Over a hundred tables featuring piles of brochures, infographics, and posters from colleges around the world filled Snyder Center on Monday. The Spring College Fair gave Andover students and local high schoolers a chance to ask personal questions to admission officers and explore schools in-depth.
For many students, including those who are not attending Andover, this event was a valuable opportunity to explore schools they were not previously familiar with. Tiffany Zhao ’27 noted that attending the fair helped her learn about new schools.
“[I attended this event] to get to know more schools that are not on my radar right now,” said Zhao. “A lot of the information that is given, you can find online, but the most useful part for me is some schools I didn’t know had things that I’m interested in. My college counselor recommended them, or I was walking around, and then they caught my eye, so [the fair is] a good way of exploring new schools.”
Besides aiding students in their admissions process, the fair was also a valuable opportunity for representatives of colleges to meet and talk to potential applicants. Rhianna Billings, a representative from the St. Mary’s College of Maryland, shared that her institution viewed the College Fair as a way to expand outreach to students outside of their home state.
“We’re trying to build up our reputation in the New England area right now, because we’re in Maryland, and there’s not as many people coming over to our college from here. [The college fair] helps with networking, not just for the students, but also for us. We can network with you guys and representatives from different colleges,” said Billings.
The College Counseling Office encouraged current Uppers to attend the college fair. Many Uppers viewed this event as a valuable part of their college search process, including Murewa Biyi-Olaoye ’27. She talked about the support she received from her college counselor, which helped her decide which tables she should prioritize.
“As an Upper, it’s that time of year. My college counselor has been super supportive, sending us emails and giving us advice, to prepare us for coming here. Almost everyone brought a list of colleges their college counselors have looked through. They highlighted, ‘you should go to this one first,’ ‘this one tracks demonstrated interest,’ stuff like that,” said Biyi-Olaoye.
Hillary Dickman, a representative from Colorado College, mentioned the importance of talking to a representative, even if you’ve never heard of the school they represent.
“One of the things I love is that the counselors know their students really well and encourage them to visit the schools that are going to be good fits for them… Sometimes, people who haven’t heard of us will walk by if their counselors haven’t told them to visit us. I wish that more students would not just go to schools that they’ve heard of before, but would stop and ask questions. Each of these schools here has a different personality, and you can’t know which one is going to be a good fit for you until you chat with somebody about this school,” said Dickman.
Biyi-Olaoye similarly mentioned that she found the college fair useful for getting a feel for schools she won’t have the opportunity to visit in-person.
“Obviously not everyone’s able to get a chance to go tour a school, and some people have more limited resources than others. So bringing some of the colleges here toward us is very valuable, because we’re getting a one-on-one experience. Obviously, we don’t get the full picture of what each school is like, but being able to speak with a representative where, with some other schools, you might not be able to do that, it’s very valuable,” said Biyi-Olaoye.
The College Fair also attracted students from schools other than Andover. Seneca Ayares, a student from Concord Academy, described her experience attending the fair while looking for liberal arts schools to apply to.
“I wanted to learn more about colleges in the area, specifically liberal arts schools. I’ve been talking to a couple of colleges and I’ve learned some new things, specifically about what you can do after college, like internships,” said Ayares.
