Admitted students in Music offered chance to shadow current students
Bowen Song, senior, practices between his classes Thursday at the Music Building. Newly admitted students in the School of Music can now shadow current students.
April 16, 2018
Students admitted by the School of Music have been shadowing current students to help them decide if the University is the right fit for them.
This year, admitted students could choose to shadow for one day between March 28 and April 9, according to the School of Music website.
Angela Tammen, admissions and public engagement director of the School of Music, said she thought of the idea several years ago, but she couldn’t organize its implementation until last year.
When students are admitted to a school, they already have most likely researched it. Tammen said.
“The missing link that they haven’t really experienced is the community of the School of Music, and I think that’s a crucial part in considering a school of music because different schools of music have kind of a different vibe,” she said.
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When admitted students come to shadow current students, some of them may already be committed, while others are still in the process of deciding, Tammen said.
She said the current Music students enjoy volunteering with admittance and with recruiting students.
“They enjoy meeting incoming students and sometimes they’re people from their high school that they already know,” Tammen said.
Jake Rottier, freshman in Music, said he did not shadow anyone as an admitted student, but he had the opportunity of being paired with a student this year.
“It would be nice to know where places on campus are before actually coming to school,” Rottier said. “When I first came, I had no idea what anything or where anything was. I was lucky enough to find people who would just show me.”
Tammen said having a shadowing program works well for the School of Music because there are so many majors, so admitted students are paired with similar current students.
Usually, admitted students are paired with freshman or sophomores, because those schedules are most similar to what a student’s first year will look like, she said.
“The seniors are doing upper-level classes, and we don’t want to scare anybody away,” Tammen said.
The shadowing program is about peer-to-peer recruitment, which is important to the program, Tammen said.
“I just think this is a really positive program; we’re really happy with it,” she said.
