Brendan Hall
Staff Writer
Throughout the United States, there are over 2,000 accredited four-year universities. Understandably, high school students have difficulty narrowing down their selection due to an abundance of choices being thrown at them. While taking a tour of the campus is ideal, applicants may not have the ability to travel the distance due to it being out of state, or too expensive.
A solution to this problem has been college fairs. In college fairs, representatives of universities meet with interested students. Students would typically have a chance to be accepted on the spot, or without a fee. There is also an opportunity for personal questions to be asked and answered directly at these fairs. Despite these benefits, SLA’s center city campus does not have its own college fair as opposed to other schools, including SLA Beeber.
“I think access to more colleges would be really good for students, especially ones who don’t pay attention to alerts from Mrs. Hirschfield, or who aren’t very proactive on the college process…” Senior Avi Cantor stated on college fairs.
While there is not a college fair that takes place at SLA there is another opportunity to assist students in the college search.
“I really work hard on inviting college recruiters to come meet with students… The other thing with fairs while I think it could be valuable…it could also be very limiting… depending on the school they might have a bunch of students standing around…although I think it’s good to expose kids to new schools of interest the one on one interactions” SLA college counselor Mrs. Hirschfield explained in response to why the center city campus does not have a college fair.
While personal meetings can be an important experience some students still desired the opportunity for a fair.
“One on one meetings are definitely helpful, but having a college fair would allow you to expand your college search. And find out what you like and don’t like about a lot of schools at one time,” Cantor continued.
While SLA does not have its own college fair there are opportunities for SLA center city students to do fairs outside of the campus. There is one the junior class does each year with Masterman at their campus. There is also the opportunity for the college fair at the school district headquarters, where students throughout the city are free to participate in. Students of the senior class for 2018-2019 have been to these events.
“I was able to learn more about universities and the college process from attending the national college fair,” SLA senior Jakob Klemash-Kresge stated.
Generally, attending a college fair can only benefit a student pursuing a college education and provides a platform for those who need to be informed about college.
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