The overnight program has been a part of Elizabethtown College to serve as its main recruitment tool to get more students to commit to attending the College. Paula Orenstein, who works as the Senior Associate Director of Admissions and takes on the responsibility of the overnight program says “the overnight program brings in more than 200 potential students and over 50 percent of them come to Elizabethtown”. The program was created to “give an added touch to the school, it is trying it on for size, like you would with shoes” said Paula. She believes that the program will continue to be around in the future because it is such an important recruitment tool. She states that it helps to boast the different academic departments for their number of students. Students who do the overnight program will come in to attend classes for their major; they get to see first-hand what the classes would be like. Students that I have interviewed gave their input on the overnight program as well they all said the same thing “It is a good and beneficial program.” Rebecca Conboy a freshman stated that “It is really good if you haven’t decided yet, it helps you”. Rebecca and I both agree that it does not matter if you have already decided to come to Elizabethtown it is still a good idea to do the overnight program. According to Rebecca it did not help her decision to come to Etown because she already committed to attending Elizabethtown College but “it made me feel better about my decision” and “I wanted to see what it was like to sleep in the dorm room”. Carly Foster a sophomore who took the training course for the overnight program said that “I wanted to be one, I signed up for the training and just went for it”. A sophomore named Angela Weinberger who was motivated to host an overnight because as she said “I knew that the incoming freshman are scared, and it is different from going to an open house. You get to really experience the college as a student”. I feel that the overnight program does benefit high school seniors through their college selection process because they feel as though they have already made their decision to come to Elizabethtown College and are ready to dive into the campus and the community. The overnight program gets high school seniors equipped with being more familiar with the campus. They get to have the opportunity to meet a wide range of people from current students here at the college, to professors, peer mentors, and some of the RAs. While they spend the night in the dorm rooms, they are getting used to sharing a bathroom with the other girls or guys on the floor, having to share the dorm room with a roommate or roommates, and trying to understand how to work the laundry machines. I think that this program strongly impacts how many students get accepted into the college each year, because this experience helps them through the transition process of coming into college life. It helps them to feel more confident of making Elizabethtown their second home. When they come they get to feel more comfortable with the layout of the campus of how to get to the different residence buildings, class buildings, the library, Leffler Chapel, and the Brossman Commons. They soon realize every opportunity that Elizabethtown College has to offer of how they can get easily involved through the number of different clubs, and organizations. They learn that there is never a dull moment because there is always events going on either on campus or out in the community. It helps to make students fall in love with the campus even more. Students who do the overnight program in my opinion contain a huge advantage by taking this opportunity they are already starting to make their mark on the campus by being involved with the program. This helps them to get an idea of what being a part of Elizabethtown College and the community is all about. I do hope that the overnight program will continue to be a part of the college for many years to come.

-Mikenna Lehane