The tradition of students skipping a day of their senior years to scope out future colleges has passed.
Earlier this year, the Office of Admissions announced that the long-held Vandal Friday would be transformed into the new event “UIdaho Bound.” The first UIdaho Bound will begin this weekend.
“Because Moscow is a bit tricky to get to, even in our own state, we started looking at hosting our spring involvement event on a Saturday,” said Angela Helmke, associate director at the admissions office and coordinator of the new program.
Helmke said that a combination of difficulty getting to Moscow and the added convenience of having the event on a non-work day were some of the attractive things a new program had to offer during the decision-making process.
“Moving it to a Saturday, you can”t really call it Vandal Friday anymore, so UIdaho Bound came from that,” said Helmke.
She said students who had participated in Vandal Friday in the past would find the new program to be nearly the same.
“We”re still trying to get students here and show them what it would be like to be a Vandal, and what it would be like to go to school here.” Helmke said. “(We) provide the information that they need at this time, prior to coming back in the fall for New Student Orientation.”
Helmke said that this event, in the same manner as Vandal Friday, is made to give students the tools needed to prepare them for the multiple processes they will go through in the future in order to become a student at UI.
“They can get their classes still, they can get their Vandal Card, they can find out their financial aid, and ask questions about that,” she said. “What we”re trying to do is give them the opportunity to get all of that taken care of so they”re ready to come back in the fall and participate in New Student Orientation.
She said UIdaho Bound is not only concentrated on incoming freshman, but also the many transfer students that become a part of the Vandal community each year. She said that there are activities during the event that cater specifically to transfer students.
“Even if they”ve visited before, this is really a whole-campus-community event. If they”ve come for a daily visit, they”ve seen campus maybe and interacted with faculty, staff or current students, but this (event) is really like the whole campus is involved,” said Helmke.
She said that the UIdaho Bound events, which will be held the weekends of April 2 and April 26, coincide with multiple other campus events that should give visitors a feel for not only the school, but the community as a whole.
Current UI freshman Hailey Gilman said she was able to get a feel for the community before moving to Moscow last fall.
“I was pretty sure, but I just wanted to make sure I didn”t hate it up here,” Gilman said of her Vandal Friday experience.
Gilman said that coming to Moscow during this event allowed her to tour campus, and see where she would be living a few months later.
“I think I had a couple of different tours, and then while I was here I signed up for a room, and ate at some places in Moscow. I went downtown because I wanted to get a feel for the city,” she said.
She said finalizing some aspects of her enrollment at the event helped her to not feel as overwhelmed with the amount of tasks she had to finish before fall.
“I think it”s helpful,” Gilman said. “Especially if you haven”t been before, you can see if you actually like it here.”
Will Meyer can be reached at [email protected]