college fair at Prep

[Anonymous]

We went last year so here are a few of my observations:

Go early. Like be in the school 15min before it starts. Not only do you get there before it is packed, but parking is a nightmare.

Have a game plan of schools you want to visit.

Have pre-printed address labels

Hit up popular or large schools first.

Find the diamond in the rough schools. The ones not many people will go to, but your kid may be interested in. Have some legit questions that your kid can ask and be engaged with. That they know you took the time and actually did some research on their school. You WILL get admissions to remember you. My daughter is down to 3 schools right now and 2 of them were first decided at that fair and those directors have remembered her as she kept in contact with them and I know for sure is the reason she was accepted as both were reaches.

Don’t bother going to schools once the lines are long. They won’t remember you. Just place your label, grab a brochure and move on.

Don’t go to a booth you are interested in, just because it is popular.

Let the kid do ALL the talking, hand shaking, questions etc. Stay behind and be interested, but not heavily involved. Ask a question or two after the kid established a conversation on his/her own.

Do NOT let your kids go around with their friends. Colleges did not like that at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went last year so here are a few of my observations:

Go early. Like be in the school 15min before it starts. Not only do you get there before it is packed, but parking is a nightmare.

Have a game plan of schools you want to visit.

Have pre-printed address labels

Hit up popular or large schools first.

Find the diamond in the rough schools. The ones not many people will go to, but your kid may be interested in. Have some legit questions that your kid can ask and be engaged with. That they know you took the time and actually did some research on their school. You WILL get admissions to remember you. My daughter is down to 3 schools right now and 2 of them were first decided at that fair and those directors have remembered her as she kept in contact with them and I know for sure is the reason she was accepted as both were reaches.

Don’t bother going to schools once the lines are long. They won’t remember you. Just place your label, grab a brochure and move on.

Don’t go to a booth you are interested in, just because it is popular.

Let the kid do ALL the talking, hand shaking, questions etc. Stay behind and be interested, but not heavily involved. Ask a question or two after the kid established a conversation on his/her own.

Do NOT let your kids go around with their friends. Colleges did not like that at all.

Thank you PP. We can't get there until 7:30 because of sports practice - is it still worth going?

[Anonymous]

We got there closer to 8pm because Rockville Pike was so backed up getting into Prep (btw, the folks at GP were great hosts, very helpful with making sure everyone could park and giving directions). For future reference, yes, it's very much worth going to. Even getting there so late, DC was able to visit with all the schools she was most interested in, and based on what she heard (and what she thought of the admission rep) she moved some schools up and knocked some out. DC is a junior, but she kind of wished she'd gone as a sophomore as it would've give her some ideas for schools to look at over last summer.

PP's idea about the pre-printed address labels is great - wish we'd seen it sooner.

[Anonymous]

There is no reason t go as a sophomore and there really isn't anything to get from this that you can't get from the college website and signing up through their website to be on their list. And parents shouldn't even go into the venue, at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no reason t go as a sophomore and there really isn't anything to get from this that you can't get from the college website and signing up through their website to be on their list. And parents shouldn't even go into the venue, at all.

You be you. I wasn't convinced of its value til I saw it. And btw the vast majority of parents hung around the outside or in another room.

[Anonymous]

We went last year. Complete waste of time. The schools that are popular will have a line of people waiting to talk to the admissions officer. They don't remember you and most good schools do not track interest. For the schools that do, go on the website and sign up for emails. Check out school websites...a lot more to be learned that way. College fairs are a thing of the past (pre internet).

[Anonymous]

DS went on own last night. For a kid who so far has been pretty uninterested in colleges but was talked into attending because friends were, he found it useful. He did say it was crowded but he talked to everyone he'd had contact with via his sport. He also said that for those parents who did come, the majority sat outside and worked/went on phones and computers, leaving the kids to navigate the event on their own. It was crowded but it sounded like it was manageable.

[Anonymous]

Particularly if dc can go in with some targets in mind

[Anonymous]

Always worth it