Some of you will go to college fairs that are held in your city that are open to all interested high school students.
Have you heard about the group called Colleges That Change Lives based on a book with the same title? On the home page of their website, here is how they describe the subset of colleges in their group:
Personalized, student-centered experiences are at the heart of every Colleges That Change Lives education. While the CTCL member schools all share that mission, they are otherwise very distinctive from one another.
They visit cities all across America every year. Here is a link to their schedule for this year.
Some of you will be lucky enough to have a college fair at your school. You know who you are.
These fairs are a great opportunity to meet a large number of schools in a small amount of time.
How do you prepare?
🗝️ Take some care with your appearance. Don’t show up in sweats looking like you just rolled out of bed. You don’t have to dust off your Model UN power suit, but make an effort to look presentable.
🗝️ Preview the list of schools that will be at the fair and make a list of your top few choices. Review their website. Think of an intelligent question to ask them that is specific to their school. There ARE dumb questions. My go-to since I grew up near Notre Dame is for a kid to ask a Notre Dame admissions counselor about their Greek life. If you know Notre Dame at all, you know they don’t have any fraternities or sororities on campus. If you ask me about Notre Dame’s greek life, you have just told me you know nothing about our school and aren’t truly interested in attending our school.
🗝️ If the presentation is at your school where you rotate through a series of colleges, and they have a Q&A time, please ask a question. I used to sit in my classroom for the Boston College admissions counselor, and I was astounded (and embarrassed) when they would ask the students in the room if they had any questions, and our kids sat in silence. Blown opportunity. One of my seniors asked BC, “how will the fact that you are a Jesuit school impact my experience if I attend your college?” The counselor lit up and said, “That’s a great question!”
When he walked out of the room, she said, “What is this young man’s name?” I told her, and she took out her notes and asked me to spell his last name.
She wanted to remember him. Indiana was in all likelihood part of her territory, and she may have weighed his interest if he applied.
This young man had no interest in Boston College—he was simply doing what I had coached him to do during my college unit in AP Lit and Comp; he was practicing being an attentive, engaged audience member.
🗝️ When the counselor is done, ask for his/her card. Write a handwritten thank you card in the next forty eight hours.
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