College Fair Attracts Uppers and Parents

Rows of tables, piled high with banners, stuffed animal mascots, stacks of stickers and brochures galore filled Love Gym Tuesday night, when Exeter hosted the college fair.

Representatives from both public and private universities, as well as several gap year programs, spoke to students and their parents about their educational programs and fielded questions to uppers eager to learn more about the college process.

"It’s an opportunity for students from Exeter and the region to speak with college representatives from over 150 schools," Director of College Counseling Elizabeth Dolan said. "We have the college fair to offer an opportunity for students to learn about a variety of programs, universities, get ideas about what resonates with them and what they consider when they’re developing their college list."

The college fair coincided with a rescheduled CCO information session for parents of uppers.

Xx Davis, Exeter Class of 2005 and Harvard Class of 2009, came to the fair as a Harvard representative. "I came to offer what I know, have some good conversations, and I hope that people will thus get an idea of what Harvard would be like," he said.

In addition to Harvard, other schools represented include Barnard College, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Miami, Penn State University, Columbia University and Sewanee: The University of the South.

Attending the fair can be helpful for students who apply to the colleges with whom they communicate, according to Dolan.

"Readers that are at the fair are aware of who stops at their table, and they take inventory of it when the applications come through," she said.

Many students interviewed said they appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the colleges, whether they have already decided to apply to them or are simply open to learning more.

"It’s a great opportunity for students to learn more about colleges through face-to-face interactions with admissions officers, rather than an individual online search," upper David Kiger said. "I think the connections people make can be helpful in deciding which college to go to or where to apply."

Upper TJ Hodges said the information he learned from the fair could help make his college visits more focused. "I had several questions answered by the college representatives," he said. "I am planning to visit a few schools this summer, and they were very helpful telling me what I should spend my time doing while on campus. I also went to visit some tables of colleges I hadn't originally been interested in, and a few of those visits caused me to add to my list of application possibilities."

The fair is also helpful for international students who are unable to visit colleges in America otherwise.

"Being an international student, it’s really difficult for me to visit schools over breaks because I’m usually at home in Seoul or Tokyo," upper Joohwan Kim said. "It gave me the opportunity to talk to schools that I otherwise wouldn't be able to interact with, like Vanderbilt, which is in Tennessee, a state I have never been even close to."

Some students thought that there were not enough well-known schools at the event. "I think it’s pretty limited," Kiger said. "I have a lot of national universities that I’ve been talking to my college counselor about. There are about fifteen schools on my list, and I think only three or four of them are here. I’d like to get more geographic diversity."

"I was actually disappointed that some well-known schools weren’t there," upper Nina Meyers said.

There was an imbalance in the booths’ popularity, with some tables crowded by attendees, while others were left quiet, upper Charlie Minicucci noticed.

However, some others believed that the college fair included a balanced group of schools. "I thought there was a good balance. Obviously, all of the popular schools were there, but there were definitely some schools that I hadn’t heard about," Hodges said. "I had a list of tables I knew I wanted to talk to, but after that I strolled around and looked at some of the other ones that I did not know much about."

Nevertheless, there were many schools represented at the event, which, combined with the great number of students and parents there, made for a hectic first impression of the fair.

"The entire thing was a bit overwhelming at first with every school lined up, but I got acclimated fairly quickly," Meyers said.

Noting the small group of lowerclassmen who attended the fair, upper Haley Stokas gave those about to start the college process a bit of advice: "I think it’s good to start thinking about it, even though it’s not crucial."