<p>I'm curious--how many of you use the Visual and Performing Arts Fairs sponsored by the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC) as a way to learn about schools? For those that have gone in the past, your reactions--good, bad, indifferent--would be most welcome. </p>
<p>I have a series of meetings this month with various people and this is one of our agenda items. </p>
<p>Just in case you've never heard of these things before, here is a list of their fall schedule: 2009</a> NACAC PVA Schedule</p>
<p>We attended one last year when my D was in the early stages of identifying schools, and thought it was very helpful. From our perspective, we got to chat with reps from schools that were already on our radar, get info from everyone (and get on apparently every mailing list in the world), and bump a few schools we didn’t know much about into our consciousness.</p>
<p>From an institutional perspective, it would seem to me to be a relatively good opportunity to gather information - attendees are already self-selected as interested in the field. If you wanted to obtain a lot of contacts in a short time it might be a good investment…I have no idea what the commitment would be for participating in multiple fairs, though.</p>
<p>We went to one in San Francisco junior year. Most of the schools we wanted to talk to either weren’t scheduled, or didn’t show. Many of the reps didn’t know much about the music department, let alone details about composition. It was a good place to just get an overview of all the schools out there and pick up some brochures. And, even though my son signed up on mailing lists, we got almost nothing in the mail. I don’t know that any schools got added to my son’s list which weren’t already on it. But it was a good exercise to get him thinking that college was actually a real thing in the near future.</p>
<p>My concern is that they are so late coming to the East Coast. Our school doesn’t excuse absences for college visits until the second half of the Junior year, and then all of Senior year - a little late if you ask me. But, by the time they are here this year, our kids need to pretty much have their apps done.</p>
<p>Took my son in his junior year and will take my daughter this year, her junior year. We attend the one in Manhattan. My son really enjoyed it and we did learn about some smaller schools we did not know about. It does get them revved up to start thinking about college.</p>
<p>I’m going to make a request to our guidance dept that Juniors be excused for either the Philly or NYC dates. That would definitely be the appropriate time to go. We have friends in the underclassmen ranks, and I’d like them to have the chance we didn’t.</p>
<p>We went last year and it was very crowded. S hit a couple of schools in which he had an interest/was applying, but didn’t get any kind of substantive info/talking time with the reps. It would be great if there were some presentations, along the lines of the colleges that travel together, vs. just a trade show.</p>
<p>My son attended a college fair at Interlochen this summer. I don’t know if this is one of the sort that you are asking about. He found it helpful in several regards. First, it gave him a list of schools to think about; somehow, schools that weren’t there are less likely to attract his attention (at this point, anyway). Second, he put his name on a bunch of mailing lists so he is receiving info from many schools. Third, he connected with one or two admissions staffers and even one professor. Finally, and this is specfic to Interlochen, he felt that if the colleges made the trip to the Interlochen summer college fair, they must be interested in Interlochen kids and so maybe he has a reasonable chance of being admitted to one or more of those schools; in other words, he felt wanted.</p>
<p>We began taking D to these when she was in 9th grade and continued in 10th and 11th- ours were held at Eastman and they usually began in the late afternoon so missing school wasn’t necessary. Yes, they were crowded (I’d love to know the stats comparing # of students attending the fair vs. those requesting info vs. those who actually apply), but it’s easy to obtain a list of schools attending and determine which ones you want to meet with and plan accordingly. D collected information, waited to speak to the reps at schools which interested her and kept files on each school. When time came to visit schools and then to apply, she was pleasantly surprised to find that some reps she had spoken to at the Fairs were friendly faces in the admissions offices.
Space at these events is at a premium, that’s understandable, but I do wish that the schools would meet with the planners at the sites and find a way to make it easier to move through the crowds. Dozens of people crowd around the table of the better known schools making things come to a standstill- often those schools are given prime locations on corners or near doors.
