Every Spring, Loomis hosts Pelican Preview Days for admitted students. On these days, new students and their families come in to experience an authentic day of being a student at Loomis. They interact with current pelicans, teachers, and faculty members to get the complete Loomis experience. However, even with all the excitement for preview days, there is still a lot that remains unknown. What is the purpose of these preview days, what goes on behind the scenes in hosting visitors, and what roles do students play in making preview days successful?
According to Mrs. Cleary, the Director of Admission and Financial Aid, “Pelican Preview Days are designed to help admitted students get a more thorough understanding of what the Loomis Chaffee community is, what programs we offer, and what opportunities we give.” More specifically, these preview days give students a chance to learn about the school through a very authentic experience whether it is through panel discussions, student hosts, and club and athletic booths, so they can decide if Loomis is the right fit for them.
With the thrill of meeting new, prospective students on campus, a lot of current students want to be a Pelican Preview Day host.
Amy Thompson, the Dean of Enrollment, says: “the first thing we look at is every single student in the freshman class who has a class during preview blocks, because we don’t want visitors to be paired with a host who has a free or study hall.” Although free blocks are an opportunity for hosts to give visitors a more in depth tour of the campus, the overall experience a visitor will have that day may not be one in which they’ll get the most information about their own experience.
Additionally, Ms. Thompson adds that “we (the admissions office) also try to match boarding students with boarding students and day students with day students, then try to do gender matches for the comfort of the host.” Finally, the admissions team considers shared student-visitor interest. However, according to Ms. Thompson, this process of interest matching is not always perfect because it is the last piece of the puzzle admissions considers: “[there are often] more important things to the experience.”
Although the admissions team is credited with planning and running preview day, Loomis students also play a crucial role in ensuring the success of preview day, especially in conveying the authentic student experience.
“As a boarding student, I told the student [I was paired with] about dorm life and how being in a dorm helps you get to know and connect with more friends. To me, my dorm feels like a home away from home, and I felt the need to emphasize that to my students,” said Sara Cheung ’28, a preview day host.
For many current students, Pelican Preview Days was an amazing opportunity to reflect on their past experiences. “I think it was really nice for them to be able to see the environment at Loomis, for example how classes run,” said Chloe Song ’28. “It was a really full circle moment, because last year, I sat in the same [Advanced Chemistry] class for my revisit day, so it was exciting to be on the other end this time.”