MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — They have attended their senior proms and completed their finals. All are awaiting graduation from their respective high schools or home school associations.
About 3,000 freshmen — the Class of 2022 — and 2,500 transfers — the Class of ’20 — are being welcomed by MTSU officials and departments as CUSTOMS orientation is fully under way.
Following more than 270 transfers receiving orientation Friday (May 11), more than 250 future students and 213 parents from across Tennessee and some from out of state joined in the first of the two-day orientation Thursday (May 17) on campus.
Coordinated by the Office of New Student and Family Programs, CUSTOMS guides freshmen through the ropes of being an MTSU student and introduces them to the intellectual, cultural and social climate of the university.
CUSTOMS sessions run through the end of July for new freshmen and early August for transfers. To learn more about the orientation process and other dates, visit https://www.mtsu.edu/customs/.
“We’re delighted you’re here,” Deb Sells, vice president of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services, said in her welcome. “… The decisions you make on where you will go to college will change your life and your decisions will change our life. … You will make MTSU a different and better place.”
Alexandria “Alex” Hancock of Hendersonville, Tennessee, said she was drawn to the Science Building when she came for a campus tour and plans to major in chemistry.
“It definitely is really nice,” she said the 250,000-square-foot science facility that opened in 2014.
The Beech Senior High School student, joined by her mother, Monica Hancock, said she was excited to be on campus for the orientation.
Kennedy Crawford, a Bartlett High School senior from the Memphis, Tennessee, area, plans to study physical therapy.
Part of her CUSTOMS expectations was “to make sure I am doing the right path — finding the right major for physical therapy,” she said.
In addition to her mother, Rachel Crawford, Kennedy Crawford was joined at CUSTOMS by a cousin, Tamera Parnell, a senior at Arlington High School in Arlington, Tennessee. Parnell plans to study forensics at MTSU.
Lydia Cayton, coordinator of New Student and Family Programs, said the first freshman orientation began on a calm note.
“It is a pretty positive group of people who seem excited to be here,” Cayton added.
MTSU has more than 240 combined undergraduate and graduate programs.
