Departments offer open houses to attract sophs

From intimate dinners to crowded lecture halls, department open houses aid sophomores in deciding which majors to declare and which certificates to pursue.

Rolling out the red carpet

While some departments use their open houses to court sophomores, wooing them with refreshments and access to upperclassmen in the department, others treat the open house as an obligatory annual meeting and simply disseminate information about the major.

Smaller departments and programs often put the most effort into their open houses, as a few additional students could make a substantial difference.

"Other things being equal, a student will receive more attention in a small department, so it is in both our interest and the student's interest for the small departments to put extra effort into recruiting majors," Scott Tremaine, chair of the astrophysical sciences department, said.

Some departments and programs fear that they will be overlooked — or students simply will not know about their existence — if they do not aggressively publicize themselves.

"Astronomy is not a subject that forms part of the standard high school education in this country, so we find that many students don't even think about it as a possible major or possible career," Tremaine said. "So for us the open house is a particularly important way to start students thinking about a possible astro major."

Newer programs also face the challenge of attracting students. Since Judaic Studies has only been a certificate-granting program since 1996, open houses are especially important "to bring ourselves to the attention of the entire University community," said Froma Zeitlin, director of the Program in Judaic Studies.

In an effort to attract students, many open houses lure students by offering food ranging from pizza to Ethiopian cuisine.

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"I do think smaller programs need to work a little bit harder than the bigger programs that have far more resources," said Emmanuel Kreike, director of the African studies program.

"The Ethiopian food we served should also be seen in that context: we need to go the extra mile. But we also served African food as compared to, say, hamburgers, to underline the identity of the program and literally use the open house to allow students to absorb some Africa," Kreike said.

Smaller departments may also serve food to show their resources and commitment to their students. "We are a large program with a small number of majors. This means that we have lots of resources and dinner is just a nice way of reminding everyone," said Peter Meyers, the undergraduate department representative for the physics department.

"If providing dinner is a way to get students who have a few questions about the program to come by, great. It is also the case that dinnertime is a time when students don't have too many other commitments, but if we want to talk to people then, we'd better feed them!"

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Gene Grossman, chair of the economics department, said he feels the faculty and the administration should be accommodating but neutral with regard to students' choice of majors.

"Our aim is to be welcoming to qualified prospective majors who are interested in studying economics but not to be aggressive in pursuing them," Grossman said.

Major decisions

The second semester of sophomore year is characterized by a series of decisions: where one will eat, where one will sleep and what one will study. In the wake of bicker, sign-in and room draw, sophomores now have a final decision to make.

By Monday, they must declare a major — perhaps the most significant decision of their time at Princeton.

For some decided sophomores, open houses act to reaffirm their decision.

"I decided on comparative literature a while ago and recently went to their open house," Juan Carlos Aguirre '06 said. "It was in McLean House, which was a really nice setting. Two professors and two seniors were there and they served food. They basically tried to make the department appear as flexible and accessible as they could."

Yet some students said not all small departments are aggressive in seeking new students.

"Hellenic Studies is very enthusiastic about students who want to concentrate, but they aren't terribly aggressive in trying to get students — those students who are interested in Hellenic Studies have to come to them," said Henryk Jaronowski '06, who plans to get a certificate in Hellenic Studies.

One potential politics major said the department's open house was "very low key and dry."

"It didn't seem like they put in any effort," she said.

Miriam Schive '06 plans on getting certificates in Near Eastern Studies and contemporary European politics and society, but is still unsure of her major. She is currently deciding between the history and politics departments.

"It would be really fun to major in a smaller department, but I'm looking for flexibility," Schive said.

Both the NES and EPS open houses served food and seemed eager to attract students, she said.

"At the NES open house there were at least seven professors — they outnumbered the students — and they even cited two people who didn't choose to major in NES and regretted it," Schive said.