Thousands of potential students and their parents descended on the University of Calgary Saturday for the university's annual open house event.

17-year old grade 12 student, Mitchell Taylor, attended the open house.

"I've always wanted to do something with design. The last couple of years I've decided to be an architect."

His mother, Karen Taylor, came to the open house with her son to get more information about the architecture program.

"The requirements for the program. What the program looks like. The courses that he'd take. How long it is. How expensive it is."

U of C President, Harvey Weingarten, says questions like Karen Taylor's are the most common questions the various faculties are getting from parents and prospective students.

"There's huge demand for programs at the University of Calgary. But students and parents are making very informed choices. They want to know what's available, what these programs look like, what kind of careers they lead to."

Weingarten says the open house gives the U of C a chance to showcase what it has to offer.

"We're all competing for the very best students out there and this is our opportunity to show some of those students and their families what we do."

16-year old Jonathan Carpino is interested in what is available to him after he gets an education in the sciences.

"That's a big one. I want to know what jobs I can get after school and where that would take me in today's economy."

Grade 12 student, Chelsea Lam, hopes speaking with the different faculties will help her decide which direction to go.

"I wanted to get some general information about some faculties and about what I would like to do because I could sort of go into either sciences or business and I just want to get some extra information."

Some prospective students, like Annika Downton, are several years away from university. Her father, John Downton, is hoping the open house will give her some ideas for her future.

"Just expose my daughter to different types of careers that she could be getting into. She's in grade 8 right now, so just start her thinking along the lines of what will she be doing when she's an adult."

There are 28-thousand students enrolled at the U of C. The university is in the midst of a 1.5-billion dollar expansion that will add capacity for another 7- thousand students.