For DePaul’s class of 2029, the college journey has begun before even stepping foot on campus. May 1 marks National College Decision Day for high school seniors, and DePaul’s offices are aiding the incoming freshman class in their transition to becoming a college student. 

Erin Updegraff, executive director of first year recruitment and admissions, said her team works in conjunction with other offices at DePaul to guide students through the next steps following their commitment. 

At this time in the onboarding process, incoming freshmen are in a period where they’re slowly moving away from working with the Office of Admissions to other offices on campus.  

“I would say it’s a very slow handoff because my team works with them all summer long,” Updegraff said. “But students do start to get introduced to different other campus partners because when they come to Premiere DePaul they’re going to meet with New Student Family Engagement, when they sign up for an advising appointment that’s with their academic college.” 

Premiere DePaul, DePaul’s freshman orientation, consists of two sections: an academic advising session and an in-person, two-day program that allows students to experience dorm life by staying on campus overnight. 

“That will definitely be interesting,” Reagan Worthington, an incoming freshman from Grove City, Ohio, said. “Good to try it out to see what it’s going to be like in the fall.” 

Worthington says she feels confident in taking on the next steps of orientation. At DePaul, she is planning to major in film and says she was “sold” after visiting DePaul’s Cinespace. 

“I’m definitely nervous,” Worthington said. “But very excited to be a part of DePaul.” 

Adrianna Rodriguez is from Harlingen, Texas, and is an incoming freshman majoring in acting. She is planning to attend her in-person Premiere DePaul orientation August 28. 

“I’m so hyped,” Rodriguez said. “I’m really just excited to explore the city.”

Prior to Premiere DePaul, students must complete online pre-orientation material that provides information on what students can expect throughout the orientation process, within their advising appointments and how to use university resources. 

Worthington has completed these online materials and has registered for her academic advising appointment in the next few weeks. 

“It was very organized,” Worthington said. “I mean there was a lot of information to read from, but I had no trouble getting on it through Blue Demon Domain and the information was very helpful.” 

Rodriguez recalls the online modules to be easy to navigate and the content was helpful. 

“It was funny. I was like, ‘These videos seem a little bit dated.’ But they were fun. It was nostalgic,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez said the online modules answered a lot of her questions about college life at DePaul, which solidified her desire to become a Blue Demon. 

“This school cares about its students and wants them to succeed,” Rodriguez said. “That made me feel more glad about my choice.”

Jessica DePont, associate director of strategic initiatives at DePaul, says the content in these modules are updated every year, and were created during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The goal was let’s lay things out as clearly as possible because we are all virtual, but it has become a helpful tool that has carried over into future cycles,” DePont said. 

This isn’t the only aspect of the freshman onboarding process that has been carried over since Covid. 

Updegraff says DePaul has returned to fully in-person Premiere DePaul sessions in order to get students acclimated to campus and meeting other students. However, they’ve stuck with offering virtual advising sessions for course registration.

“What we’ve found is that there’s a real benefit to students being able to do an online virtual advising appointment to register for classes with their advisor and then do their Premiere DePaul on campus potentially later in the summer when it works for their family’s schedule,” Updegraff said. “There are alot of things that we’ve kept that we were doing in 2020, because it turns out, there is still a demand for it.” 

Challenges with 2024’s FAFSA cycle pushed DePaul’s decision deadline to June 1 last year, but this year a normal college decision cycle has returned with a decision deadline of May 1.

“I’m really excited to be in a much better place this year than we were at this time last year,”  DePont said. “I mean, those FAFSA challenges were really significant.”

Updegraff says that because of the timely financial aid cycle, prospective students were able to clarify their financial situations earlier.

“Our office of financial aid did an incredible job this year of getting financial aid packages out in early February,” Updegraff said. “That meant that when we hosted a lot of our admitted students’ events on campus in the spring, families had an idea already of what DePaul would cost for them.” 

Tom Menchhofer, senior director of new student and family engagement, said that his department is responsible for supporting students through this onboarding process as well as their Chicago Quarter programs, which occur in autumn quarter for freshmen. 

“Admissions helps students get to this point. And this is really the handoff,” Menchhofer said. “That’s when we take over and then we see them as full members of our community as they register for classes and they start their journey here to move to campus.”

The office of new student and family engagement aims for a holistic approach to the freshman onboarding experience because they want to consider the unique experiences of all students and how this will impact the kind of support they need during their time at DePaul. 

“Holistic is thinking about the strengths that they bring in, the areas where they may need additional support as they come in, thinking about all the folks in their lives that may be supporters of them and how we can be inclusive of them in this process as well,” Menchhofer said. 

Alaina Battista, a senior at DePaul studying elementary education, came to DePaul in 2021. 

“The thing that helped me the most (in)  becoming comfortable on campus and the city in general was my Explore Chicago,” Battista said. “That was my first introduction or experience with the transit and just the area of DePaul also.” 

DePaul’s Chicago Quarter program’s goal is to show students DePaul’s Vincentian mission and get them used to an urban campus environment. 

Menchhofer said he hopes the incoming class obtains a deeper appreciation and understanding of DePaul’s culture through their onboarding process that will help them navigate the rest of their college experience. 

“As part of that program we want students to find a sense of belonging and connection to the institution,” Menchhofer said. “We want them to deeply understand what makes this place unique as a current student rather than everything they’ve heard before.” 

Rodriguez said that out of her options for post-secondary education, she found DePaul to be the most “artistically gratifying” and a “no-brainer”. ” 

“I think it’s just a matter of when I get there, am I going to sink or swim? And hopefully I’ll swim because DePaul’s community, from what I’ve seen, is so tight-knit,” Rodriguez said.

Updegraff says the office of first year recruitment and admissions is already beginning to plan for fall recruitment travel in the next couple of weeks. 

 “It’s nice to be able to get to May and know that 90% of the work to get this freshman class in for the admissions staff is behind us,” Updegraff said. “At the same time we’re ramping up to start recruiting for next year’s class.So we don’t get a break for long.”  

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