Students from Andover and local public high schools flocked the track in Snyder Center at the Fall College Fair on September 29. With representatives from over 150 institutions worldwide, the biannual event enabled attendees to gain insight into various possible educational paths after high school.
While the list of attending schools changes each year, most schools from previous years continue to participate. Karina Hernandez-Guarniz, Director of College Counseling, explained the process of selecting schools for the fair.
“We will usually start with an invitation that goes out to all the schools that have previously participated in the fair. From there, it’s pretty open. Any school that reaches out, we will typically invite them as long as they’re a nonprofit college. The purpose is really to invite as many places as possible and to be as broad as possible. Every year, the list changes a little bit. Some schools are able to come, others are not,” said Hernandez-Guarniz.
Students were invited to engage with representatives who provided informational pamphlets and answers to questions about their schools. Scott Smith, Associate Dean of Admissions at Pomona College, spoke to the unique opportunities college fairs provide compared to college counseling or online research.
“At a fair like this one, there are both [Uppers] and Seniors, so it’s sort of a different conversation with each. The [Uppers] are interested. They’re just starting out, getting an idea of what kinds of colleges are out there, and with Seniors, they tend to have more specific questions. They’re interested in particular programs or what dining is like or living situations or social life, and so our job is to be here to answer those questions in a way that you can’t necessarily get just from reading a website. You can have more of a conversation and get a better sense of each student,” said Smith.
Some students attend college fairs to get to know colleges as they consider upcoming applications. Nathan Neu ’26 noted that another benefit of college fairs for Seniors is to demonstrate interest to schools.
“Since I’m a Senior, I’m not looking for information towards applying anymore. It’s more like seeing if there’s any more information I can gain from these representatives that come here that isn’t available online and also to get my name more in the system,” Neu said.
Commenting on the welcoming atmosphere, Jasjit Hargun ’27 shared that the college fair drew a large volume of students from all over the town of Andover. However, he explained that the sheer number of attendees prevented him from learning about more popular colleges at the fair.
“[The fair] was so open in fact that I saw a lot of people from Andover high there as well. The one thing was that it was very crowded, but also it’s hard to find a big space to host all those colleges,” said Hargun. “In general, I could get to the colleges I wanted to talk to. Some colleges I considered going to, but then decided not to because of the lines, especially with Ivy League [schools]. I figured it would just be easier and quicker to research them online than to wait in that line and go talk to the person.”
