THS College Fair Aims to Ease 'Stressful' Time for Students, Parents

juniors and seniors recently had an opportunity to speak with various college and trade-school representatives at the school’s annual College and Career Fair.

School officials, including those from Montclair State, Tufts University and Parisian Beauty Academy, stood behind their decorated tables inside THS’s gymnasium Wednesday ready to answer questions and hand out pamphlets to interested students.

Denise Schachter, coordinator for THS’s Community Service/College and Career Center, said she’s been in charge of this event for the last three years.

She said that during the summer, invitations to the fair are sent to colleges and trade schools. Juniors and seniors are given a list of the attending schools so that they can plan out who they need to speak with first. The public is invited to attend the fair, but Schachter said the event largely is dominated by students.

“We usually see a handful of parents because the event happens during the day,” she said. “We’ve considered holding the fair in the evening but we think attendance by students would be better during the day.”

The fair is geared toward the upperclassmen because Schachter said time and space don’t allow for freshmen and sophomores to attend.

Since Sept. 14, representatives from 47 colleges have come to the high school to meet with interested students in the school’s conference room. And for Wednesday’s event, 80 colleges and trade schools were signed up. Schachter said that’s the largest number of participants to date.

“The best part is that 99.9 percent of the time the representatives who come to the school to meet with the students are the same representatives who’ll be reviewing their applications,” Schachter said.

‘FINANCES ARE THE BIGGEST STRESS’

Yousuf and Fariba Jamal are the parents of a 10th-grader at THS. They both came out to the fair to get some information about various colleges and different programs available at each school.

“We’d like to see which ones are good for engineering and which ones are good for medicine,” Yousuf said. “I also want to learn about financial aid that’s available. Finances are the biggest stress, and we’re looking for ways to get financial aid, as well as scholarships based on our son’s grades and academic career.”

Yousuf said his son is very involved in cross country and his academics.

Fariba said the college fair provides an opportunity for parents who didn’t go to college in America a chance to learn about the admissions process and what schools are out there.

“We didn’t study here,” Fariba said. “We plan on going around to all the tables and get as much information as we can. The high school should continue this every year.”

Yousuf said that if it’s possible, events geared for parents unfamiliar with the U.S. school system would be beneficial as well.

“For parents like us who have not done their studies here [in the U.S.], the education system is very different,” he said. “I’m not sure of the admission process. So an orientation program that helps parents to understand the admission process would be very helpful.”

'YOU HAVE TO FILL OUT SO MANY PAPERS'

THS seniors Michelle Theodore, Bria Locke and Shiloh Watkins said the college fair was a useful tool for students.

“It’s a cool event; I like it,” Locke said. “It’s helping me out a lot because it’s confusing for me to know about all the schools out there and what school I want to go to.”

Watkins said students are able to gain insight into the admission process and possible majors at events such as this one.

“It gives you a lot of information so you go into the school knowing what you want because you’ve seen the school here at the college fair,” she said.

Theodore encouraged her classmates to try and pinpoint what they want to study so they don’t waste time and money once at college.

“Some students may not know yet what they want to be, so over the summer try out different jobs or try to get an internship so you know what you want to do,” she said. “You don’t want to go to college undecided and then possibly waste your time. You don’t want to go to a school and then find out that they don’t have the major that you want.”

THS senior Kailyn Black said applying to colleges is a stressful time for students because they have to juggle all of their other responsibilities while making sure they complete their college-related tasks on time.

“I’m a flag twirler and for everyone who does extracurricular activities applying for college definitely gets in the way between practices and homework,” she said. “I try to get all that work done on the weekends or after school if I don’t have too much homework or if I have any breaks. You should really start this process in the summertime.”

Black said each college typically asks applicants to write an essay and to provide three recommendations, along with various forms that need to be filled out.

“There’s so much – you have to fill out so many papers,” she said. “It’s like applying for a job and then some.”

Black, who’s thinking about going to Lincoln University to study psychology, said the high cost of college not only worries students out but also parents.

“Finances definitely do determine whether you’ll be going to a certain school,” she said. “My parents have a separate account for me for college, but they’re still stressed with the whole process. But at the same time they’re happy that I’m moving along.”

Rob Notch Johnson, who represented Wabash College, was one of the school officials on hand at Wednesday’s fair. He said he coached at Dwight Morrow in Englewood from 1966-1971 and is a retired coach for Wabash College.

“Coming from a small college in Indiana, this is a great place to find quality students and diverse students,” he said. “So we’re trying to add to our college by trying to bring students in from various states and different backgrounds.”

Johnson said it’s important for college officials to travel and meet with students. He said he’ll definitely come out for future fairs at THS.

“It’s a good event,” he said. “They do a good job here, and they have quality students.”