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

Both Jenny Dhoumo and Lauren Kirshenbaum found out on Instagram.

Ms. Dhoumo, a 24-year-old New York University senior was in a cafe, doing schoolwork, when she saw a friend’s repost from Rolling Stone, announcing that Taylor Swift would speak at the N.Y.U. commencement this month and receive an honorary doctorate of fine arts.

Ms. Dhoumo, who will receive a degree in Media, Culture, and Communications, after a challenging college enrollment that lasted seven years across three universities — she took time off to work and help her family — has been a fan of Ms. Swift since her girlhood in Queens; Ms. Swift’s debut album was the first CD she owned. She’d been fretting about her prospects after graduation. The news seemed auspicious.

“This felt like a weird sign, like a reassurance that things will be OK,” Ms. Dhoumo said at the blooming edge of Washington Square Park, the public space in Greenwich Village that doubles as the university’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 major who is a self-described “medium fan” of Ms. Swift, marveled at 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 said. “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 connection with Ms. Swift.

The pop star has had 10 albums hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts since 2006, nearly the entirety of these students’ memory. So this personal connection with her and her songs can be specific.

“She feels deeply. It’s a great talent,” said Senniah Mason, a 21-year-old international relations major from Phoenix, who was having graduation pictures taken with her roommate, Isabelle Jacques, a 22-year-old psychology major 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 first to be immersed throughout adolescence. She has nearly 300 million combined followers on Instagram and Twitter. Though she follows zero people, and hasn’t posted much recently, her existence on those platforms in these students’ formative years has created a bond for many.

“I think in my generation, in particular, there are these parasocial relationships that are developed with celebrities,” said Ishaan Parmar, a 20-year-old film major 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 statement from John Beckman, the senior vice president for public affairs at N.Y.U., honorary doctorate recipients are chosen in fields in which the university conducts research and teaches — the sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, the arts, the law, medicine, 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 asked about how specific recipients are chosen, he wrote that “the nomination process and the consideration of candidates is confidential.”

The choice of Ms. Swift is not improbable. She is among the most famous people of her generation, and Brittany Spanos, a Rolling Stone senior writer, taught a class on her this year at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at N.Y.U. (Previous classes in this series have covered Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and David…