola. Our guests seemed to really enjoy the experience of eating at a dining hall, and were excited to see what else Loyola had to offer!
We then went to a scheduled trivia night held for overnight guests and their hosts. This was held in the Regis multi-purpose room and turned out to be really fun! There were about eight teams, all made up of overnight guests and hosts. There were six different rounds of trivia on a huge variety of different topics. Winners would win a Loyola blanket, so the game got to be a little competitive with all of the teams racking their brains to come out on top! Our team had so much fun trying to come up with the answers, and we bonded a lot over this activity. We ended up coming in third place out of eight teams! It wasn’t first, but I was happy! After trivia, we finally headed back to our dorms where we introduced our guests to the rest of the floor. Everyone was really welcoming, and our guests felt comfortable. Shortly after, we all headed to bed to get ready for class the next morning!
One of the best parts about overnight stays is that our guests get to attend a class with us Monday morning! This is so that they can get a feel for how classes at Loyola are run to get a better understanding of the school as a whole. I brought my guest to my core environmental science course, which was enlightening to them because they got a taste of a class that they would probably be required to take if they chose Loyola. She ended up really enjoying the class, even though it was all lecture and she just sat and listened intently.
When it was time to say goodbye to my guest at the end of her stay, she thanked me for a fun experience and told me her views of Loyola have bettered from the stay. This meant a lot to me, as I love being able to share the experience with others to help them make the best decision. There is definitely a huge benefit to participating in an overnight stay, for both the guest and the host! So, if you are still unsure of where you would like to spend your college years and need to experience Loyola more intently, I would highly recommend attending an overnight stay. The experience is beneficial, educational, and fun for everyone! I’m so excited to host another student this weekend!