Spring and Summer College Fairs

If you don’t have time or opportunity to visit college campuses in the next few months—or if you simply can’t visit all those that spark an interest—attending college fairs is an efficient way to learn more about particular schools as well as to meet admissions staff in person.

To benefit from all that fairs have to offer, be sure to do your homework first:

--Find out which colleges and universities are exhibiting at the fair and make a list of those you plan to visit.

--Prioritize your college list when you arrive at the fair to visit the school exhibits in order of greatest to least interest—or you might decide to visit the schools where you are least likely to make a campus visit first.

--Bring specific questions to ask admission representatives.  For tips about asking questions and making the best use of your time at a college fair consult WACAC’s “Faring Well at College Fairs”:

http://wacac.org/fairsfaring

--Take notes while you are there.  If student and parents attend the fair together, you might want to split up and visit different schools.

--Attend any relevant information sessions on financial aid, college athletics, etc.

High schools sponsor their own college fairs, which students should attend if they can, and two organizations NACAC (National Association for College Admissions Counseling) and WACAC (Western Association for College Admissions Counseling, a branch of NACAC) offers seasonal college fairs as well. 

Here are three I highly recommend attending in the San Francisco Bay Area:

1) Thursday, April 18, 2013 WACAC is sponsoring a fair at Mission College in Santa Clara:

http://www.missioncollege.org/news/documents/WACAC_2013.pdf

2) Saturday, April 20, 2013  from 1:30 – 4:30 pm, NACAC is sponsoring a fair at Concourse Exhibit Center in San Francisco:

http://www.nacacnet.org/college-fairs/SpringNCF/Pages/San-Francisco.aspx

3) Looking ahead, Colleges that Change Lives, a consortium of liberal arts colleges from across the U.S., sponsors an information session, followed by a college fair, on Monday, July 29, 2013 in Santa Clara:

http://www.ctcl.org/events/san-francisco13