Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts

Friday, May 02, 2014

What to Expect at a College Fair

College fairs are scary. You walk into a big auditorium or gym or other multi-purpose room that's crowded with tables and people. You're telling me I actually have to talk to these college people? I can't just take their papers and run? What's this information card they're telling me to fill out? Did I just sell myself to Lehigh University?




Actually, college fairs aren't that bad. I was just at one this week, and it was a new experience, but it wasn't too scary. If you're planning on visiting one of these things sometime in the future though, here's my post on what to expect at a college fair.

For starters, you can expect to be asked a lot of questions. The three main ones are:

"Do you have any questions?"
If the person at the booth really has no idea what they're doing, they'll ask you this question first. I don't know why, so please don't ask me. But unless you came up with a list of specific things you want to know about each and every school you talk to, you'll probably end up answering this question with "no." The way I see it is this: You probably don't know anything about this school yet, so you have no knowledge to base your questions on. Plus, as my dad pointed out to me later, it's a bad idea to ask a closed-end question.

"Are you a junior or a senior?"
I understand wanting to know what year of high school a potential student is in, but does it always have to be junior or senior year? As some of you may already know, I'm a sophomore. So when people at college fairs ask me if I'm a junior or senior, I just feel the tiniest bit neglected. I don't mind  that people are asking me what year I'm in, but does it have to be junior or senior year?

"What are you thinking of studying?" / "What do you think you want to major in?"
This question actually isn't so bad as it is repetitive. Every person you talk to is going to ask you this question, so you should be prepared with an answer. If you haven't decided for sure what you want to study, that's okay. Even so, it's nice to at least have an idea of what you might want to do.

Click the jump for more!