<p>D and I are headed to a college fair tomorrow-- we'd planned this for a while but the schedule is getting overloaded here, and we wouldn't get home until near midnight and she'll be up at 6 for a big exam at school next day.</p>
<p>Those of you who have been to these things-- were they helpful? Did you get a lot out of talking to adcoms etc? Were they well informed enough to give solid answers and some feel for the school? In other words, is it worth it?</p>
<p>They can be helpful. IMO, if your S or D knows what colleges he/she is interested in and can find their tables right away. Student can meet the regional representative and make an impression with a few specific questions.</p>
<p>Sometimes there are just thousands of students weaving through hundreds of tables, many of which are going to be school in which your S or D has very little interest. You can eat up a lot of time without accomplishing much if you go in without some kind of plan. </p>
<p>They are a great place to get pamplets or sign up for email. If you find a college rep who is willing to spend two or three minutes with your D or S and you have some specific questions, they can be helpful</p>
<p>Most of these college fairs are a zoo with hundreds of tables usually staffed by local alumni. It’s hard to find a chance to talk one-on-one at any of the most popular tables (i.e., the most elite), but there are opportunities if you circle around your choices several times. Perhaps the best positive is the chance to explore a wide selection of mid-range and backup choices in one place over a few hours.</p>
<p>I took my junior to his first college fair about a month ago. I was very surprised at how much he enjoyed it and talked at length to some of the schools in which he is interested. The fair we attended was very crowded, so I recommend looking at the schools that are attending, having your D make a list of which schools she wants to talk to, and map out a plan to talk to those schools first. She can drop by other tables if she has time. I might be a little concerned about the big exam the next day. Is this the only college fair that will be near you?</p>
<p>Take preprinted stickers with her name, address, email, school, and graduating year to slap on those postcards for more information. Major timesaver.</p>
<p>Thank you all (we printed the stickers already-- CC OCD, a new disorder). BU-- it is the only Performing Arts college fair that will be near…so I think we will go-- she can sleep all the way home in the car so I think it will be okay. It sounds from all I see above that it would definitely be worth the trip.</p>
<p>Going to our first one tomorrow. D has to go for an assignment for one of her classes. The list of schools attending doesn’t look that interesting.</p>
<p>My son didn’t find the one he went to helpful at all.</p>
<p>I thought it was a zoo, and in some ways it seemed to intimidate D more than be a help. The noise and crowding was tough, and many of the colleges began to blend together rather quickly.</p>
<p>Yes to bringing stickers! Wish we had thought of that when DS was a junior (major handwriting issues, back then we had never heard of disgraphia). Son filled out the “interest” card leaning over the wobbly table, being bumped by passers-by. Alum manning the booth handed it back and said “If you can’t do better than that, we know you aren’t really interested.” Needless to say, he didn’t apply, even though they gave NMSF money.</p>
<p>I think it really depends what colleges are at the fair…</p>
<p>I went to one and enjoyed it, it was nice to get some face time with someone who knows at least something about the colleges. I asked which question they got asked most often and what was the most off the wall question they’d gotten, which helped me get an idea about what other students were wondering about the school and it sparked some interesting conversation. I only got a few minutes with the major schools but I got some really cool conversations in that got me excited about my safety options.</p>
<p>S is a junior so I’ve only been to one of these. It was a ZOOOOO! The crowding was miserable.</p>
<p>But what surprised me was how much we enjoyed talking to the lesser-known schools. It was funny, we would be waiting on the edge of a crowd to get in to talk to a popular school (say Vanderbilt), and while waiting we struck up a conversation with a smaller, unknown school. </p>
<p>The rep for the unknown school was all alone and completely ignored.</p>
<p>I would say, get there early and quickly visit the popular schools. Then wander around and talk to some reps who are not occupied; you might get some new schools to consider.</p>
<p>Yes, can be a zoo. No, a mob scene. DH took my daughters to one and they refused to ever go to another. They did not apply to a single school they met at that fair. </p>
<p>Unless you are far off the beaten path, or there’s something odd about the scheduling, there should be a good proportion of real reps- in many cases, a number of the pro’s from similar schools travel to these fairs together. </p>
<p>The reps very much want to meet interested, qualified students. If she has a decent talk with one or two, she can follow up with an email soon after, thanking and expressing her interest. (Some reps will start to casually track a student, looking for her follow-up or later application.) </p>
<p>Get there early. As mentioned, head for schools of interest first- and know that, by the time you get to the next table she wants to visit, it may be inpossible to break through the crowd. Be prepared to leave early. There’s a law of diminishing returns, after a while.</p>
<p>Thank you for excellent advice, everyone. We will see what we gain, maybe nothing more than the experience.</p>
<p>We found the college fair useless and didn’t bother to go for my second kid. The one we went to was a bigger one for the whole county and had the bunch of tables with brochures and a college rep (either from the college or an alum) and swarms of HS kids - many of whom were being dragged there by the parents. One couldn’t really get quality time with the college rep and there was nothing there that I couldn’t get more in depth info on by just going to the college’s website. </p>
<p>Perhaps if you’re going to a more focused one it’ll be better.</p>
<p>Gwen - “CC OCD, a new disorder” Too funny. I love it!</p>
<p>Gwen, although many college fairs can be described as “useless,” I noticed that you were attending a “specialty” one for the Performing Arts. That is a totally different situation and hope that it was a helpful fair for your D to attend.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much-- you’re right, momof3, it is apparently quite different with the Performing Arts fairs and we are so glad we went. It was crowded but D was able to talk to reps and in a few cases the heads of the depts she was interested in, a wonderful experience. Several schools she hadn’t been considering are now on her list, a couple fell off, and two she was only vaguely interested in went way up. Plus, she got a big confidence boost as she realized she had good questions and people were really interested in talking to her. </p>
<p>Of course, there was the risk of being murdered by people jealous of our PRE-PRINTED LABELS!!! The time and energy we saved was huge! CC OCD to the rescue, and thank you everyone! (And glad I made you laugh, BU)</p>
<p>Not useless in our case. D who was fairly firm in the idea that she might not even go to college came away from the college fair with a new attitude. She now wants to go away and far from home.
The schools at the fair were not schools that I think she will apply to but it gave her some ideas. The range of schools represented ranged from a beauty school, community college in Mammoth Lakes ( a ski town-6 hours away) to Vassar and wellesley. Unfortunately D needs something in between those two extremes. She came home and looked through the brochures and got on the internet. So in our case the fair while lacking on hard information did spark a fire in her.
Best rep of the fair was from Univ of New Mexico who did a great job selling his school and was great at multi-tasking.</p>