Hottest Ticket in Town? Taylor Swift, Class of ’22.

Both Jenny Dhoumo and Lauren Kirshenbaum came upon on Instagram.

Ms. Dhoumo, a 24-year-old New York University senior was in a restaurant, doing schoolwork, when she noticed a pal’s repost from Rolling Stone, saying that Taylor Swift would converse on the N.Y.U. graduation this month and obtain an honorary doctorate of nice arts.

Ms. Dhoumo, who will obtain a level in Media, Culture, and Communications, after a difficult faculty enrollment that lasted seven years throughout three universities — she took time without work to work and assist her household — has been a fan of Ms. Swift since her girlhood in Queens; Ms. Swift’s debut album was the primary CD she owned. She’d been fretting about her prospects after commencement. The information appeared auspicious.

“This felt like a weird sign, like a reassurance that things will be OK,” Ms. Dhoumo mentioned on the blooming edge of Washington Square Park, the general public space in Greenwich Village that doubles because the college’s quad. “I think her being this icon of my youth, and now being here in my adulthood, she’s coming back to me. Not to relive my childhood, but maybe to connect to my inner child a little.” To say, “Remember who you were back when you were 11 years old, and now you’re here today, this young woman, getting ready for the world.”

Ms. Kirshenbaum, a 22-year-old computer science main who’s a self-described “medium fan” of Ms. Swift, marveled on the singer’s persistence and pertinence in her life. “It’s crazy to think of the people I grew up listening to — Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles — and how relevant they still are,” she mentioned. “We’ve kind of evolved with them.”

Conversations with a half-dozen graduating N.Y.U. seniors, approached in the park, demonstrated the breadth of their reference to Ms. Swift.

The pop star has had 10 albums hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts since 2006, practically the whole lot of these college students’ reminiscence. So this personal connection together with her and her songs will be particular.

“She feels deeply. It’s a great talent,” mentioned Senniah Mason, a 21-year-old worldwide relations main from Phoenix, who was having commencement photos taken together with her roommate, Isabelle Jacques, a 22-year-old psychology main from Boston. “If I hear it, I’ll listen to it, but I don’t go out of my way to find it.” She paused. “‘1989,’ I love that album, actually. ‘Safe and Sound,’ ‘Out of the Woods,’ I like those songs too.”

Ms. Jacques echoed this sentiment: “She seems really great and nice. So it will be great to see her talk. But I cannot say I’m dying.”

Ms. Swift’s pervasiveness extends to social media, an omnipresent scroll in which this cohort was the primary to be immersed all through adolescence. She has practically 300 million mixed followers on Instagram and Twitter. Though she follows zero individuals, and hasn’t posted a lot not too long ago, her existence on these platforms in these college students’ childhood has created a bond for a lot of.

“I think in my generation, in particular, there are these parasocial relationships that are developed with celebrities,” mentioned Ishaan Parmar, a 20-year-old movie main from the Bay Area, with a professorial air. “So, people will say Taylor Swift is speaking at my graduation, and they think there is going to be some sort of one-on-one connection with Taylor Swift. In actuality, it’s probably a speech that she may or may not have written, that she’s going to give at Yankee Stadium. But that’s still cool.”

According to an emailed assertion from John Beckman, the senior vice chairman for public affairs at N.Y.U., honorary doctorate recipients are chosen in fields in which the college conducts analysis and teaches — the sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, the humanities, the legislation, medication, business, public service. “We select honorees whose talents, achievements and actions will serve as examples for our graduates.” Past recipients have included Sonia Sotomayor, Ang Lee, Bill Clinton, Aretha Franklin, Janet Yellen, Hillary Clinton and Clive Davis.

“The awarding of honorary degrees is a distinction that N.Y.U. takes very seriously,” Mr. Beckman wrote. “We have an extensive selection process that begins with an official nomination in writing by a member of the N.Y.U. community, followed by a vetting process by staff and then review and approval by the university senate, and ultimately by the board of trustees.” When requested about how particular recipients are chosen, he wrote that “the nomination process and the consideration of candidates is confidential.”

