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Participating in anything, whether clubs, civil organizations or even schools can be expensive. That’s where Minnesota State Week, held this week, comes in.

“Minnesota State Week is an opportunity for prospective students — whether they be recent high school graduates or adult learners wanting to gain additional skills — to come visit and explore the colleges and universities in the Minnesota State System,” said Nel Zellar, director of admissions at Riverland Community College, in an email.

During the week, colleges and universities in the Minnesota State System will host a variety of visit events and Minnesota State colleges and universities, which typically charge application fees, waive them during the week.

By comparison, Riverland waived the application fee years ago “in order to remove a barrier of admission,” she wrote, noting that removing application fees removed a barrier for admission.

“It was created to promote all the opportunities provided by the 26 community colleges and seven state universities in the Minnesota State System and to promote the fact that we are the most affordable type of post-secondary education in the state,” she said.

Besides providing tours of the Austin campus today at 10 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. and the Albert Lea campus on Tuesday, Riverland Community College welcomes walk-in-traffic for anyone wanting to learn about what the college offers. People can make an individual appointment for a tour at riverland.edu/visit.

They will also offer assistance to anyone needing help with the application and registration processes, as well as helping people with financial aid.

“[This] is a great opportunity for those thinking about going to college or those trying to decide on a college to come explore Riverland and get their questions answered,” she said.

According to Zellar, Riverland typically will see an uptick in applications throughout the month, though they’ve seen steady traffic this week and spoken with a number of prospective and newly accepted students who came for tours.

Anyone interested in applying to Riverland can email admissions@riverland.edu or call 507-433-0600.

“We are here to help,” she said.