{"id":1825,"date":"2019-10-05T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T00:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2019-12-19T06:24:50","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T06:24:50","slug":"admissions-brings-social-media-to-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2019\/10\/admissions-brings-social-media-to-the-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Admissions Brings Social Media to The Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filters, hashtags, and emojis are the new way Hunter College admissions promotes study abroad programs to their over 2,000 followers on Instagram and 500 Snapchat viewers. Each year more than 350 students go overseas making it less than 2% of students participating in study abroad programs. Admissions created this social media initiative in hopes of getting future and current Hawks excited about attending Hunter College.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The plan includes giving participants access to the admissions\u2019 Instagram and Snapchat accounts<\/span> to post their activities and adventures. This initiative started two years after admissions created their Instagram page in 2015.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery two weeks or so we have a current student do what we call a \u2018takeover\u2019 for a day on SnapChat or Instagram,\u201d said Irina Ostrozhyuk, assistant director of undergraduate admissions. <\/span>This initiative isn\u2019t only for study abroad, students can also share their everyday life at Hunter College as well. This plan started out on Instagram but has now expanded to Snapchat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunter College offers 20 short term programs ranging from $4,000 to $8,000. Students have 17 location options including Italy, Thailand and Jordan. These four-week programs take place during the summer or winter breaks. According to the 2016 CUNY Student Experience Survey, many students take into account money and time when signing up for studying abroad. Cost is important at CUNY where more than 84% of entering students receive aid as stated in the 2018-2019 Hunter College IPEDS Student Financial Aid Survey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Media production major Tina Florio, 21, is having <\/span>a hard time affording tuition and can\u2019t see herself studying abroad, \u201cI have student loans to pay off,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce I graduate so I can\u2019t afford to sign up. It\u2019s definitely expensive for sure but I think it could be a great experience for students who can pay.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"student
Student Jamie Cabigas social media post on the Hunter Admissions Instagram page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jamie Cabigas, 22, a bioinformatics Hunter graduate took advantage of her scholarship. \u201cI am a Macaulay Student, so we are literally \u2018paid\u2019 to study abroad. But, despite this, many in my program do not take advantage of the opportunity, said Cabigas. \u201cI took advantage of it because I travel all the time. It’s something my parents passed down to me, but for once I wanted to experience going somewhere without my family.\u201d\u00a0 According to the Macaulay website, over 70% of students study abroad. Each receives $1,500 as an opportunity fund to support study abroad, internships and research work.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Those who aren\u2019t Macaulay students like Jennifer Ayasee, 21, a psychology student have to look for financial support in scholarship postings online. Ayasse spent three weeks applying to five scholarships that were listed on the Hunter College education abroad website but she didn\u2019t receive any, \u201cthere were many scholarships but I didn\u2019t qualify for many of them. The applications are long but I tried my best because I wanted some help since I also don\u2019t get financial aid.\u201d She ended up having to pay over $3,000 with the help of her parents and her own savings account.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ayasse and Cabigas both went to Spain and loved their time abroad and were both asked to share their experience through Hunter College\u2019s social media pages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cabigas was one who agreed to share her experience on Instagram. Students have to upload images for them to be approved and chosen in order to be featured on the Hunter College Admissions Instagram pag<\/span>e. The process is straightforward and consists of filling a form with information such as major, year of graduation and bio that will go into the picture caption. Admissions remind students to not post anything your parents wouldn\u2019t want to see.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cabigas is glad Hunter College is promoting studying abroad to students, \u201cSocial <\/span>m<\/span>edia is so important because when we go to lectures, 50% of us are actually scrolling on it. Jokes aside, I was enthusiastic about Hunter College’s use of social media. I think that it shows a desire to reach out to its students in contemporary ways. \u201c Cabigas said this is the most effective way Hunter College can get its messages across to students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As assistant director of admissions, Ostrozhnyuk has seen how much this new plan has changed students’ perspectives on Hunter and studying abroad, \u201c<\/span>Yes we are a commuter school, but at the same time think about how you can get involved,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is why we have people taking over so students can see it. It\u2019s coming from you guys.\u201d <\/span>Ostrozhnyuk <\/span>has noticed an increase in questions and engagement on the Instagram page.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If students missed an Instagram story, admissions have created a story highlight solely for social media that can now be watched anytime. <\/span>Florio didn\u2019t know about this highlight but after viewing it she regrets not looking into studying abroad, \u201cEven though it\u2019s expensive, I think it\u2019s worth the money because you get to experience a whole new country.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To see the latest takeovers add @futurehawks on Snapchat and @huntercollegeadmissions<\/a> on Instagram.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Admissions have a fresh new way of getting current students and future Hawks excited about study abroad programs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":1873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[146,149,148,147,145],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-admissions","tag-instagram","tag-snapchat","tag-social-media","tag-study-abroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1875,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/1875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}