Retrospective: Accepted Students Day
- Skylar Raskevitz
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
With another Accepted Students Day on the horizon, we're taking a look back at the most recent one. This past month saw yet another successful Accepted Students Day at Dean College. Bright young faces came from all over to spend the day at Dean to learn more about the school they’ve been accepted into.
Dean College planned out an entire itinerary, giving these students opportunities to listen to guest speakers, ask questions themselves, and learn from current Dean students, who may become their peers.
The morning started out in Pieri gymnasium with their “Welcoming Address” at 10:00am. The Dean of Admissions, Ed Connor spoke first. He talked about his excitement to have so many new students on campus and emphasized the importance of utilizing all of today’s opportunities. He encouraged these students to talk to faculty, staff, and current students throughout their day to learn as much as possible about the school.
Senior sports management major, Sydnee Ramos, then addressed the group. She gave a brief summary of her experience at Dean, highlighting the friends she’s made along the way.
She stated, “Dean has set me up for success, helped me meet people I call my best friends and gave me the opportunity to play not one, but 2 college sports.” She claimed she wouldn’t have had half the opportunities she’s been given, if it wasn’t for Dean College.
We then heard from Interim President Darrell Kulesza, who gave a brief speech about his excitement as well. Lastly, we heard from Dylana Deignan, another senior, who gave a different student perspective of her time at Dean. She highlighted that her path wasn’t exactly as she planned but she found a passion in a different field of study than she expected.
As the welcoming address was wrapping up, we got an amazing performance from students in the musical theater department, giving a sneak peek into their upcoming play, “The Prom”. It was a great way to wrap up the first part of the day, getting the students and parents excited for what’s next.
By 10:30 AM, the students then took a short walk over to the Paula M. Rooney Student Center, while the families stayed in the gymnasium. For the next 45 minutes, both families and students were able to have their own Q&A styled forum. In the Student Center, there were 3 current Dean students, with different majors and diverse experience ready to answer great questions from housing, dining hall food, campus life and more. Everyone was so eager to ask questions and really made the most of the opportunity they had.
From there, breakout sessions were assigned by majors. They had the ability to meet the professors within their perspective major along with current Dean College students. The Dean Daily was able to be present for the Communications/Sports Broadcasting breakout space. Gregg Seibert, Vic Michaels, and John Rooke were all in attendance excited to share more information about the programs but ultimately turned it over to the current Dean students to do most of the talking. They emphasized that without students’ ideas and ambitions, the program wouldn’t be as far as it is today. You could see the true passion and excitement on every accepted student’s face throughout the entirety of the meeting.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Dean Daily then had the opportunity to speak with Sarah, an incoming student in the fall of 2026. She will be a dual sport athlete and sports broadcasting major here. She stated, “It was so cool to sit in a classroom type setting, to see the passion on the current student faces, the teachers teaching the courses and cool to see who could potentially be in my classes as well.” Sarah also expressed that she liked the small class sizes stating, “I am coming from a very small private school so I’m excited for the small class sizes here as well.”
After the breakout sessions ended, all accepted students and their families had the next two hours to decide what events they’d like to do the rest of the day. Lunch was offered for everyone in attendance from 12:30pm-2:00pm. At the same time, they could get a full campus and residence hall tour, by one of Dean Colleges student tour guides.
From 1:00pm-2:00pm there was a student activity fair, to learn more about involvement in clubs and things happening on campus. Another option from 1:00pm- 2:30pm was an enrollment fair where you could meet with admissions, pay your deposit, and speak with residence life or financial planning. Lastly, from 2:15pm-3:15pm there was a dance master class, theatre master class, and performing arts behind the scenes tour.
Overall, the day was a huge success, bringing so many new students to campus and being able to teach them the true Dean Difference.
ADVERTISEMENT