One suggestion- and I am really hoping a college rep or a planner with input- how about setting aside an area for parents to sit down? Not only would it be a kindness to the tired adults (you know we get loaded down with the bags and piles of viewbooks,etc!), but it would free up some much needed room around those tables!</p>
<p>D went to one as a senior. I can’t say that it helped (or hindered) in any way. This was in Los Angeles and the schools that interested her had students twenty deep and there was little or no opportunity to get into any in depth discussions. At the end of the day we thought that we could have garnered the same information we did receive from the internet.</p>
<p>D and I went a year ago in LA. We thought it was helpful, although we did go before I discovered the CC music major site. It did get very crowded, and most of the attendees seemed to be vocalists. I would have liked to see more info boards up with pertinent data for a few of the common types of applicants such as how many apply, how many usually get in, what are the academic requirements, where do graduates go etc. Also the most common questions seemed to be about financial aid. There was a noticeable absence of UCLA reps (very curious, as the event was on campus), and another east coast school we were interested in. (Hint: we missed you, N8!).(Smiley face).</p>
<p>“There was a noticeable absence of UCLA reps” They probably figured “hey, you’re on campus—walk right over to Schoenberg if you have any questions!”. I really think it speaks to the relative inefficacy of such events.</p>
<p>My D (HS junior) just went to the one at Rice. I don’t think really she got much out of it (except one good CD…thanks DePaul!). I guess if you hadn’t really started a search yet, it might be an efficient way to collect a “long list” of possible schools to consider. Since we had already done some homework and narrowed down the list quite a bit, only a small fraction of the reps present were sufficiently knowledgable to help her at all (some of the best seemed to be recent grads of the music schools). I would highly recommend that colleges train anyone who staffs such an event not to have “You can find a lot of good information on our web site” as their standard response to any detailed question. We all know we could do that. We’re there to find out something more.</p>
<p>I second what BeezMom said about the East Coast dates. My D hadn’t decided she wanted to focus on conservatories until the spring of her junior year; by early November of the senior year, if you don’t already know what schools to which you are planning to apply, you have one huge problem in the performing arts.</p>
<p>I already posted on another thread that I did not like the one I attended last year - too crowded, a couple of representatives we wanted to talk to were absent from the table for long periods of time, others were unavailable because too many people were ahead in the “line” to talk. I really don’t think it does anything to enhance a student’s getting accepted to places like Eastman or Yale School of Music if parents spend a long time reporting the student’s prestigious music background, program participation, awards, etc. to the representative while there is a long line. I know parents are justifibly proud of their kids, but that is not the right place to brag about student accomplishments and is probably extremely embarrassing to the student. </p>
<p>Having said all that, we are attending the one coming up (mainly to get a little information on a couple of possible “safety” schools that we do not know much about.) </p>
<p>In general, it has been much more effective for us to get information from school web sites, email and phone calls (and also from reading this site) than from the performing arts fairs.</p>
<p>My daughter and I attended the fair at SMU her sophomore year and then again this year, her senior year. It is crowded and it is overwhelming if your child has not completly figured out what they are looking for in a college experience. We picked up literature and she saw the broad range of schools her sophomore year and that was somewhat helpful.</p>
<p>Fast forward to this year: by the time the fair came at the end of September, she had her short list completed and applications in the works. So we went to the fair to speak directly with the admissions people at the schools she was interested in. She asked specific questions and gained some excellent insight–even at one school where the representative was new to the area and didin’t know too much about the city, was very knowledgable about the program. My favorite was the Oberlin table: apparently they call themselves “Oberlochen” due to the high number of Interlochen alum who attend!</p>
<p>Thanks for all of this feedback–keep it coming! </p>
<p>I’m confused about one thing, though: the comments re: fair accessibility. They’re always on nights or weekends. Is it that someone outside of, say, Philly or NYC has difficulty making it by 7pm on a weeknight because of the travel time? Better to have these dates on a weekend from 1-3pm or so, so that folks can drive in from Hartford or Harrisburg?</p>
<p>The one at Eastman is held from 5:30 to 7:30 PM on a Wednesday night. That enables kids here to make it without missing school or a parent having to take off early from work. On the other hand, the tight, 2 hour time frame does lend an air of hysteria to the atmosphere in the hall- " Gotta talk to the rep from …!" and the location doesn’t help much. Gibbs Street is narrow and tight, this one block section running between two major streets, with not only on-street parking but also cars stopped, mid-street, while dropping younger kids off to the Eastman Community Music School. I know that you can’t please everyone and that the host schools and school reps do the best they can, but I’d love to see this one moved to a larger hall in a nearby suburb (10 minutes away) with ample free parking and a less claustrophobic atmosphere. Again, a location like that would provide an area for seating, provide better access for those with mobility issues and would reduce the tension caused by too many bodies in too small a space. Also, there would be more room for the tables, which could make it so that several kids could gather round and listen to a rep, or pick up materials and move on, making things move smoother. Just my 2cents, but, N8Ma, thank you for taking the time to post and ask what how things worked for those who have attended fairs.</p>