One of the true ways to any teen boys heart, but especially mine, is food. On our various trips to Athens in which I stealthily indoctrinate them into Ohio University, we walk around various campus greens and have a great time. I've thought in the past I could really get them amped up for committing to Athens if I brought them to a dining hall to enjoy.

Point is, does anyone know if visitors / non-students can walk in and pay to eat at the Dining Halls? Thanks.

Are your kids at an age that they could go to overnight camps during the summer? Going to basketball and soccer camps at Miami and eating every meal in the dining hall was a highlight. I roomed with my cousin for basketball and he thought it was so cool that no one could stop him from having Pepsi at every meal.

My son, a high school junior, has narrowed his college choices to Ohio University and Otterbein. When asked why, he'll tell you that his experiences in their dining halls rated a 5-star each. He has visited both Boyd and Nelson dining halls at Ohio University while visiting his older sister when she was a frosh/soph in 2017-19. He ate at Otterbein while on a campus visit all Newark students experience in 6th grade.

My current HS senior is going through his college selection right now. We did a few tours last year of his top interests. We did an Ohio University Discovery Day about a year ago. It was by far the best experience we had out of the 4 college visits. Very well ran, lots of different options of activities to choose, presentations to see, workshops to help students to actually do the application process right there, an introduction by the president, academic interest tours and meetings with faculty and students from the prospective major, etc. Most schools we had a video shown then a guided tour and nothing else. Maybe other schools have these big "discovery" days and we just didn't do them, but the Ohio one certainly stood out.

Anyways, during the Ohio visit when we split off to the engineering school, we were given tickets to eat at Byod Hall. Seemed to be my son's favorite part of the day and he still makes references to it. Was also fun to me to eat where I did every day as a freshman decades before, albeit a LOT different. Added bonus was Ryors was setup as the "demo" dorm...which has also changed a lot from my freshman year!

Glad to hear Ohio is pulling out all stops during Discovery Days. Our older son had a similar experience at Slippery Rock, where they had faculty members engage with students. It was impressive...and my son ended up graduating from "The Rock."

First year student=okay. But how about a seventh year student, may they call themselves seniors or does the lingo require you to embarrass yourself in front of all?

I will allow you to select from the dozens of swabbie/oil tender comments that I am thinking as I type.

His decision was most likely decided while walking down Court St. over the homecoming weekend. The deciding factor was Keystone's Mac Shack, Athens' new mac-n-cheese restaurant.

In ancient days each dining hall had its own cooks. That was before the centralized system. Shively had some of the best cooks. One of them was a Hungarian lady who was a fabulous cook. Her daughter was a good friend of the older of my two younger sisters. [The president & VP of my fan club will appreciate the family reference.]

Reviving this thread with an update. I took my eldest (now a senior) to Boyd during his official campus visit in October. It was very simple to just walk up and pay, and it was great. He loved it. It was for lunch and there was actually several older people like me so I didn't feel weird.

Unfortunately, it did not work as my son has committed to Mississippi State.

I shifted my propaganda to my other son (sophomore) and took him to Boyd before we went to the game a couple weeks ago. That one was dinner, it was packed and I was literally the only one over 20 there which made it a bit more awkward...but he also loved the experience. It is no doubt a powerful recruiting tool especially for boys. Highly recommend is you have high schoolers you're hoping to see in Athens one day.

Oh God

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKkxM1TSDd4