TU4U ready to welcome the next generation of Tigers
Event gives potential students a chance to experience TU’s campus life virtually
By Kyle Hobstetter on March 25, 2021
This year the Towson University Admissions office is bringing back TU4U. Taking place over four days—March 26 and 27 and April 9 and 10—the event will be completely virtual for the first time.
TU4U is the university’s largest admissions event that welcomes hundreds of admitted and potential students to campus to meet with faculty, staff and, most importantly, get an idea of what it's like to be apart of the Towson University community.
Each day will have the same schedule, but will feature academic events from three different colleges. The schedule will include:
- A welcome from Towson University leadership
- Academic sessions about majors and the academic experience
- Admissions sessions about housing, orientation, advising/course registration and more
- A live Q&A with TU student ambassadors about living and learning at TU
- A live Q&A with campus representatives from student affairs, advising, campus safety, the Center for Student Diversity, the Career Center and housing & residence life.
READ MORE: See the complete 2021 TU4U Agenda
The TU admissions team planned the event carefully to avoid Zoom fatigue, using feedback from virtual events from the fall.
“We want to give them as much access to the Towson University experience as we can,” says Kristen Hughes, associate director for TU admissions. “Through the feedback from our virtual open houses in the fall, we were able to learn what’s important to potential students and their families and that really helped guide us toward figuring out what was going to be the best for a virtual TU4U.”
Figuring that out has been the key for the admission team over the past year. Hughes says that while admissions counselors have experience doing webinars, they previously occurred only periodically.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, admission counselors went from doing around six webinars a year to around 15 virtual events a week. “We went from zero to 100, very fast,” Hughes laughs.
Admissions is also building up its social media presence. Each year, admissions creates a Facebook group dedicated to the students of the incoming fall term to answer students’ questions directly and stay engaged with them.
The team also signed up for ZeeMee, a social media app that allows college applicants to learn more about their potential schools. According to ZeeMee, TU is one of the schools with the most interaction on the platform.
“We already had 7,000 TU students organically engaged in this platform,” Hughes says. “Our students are craving engagement. Towson University is a very social community, and they are having a great time connecting with each other.”
Heading into National Decision Day on May 1, Towson University has impressive stats on the incoming fall class. Around 12,000 students have applied already.
TU has admitted students from every county in Maryland along with 41 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. And there is still time for those numbers to grow, as the fall 2021 application period is still open.
Admissions is also expecting to see more faces around campus. Tours for admitted students have started again, though in much smaller numbers due to COVID-19 restrictions and limited staffing.
“It's a great feeling to see the smiles on their faces, the students and family members, to be physically on a campus,” Hughes says. “Our student ambassadors love to talk to prospective students and family members. That is what energizes them. That's what excites them. They have truly missed that.”
To learn more about TU4U and the admissions process, follow Towson University Admissions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.