Making the Most of a College Fair
College Fairs can be great opportunities to get more information about colleges that interest you and to discover schools you may not have considered. However, getting the most from a college fair takes a little planning ahead.
Do your homework
Before the fair, get a list of colleges attending. Choose five or six schools that particularly interest you and research them. Also write down any questions that come out of your research or that you want answered by every college. Decide which are the most important questions, so that you will ask those first.
Bring supplies
A backpack or some other bag will be useful for holding the literature that college representatives hand out. Also do not forget a pen or pencil and a notebook. The notebook can have your list of questions, and you can jot down the answers each college representative gives you. In addition, you can write down any impressions of a particular school or representative-----before they all run together in your mind.
Scout it out
Once you arrive at a fair, take some time to walk through the room before stopping at any of the booths. Get a feel for how the fair is set up. Then head for the first college on your list. It is really important, both for the student and the schools, that the student not go from table to table just signing up. Do not become sidetracked until you see all of the colleges on your must-see list, and do not sign up to get on mailing lists of colleges that do not interest you. You will be getting enough mail from colleges that do interest you!
Ask questions
It can be intimidating for some students to ask questions of the college representative, but keeping quiet will not get you the information you need.
Browse
Once you have talked to everyone on your list, go back and explore the other colleges there. You may find an interesting one that you had not considered before. However, be aware of information overload. Do not try to see how many catalogs you can collect. You could feel overwhelmed and miss reading about colleges that are truly important to you.
Follow up
When you get home, look through the information you have collected, including the answers to your questions. Thumb through everything and see what you think. Ask yourself, “Does this information answer what I need to know?” If is does not, give the representatives a call or email. This is the whole purpose of a college fair: to get you in contact with colleges that may be right for you, even if they were not on your original list. If a school sparks your interest, find out more!