Fall College Fairs

By Hannah Park, Nhan Phan, Catherine Wu, Andrew Yuan

The College Counseling Office (CCO) organized college fairs on Sept. 29 and Oct. 6 featuring over 75 colleges and universities from across the world.

This year, CCO made the decision to extend the invitation for the college fairs to uppers as well as seniors. Many uppers viewed this opportunity as a helpful first step to acclimate to the college application process, but some seniors were frustrated that it took away from their application process.

Dean of College Counseling Elizabeth Dolan spoke on the purpose of college fairs. “For uppers, we hope that it is an opportunity to explore a wide range of colleges by asking questions that are broad in scope but relate to them personally. For seniors, they are demonstrating their interest to specific colleges and are asking more nuanced questions than perhaps they did in the upper year. Still, there are some seniors who are still adding schools to their college list and the college fair allows them the opportunity to learn more about these new schools,” Dolan said.

“For college counselors, it is an opportunity to meet the admissions reader for the Academy and to learn what will be institutional interests as well as priorities in the coming review cycle,” Dolan added.

“COVID changed how college fairs have been offered to our students. The biggest change this year from last year was the number of colleges allowed on campus at one time. This year we had many more colleges on campus this fall compared to last year,” Dolan said. “The turnout was great. Many uppers and seniors attended the fairs.”

Seniors reported an overall positive experience at the first college fair. “I learned a lot about what I actually want in a school,” senior Michael Ngai said. “You get the opportunity to learn more about the schools without having to actually visit the schools, and get to know people from that.”

Senior Kaylee Bennett also shared a similar positive experience, leaving the fair with a new interest in schools that she previously did not have. “It was a fun experience and it also helped me work on my people skills and social communication,” she said.

“[The fair] was a good source of information for last minute university additions… The representatives from the schools gave me a good feel of what type of applicants they were looking for,” senior Angie Wah said. “The brochures that they were handing out were also great snapshots of different offerings and the types of students in the student body!”

Several seniors also commented on the fair being hosted in Grainger Auditorium. “It was a little crowded but still a great experience to get to learn about all the different colleges,” senior Enzo Nakornsri continued.

Wah shared similar sentiments about the crowded space. “I think it would have been more effective for all participants to have had the fair in a bigger space, since there were both seniors and uppers there,” she said.

Many uppers who attended the fair offered their insights as well. “My experience was great. I learned a lot about some colleges I otherwise wouldn’t have looked at,” upper Yoeku Sam said.

“Meeting with the college representatives was fun,” upper Will Soh echoed. “I liked that I was able to learn about specific colleges rather than just about the process.”

Upper Alex Rosen, however, was able to discover what he preferred in colleges mostly from the present college counselors than the representatives.

Several uppers shared their thoughts regarding the benefits of such fairs for students. “It was nice that the colleges could come to you rather than you having to go out to them,” upper Angel Guo said.

“I think the fairs are definitely great to provide insight for students and just have them get a feel of their potential college life,” upper Eric Wu added.

Upper Edie Fisher found the fair to be beneficial in terms of college exposure. “A lot of schools won’t get their names out there to students unless they come to fairs like this.”

Upper Colin Maloney commented on both fairs. “The second fair had less students than the first, but the crowds were also spread out evenly amongst colleges than before. [In the first fair,] students were more concentrated around the same few colleges,” Maloney said.

Students are encourage dby the CCO to ask questions to the representatives. Some students focused on student life and other aspects of college. Ngai said, “I asked about the housing aspect, financial aid, curriculum, etc.”

Upper Valentina Zhang sought to gain an understanding of what made a college unique from another. “I talked to [University of Massachusetts] Lowell and Lasell University, and I asked generally about what made their university different from the other [University of Massachusetts schools] or what their campus culture was like,” Zhang said.

Zhang found herself leaving with a lot of basic information. “Even asking specifically about their bio/premed programs (which was what I was interested in) led to pretty general answers of how they have many options or intern opportunities,” Zhang said, “I think the most helpful thing was just becoming aware of more universities. The crowding really wasn’t bad except at universities like Princeton.”

Senior Yifei Zhao also found that “college fairs offer limited information [without much] in-depth information about the application process.”

Several seniors noted the decision to have uppers and seniors share a space and time for the college fair.“The questions most uppers have are just inherently different from that of the seniors as we are at different phases of our research into colleges. This results in a lot of downtime where seniors have to aimlessly stand through the college representative answering a question that us seniors have probably already looked into,” senior Krish Patel said, “[It was] astounding that uppers were allowed to attend this fair as it took away from meaningful time for the seniors to speak with the people who will be reading our application in just a few months!”

“I learned that uppers should not be invited to college fairs!” senior Joey Dong said, but added her appreciation for the prepared and knowledgeable college representatives.

Students offered initial feedback for future improvement of these fairs. “I wish I had more time to connect individually with schools because the nature of a college fair fosters briefness in conversation, and it’s hard to learn details,” senior Cindy Su said, but added that the lunch information sessions were enjoyable as she was “able to ask specific questions and get a deeper understanding of the school.”

Patel continued on the topic of uppers being invited to the college fairs. “The uppers deserve to have a chance to meet with each college,” he said, and proposed that they meet at separate times.

“I think it’s good exposure for uppers actually,” Bennett said. “It would be fine if it was either just an upper fair, where you kind of just ‘tested the waters,’ or a senior fair where you’re really immersed in the college process and about to be applying to these schools this month. I think there just has to be a balance [between uppers and seniors] in the future.”

The inclusion of uppers in the College Fair prompted mixed reactions from both uppers and seniors alike. Nonetheless, the college fairs are great chances for students and colleges alike to make themselves known.