Helping prospective students get to know Dawson at Winter Open House

Dawson’s two Open House events (one in the fall and one in the winter) are a chance for us to show potential applicants what we are all about. Put our best foot forward. For the fourth time over the past two years, this recruiting event had to happen virtually due to health restrictions. While the scheduled in-person tours and experiences could not go forward as planned, there was still a chance for students to connect with staff and faculty.

Connection is what an Open House is all about. Dawson offered that two ways – via one-on-one chats with faculty from all programs or profiles or with staff from Admissions, Advising, Continuing Education or International Students. Though the number was down, we still had 495 chats which took place meaning just over four chats per minute over the two hours the chat lines were open.

The second way was the three 45-minute Zoom webinars that were offered. There was a How to Apply webinar and two Science webinars. Each was well attended with 301 at the How to Apply and a combined 417 at Science. Both of the webinars featured short presentations followed by a question and answer period.

They say it takes a village and this is especially true when it comes to an event as large as Open House. Thanks goes out to all the faculty, Associate Deans, Deans, and advisors who made the chats happen. The webinars were a collaborative effort between Communications, Science, Advising, IT, and Admissions. Special thanks goes out to Laura Paterson, Julie Pellegrino, Antonina Nobile, Dianne Hawryluck, Diane Wong, Michele Pallett, Madalina Radu, Jonathon Sumner, Brid Nic Niocaill, Virginia Law, Patrick Phutthavong, Chris Georgieff and Jonathan Perlman.

Next recruitment activities to take place in October

The Open House landing page and videos will remain accessible on the Dawson website until March 4.

We are hoping to offer a hybrid version of Open House in October 2022. We are planning to offer some elements online, such as videos, webinars and chats. We also look forward to welcoming prospective students and parents to the College for tours and visits to experience program spaces, such as labs, studios, workshops and the Dawson Theatre.

Winter Open House in Numbers

• Chats: 495
• Webinars:
  • How to Apply at 6 p.m.: 301
  • Science at 7 p.m.: 295
  • Science at 8 p.m.: 122
• Open House video views on program/profile pages: 3,104
• How to Apply video views: 521
• Number of unique viewers on Open House landing page: 1,494
• 33 per cent increase in traffic to Dawson’s website on day of Open House