College Fair Essays

College Fair Essays College Fair Paper College Fair Paper Essay Topic: College application College Fair Assignment Q: Students will attend a College Fair and write a 3-5 page paper discussing what they learned from the experience. The college fair as a future school counselor was vastly inspiring. Seeing high school students be excited about their perspective futures brought a sense of contentment. It was also entirely informative on how to guide students towards being able to get the most out of their precious time choosing post-secondary education. The fair put on by Rhode Island Association of Admissions Officers (RIAAO) was exactly set up the way students should be walked through the college process as if they were sitting in a counseling office. First the RIAAO handed out their own pamphlets on the colleges attending and general financial aid information. These included handouts citing recent salaries and life-time earnings corresponding to levels of education. At this point in the hallway before the gymnasium housing the college representatives students and parents would often stop and look through the complimentary bags and became orientated on where the colleges were located. It became obvious that when counseling students, they need to be informed as well as their parents or guardians. The more informed and directed by a counselor prior to the fair the more comfortable they would be recognizing how to guide their growing adults into confidently approaching the college representatives. The college fair was organized but chaotic at the same time, stressing how at times the college pursuit can be entertaining and distracting. With the marketing of colleges seen at the fair it was sometimes obvious that distinguished universities were seen with awe. It is important to be proud of academic accomplishment like the badges of honor they proudly displayed as banners in front of their respective tables. At the same time the best education for a student can occur at any college. Students and parents should be open minded and weigh and contrast the appropriate differences in potential academic environments. Brown University, as an Ivy League school, for example constantly had crowds and noticeably different style of reaching out to students. Compared to The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Brown had a more salesmanship feel to their pitch. The students received earfuls of tradition from Brown and they would keep talking to whatever individual was directly inquiring but still was able to put a pamphlet into everyone’s hand that passed by. RISD on the other hand took a vastly different approach and did not even meet anyone’s eyes except the individual conversation they would enter. The RISD representative gave a very different and personalized approach, creating the feeling that college is a perspective home with people experiencing relevant education together. No student seemed as if they were doing nothing, it was very hard not to get caught up in the enthusiasm there. The college fair also felt like a used car lot as walking in between tables you felt eyes sizing you up. What struck interest was how certain students seemingly by themselves had notebooks and were furiously jotting down the representatives speech. Preparedness was instinctive and important to these individuals but personally notebooks and really in-depth questions over details of education and dorm conditions were a bit of a surprise to come across between tables. It was a rare phenomenon but at the same time brought back home the point that students and parents, who are informed, possibly with help by a school counselor, explored the college fair as a proactive experience and seemed more confident and excited about their application process leaving the fair. At the beginning of the fair the financial aid pamphlets were passed out and should be first to remember and positively not overlooked. Brown at forty-thousand for yearly tuition alone is a very expensive school and still met everyone as a potential student. Stating the cost brings to mind that as a school counselor your students and their parents need to recognize real financial concerns. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) needs to be filled out and possible scholarships and grants identified per student as their high school career nears completion. Finances need to be understood and addressed so that it stands as little in the way as possible to each student’s education so that it does not deter any excitement as they approach the rest of their lives as an adult. As a school counselor, the college fair was reassuring to see that joy and hope about education exist and is a beautiful thing to see in current students. The college process was simplified by seeing the college fair from a different perspective. There are endless amounts of colleges to choose from, and even though just in gymnasium there were a lot of colleges just in that room alone compared to the country. As a counselor these endless options and routes need to be organized and expressed to students in a manageable and enjoyable way like the fair was. Constantly gathering ongoing resources on any perspective college your student can be interested in is important to obtain before the interest is present and that is one way that expresses how counselors should be proactive about getting students proactive themselves.