Smaller College Fairs?

College Search & Selection
1

I’ve recently heard about a couple of smaller, traveling college fairs, featuring anywhere from 5 to 8 elite private schools. I was hoping to find out about others that I may not know about.

The ones that have come to my attention are Exploring Excellence (Rice Brown, U. Chicago, Columbia, Cornell), Exploring College Options (Georgetown, Stanford, Harvard, Duke and U. Penn), and 8 of the Best Colleges (Grinnell, CMC, Colorado, CMC, Sarah Lawrence, Haverford, Macalester, Kenyon).

Are there others? If so, how do I find them?

I have no interest in going to the really big fairs, such as NACAC, as they are probably rather overwhelming by virtue of their size – and the list of schools attending was underwhelming.

Many thanks!

2

There’s http://exploringcollegeoptions.org/: Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Penn, Stanford.

BTW, here are links to the ones you mentioned:

http://www.exploringeducationalexcellence.org/
http://8ofthebestcolleges.org/

I did a quick search and didn’t find any other small ones (which doesn’t mean they’re not out there :-).

3

Sign up to get emails from the colleges you are interested in. Once you are on their mailing list you will be pushed information for when they are travelling near you. And you will also get unsolicited emails and letters along the way. HS guidance counselors can help.

We also liked this one for the Colleges that Change Lives group: http://ctcl.org/events-all/

4

^ Also got a lot out of the CTCL fair - not too big, not too small - maybe 30+ schools in all?

Depends what you’re looking for, though - tippy top or one tier down?

Also check out admissions info on the websites of private schools in your area - often they collaborate to organize fairs that are manageable in size. They are typically geared towards their own students but you might be able to tag along.

5

Doh! A CTCL fair, I’ve been to one of those, i should’ve remembered that!

In another thread, http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1886010-college-trips-worth-it-p4.html:

Note that this isn’t a traveling fair – rather, it’s on set dates and you go to the schools.

6

S got a lot out of the Exploring Excellence and 8 of the Best fairs. With one exception, the colleges that made his ‘finalist’ list to choose from this month were all schools he started considering after seeing presentations from these two fairs.

Ask your school counselor if she knows of any others.

7

This may not apply to you, but in case others are interested, the HBCU’s are usually found at smaller “black college fairs”. It was from these that D crafted almost her entire list, where she found a college tour to take, and where she learned of at least one good scholarship opportunity.

Her final choice was a school I had to drag to her over to the table for at one fair, only because I’d heard of it and the guy was at the table by himself with no line of kids waiting to talk to him. It turned out to be the director of admissions.

8

All good suggestions. My kid’s final application list included two that caught his interest at the 8 of the best fair and four from the CTCL fair. One of each are still in the final three.