Over the past two days, the University of Northern British Columbia has hosted some of the region’s top academic achievers. About 150 high school students from school districts 57 and 91, West Side Academy, and Cedars Christian School have been visiting UNBC’s Prince George campus to experience life at UNBC.

Academic Achievers are students who have demonstrated academic excellence in their senior years of high school. Those who choose to attend UNBC next year will receive one free course from the University to celebrate their hard work.

UNBC is hoping to inspire these top students that their needs will best be met here, and included a full day of orientation activities to familiarize them with the campus and highlight the services and student life experiences available to them. UNBC’s record as one of Canada’s top undergraduate universities for four years in a row—as ranked by Maclean’s magazine—should be one compelling reason.

Many students also list the beautiful campus, small class sizes, and close proximity to home as primary reasons for attending UNBC. “I’m planning on taking biomedical health sciences and then go on to become a teacher, “says Taryn Erickson-Montague, from Vanderhoof. She and her three friends have already decided that UNBC will be their home for the next four years.

Registration for the upcoming school year goes live in April, and advisers from UNBC work diligently to help the registration process for students go smoothly. Recruiting students is a competitive process.  Demographics have shown a reduced number of students are choosing to attend university. Research also reveals that the majority of students are making their decision about which university to attend after Christmas, so UNBC recruiters work to re-visit regional schools, organize information sessions in the lower mainland, and remain in constant contact with interested students via phone, email, and social media.

“This is our busiest time of year in terms of conversions—that is, converting students who’ve been accepted to UNBC into actual registrants for the next school year,” explains Jay Graham, a UNBC Student Recruitment Officer. “And this event in particular makes a huge impression on future students because they can see how stunning the campus is, how small the class sizes are, and how genuine the UNBC community is.”

And it must be working. Taryn and her three friends have decided that UNBC will be their home for the next four years starting September 2012.

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High school students Taryn Erickson-Montague, Louis Klopper, Jarred Toll, and Amy Rasmussen have three things in common: they're all academic achievers, they're all from Vanderhoof, and they're all attending UNBC in the Fall.