Prospective students and their families tour the campus Saturday during Sooner Saturdat, an event that showcases the departments and features of the university. Marcin Rutkowski/The Daily

As part of OU’s Sooner Saturday, prospective students visited OU Saturday to get a taste of what campus and Norman life is like.

Sooner Saturday is an annual event, put on by OU Prospective Student Services, in which high school seniors, transfer students and their families can tour the campus and attend information sessions. Colleges also offer open houses to showcase different programs and opportunities.

Between 2,500 and 3,000 people attended the event, including family members, said Lauren Royston, spokeswoman for Housing and Food Services. About 800 to 1,000 of those were prospective students.

Attendees were able to eat at the recently renovated Couch Restaurants.

“We worked on showcasing each restaurant concept,” Royston said. “We put together the main entrées from each restaurant so people could get the overall idea of what they each do.”

Sarah Mehner, a high school senior from Edmond, said eating at Couch Restaurants was her favorite part of the day because it gave her an idea of the kind of food she can eat at OU.

Mehner said she has been accepted to OU and plans to start classes in the fall of 2010.

“[OU] is really good for my major, [dental] hygiene,” Mehner said. “I think Sooner Saturday was a good preview of what to expect here.”

Another part of the day included tours of the different residence halls on campus. Besides just showing the model room at each facility, Housing and Food Services asked current residents to show their rooms to prospective students, Royston said.

“The Sooner showroom is just kind of the basics,” Royston said. “It was nice for students to really see the entire finished package about what a student really can do to make their room their own.”

Elizabeth Casteneda, a high school senior from Tulsa, said being able to see each of the rooms was beneficial to her because she did not know anything about the residence halls before Sooner Saturday.

Casteneda said she plans to attend OU in the fall of 2010.

“I was biased against OU,” Casteneda said. “I was like, ‘Oklahoma? No, thank you.’ But I fell in love with the campus.”

Throughout the day, student organization volunteers, as well as residence life volunteers, helped attendees find different buildings and answer questions about OU.

“I have been asked everything from if they serve beer on campus to what the different class sizes are,” said Kaleigh Kaczmarek, management and information systems junior.

Kaczmarek volunteered with the President’s Community Scholars to work a booth outside of Couch Restaurants for part of the day.