The selection of Ms. Swift just isn’t unbelievable. She is among the many most well-known individuals of her technology, and Brittany Spanos, a Rolling Stone senior author, taught a class on her this year at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at N.Y.U. (Previous lessons in this sequence have coated Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and David Bowie. When requested if the category was associated to the honorary doctorate, Mr. Beckman wrote, “There’s no connection, as far as I know; it’s a coincidence.”)

“She has really elevated the conversation about the role of the female pop star,” mentioned Nekesa Mumbi Moody, the editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter. Ms. Moody wrote a chapter on Ms. Swift for the 2018 e-book “Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyonce. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl,” and her interviews with Ms. Swift for The Associated Press date practically to the artist’s earliest days.

She famous Ms. Swift’s songwriting talents, her capability for connecting together with her followers and, particularly, her zeal. “She has made us rethink how we examine how women songwriters discuss their own heartbreaks,” Ms. Moody mentioned. “She certainly has endured a lot of conversation about that, some of it sexist.”

Though Ms. Kirshenbaum had stopped listening to Ms. Swift’s music in highschool, she has returned to it not too long ago, and finds it freshly empowering. “I remember growing up, all those teen magazines, and her being portrayed as someone who dates a lot and then breaks up and writes songs about these people,” she mentioned. “Now, we kind of don’t see her that way. We see more of the complexities.”

Ms. Swift’s capability to take her music in new instructions, and in any other case reply to business challenges, additionally yields respect.

Johnson Liu, an animated 21-year-old biology main from Queens, described himself as “not really a fan,” having renounced any temporary tween affection for Ms. Swift in favor of heavy metallic years in the past. But he expressed respect for her capability to shift genres, to “jump in trying new techniques and approaches,” referring to this high quality as “pretty rad.”

When possession of her again songwriting catalog was bought to Scooter Braun, Ms. Swift was furious. Flouting the system, she’s rerecording and rereleasing her first six albums, permitting her to retain the rights to the brand new variations, and place a recent spin on the songs. Her followers have flocked to the albums. Even Swift skeptics, like Mr. Parmar, described this tactic as “a pretty boss move.”

Moreover, all the scholars interviewed for this text thought that having Ms. Swift as their graduation speaker introduced cachet to their college and graduating class, and radiated pleasure into collegiate careers convulsed by the pandemic. Her look felt like a present, not least as a result of so many individuals they knew, and even individuals they didn’t, had approached them about attending.

“People are fiending for those tickets,” Mr. Parmar mentioned. Ms. Dhoumo mentioned that she had heard of individuals making an attempt to resell them, “but we’re not allowed to.”

“Not that I thought of it,” she added. “But I thought, damn, this is like a really expensive-worthy ticket. It’s like the golden ticket to the candy factory in ‘Willy Wonka.’”

“I got texts from my friends saying, ‘Oh my God,’ and ‘I’m so jealous,’ and ‘Are you selling your tickets?’” Ms. Mason mentioned. “I was like, No. I’m graduating from college. I want my mother there.”

Students obtain solely two tickets, and the college is making an attempt to implement its prohibition on promoting seats to the occasion nevertheless it could, even by threatening to withhold diplomas from rule breakers. It can be reminding the general public that the speak Ms. Swift can be giving is historically a 5 to 10 minute affair, and delivered on behalf of all of the honorees. (Susan Hockfield, the president of M.I.T., and Felix V. Mátos Rodriguez, the chancellor of CUNY, may even obtain honorary doctorates.)

“Folks should know that Ms. Swift, whom we are very honored to have as one of our honorary degree recipients this year, will be speaking, not giving a performance,” Mr. Beckman wrote. “Of course, her fans are very avid, so I’m not sure even that awareness will curb their ardor.”