Around 900 high school students from the region were on the SIU-Carbondale campus Wednesday.
They were getting a taste of college life as part of SIU Day. Law School student Emily Mirabella led one of the groups.
"Everyone gets free tutoring, so take advantage of it, because you're paying for it anyway within your tuition. Even if you're a star student, and you think you're going to do fantastic, still take advantage of it. A lot of college is writing papers, I'm just going to let you know that. Especially if you're a Political Science major. So, take advantage of the Writing Center, they can help you out. A lot of times, professors will even give you extra credit if you go to the Writing Center."
Murphysboro High School senior Tylen Hibbler says his day started with a panel discussion about the public perception of SIU.
"People say it's a party school, but it's really not. If you live in the dorms and actually in the school, you get a lot more experience and participate with a lot of people and meeting new people as well."
Hibbler says he plans to attend college and major in Marine Biology.
Lily Young is a senior at Anna-Jonesboro High School. She is considering attending SIU to major in Speech Pathology since she has a younger sister with autism.
"I like their whole speech pathology program with some of it being autism-based with the clinic. I think it's so cool and it's something very specific to me that would help me a lot personally."
The high schoolers attended their choice of about 50 different interactive demonstrations and activities.
