[civsa] Shadowing current students

[Hedrick, Ellen - hedricme]

Hi, Joel and All!  Happy May!

At James Madison University we offer 12 high school senior shadow days, or Duke for a Days(DFAD)- six per semester AND  we offer 4 first generation DFADs(2 per semester) so a total of 16 per year.  We target these to our matriculation challenges- for example out of state(OS) areas or first generation students-this can change annually.

The fall six days are for OS prospective seniors and the spring DFADs are for OS admitted students.  We offer up to 22 students an opportunity per DFAD.  We match 2 students per tour guide(we find this helps interaction)- we try to match by major first(if we have student ambassadors available) or by state, if not.  We offer these days on Mondays and Thursdays.

We have a student ambassador group of about 140 students that we pull students’ availability who have a class on the morning DFADs are offered.  We also pull a student ambassador that will give the parents a tour while their students are in class(we don’t have room for the parents to attend class and encourage the parents to let their students go separately with our ambassadors and then meet up with them after lunch at the bookstore).

I coordinate the day and have invitations emailed from our data base to OS seniors(fall) and OS admitted seniors(spring) and then pass off the matching of students to our student ambassador VP of Admissions- who matches our ambassadors to students by major, if possible,  or  by state(hometown). They return that list to me.

Our schedule looks like this:


8:15 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. - Arrive at Sonner Hall and view a short presentation about JMU

8:45 a.m. - 1:45 p.m. - Explore campus with your personal student host! Attend a class, go to lunch at one of our award-winning dining halls, see our beautiful campus and all the best JMU has to offer!

1:45 p.m. - Meet back up with your parents at the JMU Bookstore.



We state:  Family members are welcome to join for the info session and lunch, but may NOT attend class.

We try to match students with one of our Student Ambassador volunteers either by major or geographic region. Sometimes this is not possible due to our student ambassadors‘ class schedules, but we promise the ambassador you are paired with will be super cool and fun.



Helpful ideas:

We give meal vouchers to the student and 2 family members.

We give a bookstore coupon to the student.

We ask that our tour guides ask their professors’ permission before bringing students to class.

We usually have some ‘no shows’, but these days have grown over the years.

We offered 2 dates as late as April this year for students who could not attend the admitted student open houses and they were well attended.

We offer a parent tour(optional) but we found some parents had not come to a regular visit/tour and really appreciated the opportunity.

We have a significant yield in matriculation from these days.



I hope this info is helpful-good luck as you pilot this program at JCU.



Ellen Hedrick

Assistant Director

Office of Admissions

James Madison University


From: listserv [mailto:listserv-bounces at civsa.org] On Behalf Of Joel W. Mullner
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2015 11:45 AM
To: listserv at civsa.org
Subject: [civsa] Shadowing current students

Greetings!

We are exploring the possibility of introducing shadowing opportunities, when a prospective student visitor spends a few hours on campus with a current student (attending a class or two, lunch, tour, etc.). We’ve done this as a one-off type thing previously but haven’t formalized it nor promoted it.

This would be something we’d offer on an almost daily basis, not just an “event” held every so often like I know is the case at some institutions. To clarify, this would NOT be an overnight program.

Do any of you have this type of visit experience in place available to your prospective students? If so…

•         Do you limit it to just accepted students? Just seniors? Wide open to anyone?

•         How do you match the students – by gender, hometown, academic interest, extracurricular interest? Or is it done based on when a student wants to visit compared to which current students are available on a given day?

•         How many current students do you have to serve as a shadow “host?” Are they already tour guides/ambassadors or a separate group of students you’ve recruited for this purpose?

•         Who in your office coordinates such a program? Or is it student-run?

•         What have you learned or what advice would you give to a school just starting out a program like this? What difficulties have you experienced?

Sorry for so many questions, but any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

At your service,

Joel W. Mullner '07, '09G
Assistant Director of Enrollment
John Carroll University

1 John Carroll Boulevard
University Heights, OH 44118

Email: jmullner at jcu.edu<mailto:jmullner at jcu.edu>
Web: www.jcu.edu/admission<http://www.jcu.edu/admission>

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[jculogo]

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