College Fair at High School

C

CBA1992

Member
Sorry if this read is off topic - feel free to move or delete.

I live in Philly burbs and have a daughter who is a junior in a local public school.

We went to her first college fair at a large local Catholic HS in our town earlier this week. Over 120 colleges were there and had small tables set up with 1-2 school reps per table. Not this its a huge deal and I only have a sample size of 1 - but SJU was not one of those schools that sent a representative.

Some of the schools that stood out to me were St Bonn, the Catholic U, Gtown, The Hall, Xavier, Marquette, Nova, St Joes (philly), Monmouth, FDU, St Francis NY, Hofstra, and StonyBrook. Lots of other smaller ny, pa and NJ schools as well.

The representative from Xavier told me that he and the other Jesuit schools travel together (same bus - hotels, etc) to reduce costs and work together to recruit kids and educate parents. Good idea I thought.

Again, this is my first fair, but I wondering if any other posters see SJU active in the competitive student /parent recruiting world out there.
 
Sorry if this read is off topic - feel free to move or delete.

I live in Philly burbs and have a daughter who is a junior in a local public school.

We went to her first college fair at a large local Catholic HS in our town earlier this week. Over 120 colleges were there and had small tables set up with 1-2 school reps per table. Not this its a huge deal and I only have a sample size of 1 - but SJU was not one of those schools that sent a representative.

Some of the schools that stood out to me were St Bonn, the Catholic U, Gtown, The Hall, Xavier, Marquette, Nova, St Joes (philly), Monmouth, FDU, St Francis NY, Hofstra, and StonyBrook. Lots of other smaller ny, pa and NJ schools as well.

The representative from Xavier told me that he and the other Jesuit schools travel together (same bus - hotels, etc) to reduce costs and work together to recruit kids and educate parents. Good idea I thought.

Again, this is my first fair, but I wondering if any other posters see SJU active in the competitive student /parent recruiting world out there.
Click to expand...

I don't know how active they are out of state but we did see them around fairs in Long Island. My two oldest went to a catholic school on LI and St. John's would come down and take registrations at the school and gave an immediate response if you were accepted.
 
Having been an admission representative for the past 10 years on Long Island, I can assure you that St John's is a presence at most college fairs in the metro area. The bulk of the college fairs are held from mid September through mid November in the fall and early March through early May in the spring. Most colleges have a "rep" that covers a designated territory. Unfortunately, in most cases, high schools in a general area do not coordinate their college fair dates and, as a result, there are often multiple fairs going on during the same evening. In that case, the "rep" is assigned to attend the fair of the school that historically has been the best "feeder". If another "rep" is available that evening, he/she would be asked to cover the other school in that area that evening. Obviously, it is much easier for a college to make such accommodations when the high schools are in easy driving distance to campus. Such is not the case when the high schools are much further away. It is surprising that St John's would not be represented at the fair of a large Catholic high school in the Philly area. Obviously, Catholic high schools would generally be considered prime feeder schools for St. John's. I can only assume that an emergency prevented a rep from attending. But, be rest assured, St John's does have a national presence on the college fair circuit.

Interestingly enough, most of the colleges that you cited do not recruit regularly on the Long Island circuit. They may occasionally show up at college fairs of selected high schools in our area (mostly Catholic schools) or the major fairs, such as NACAC in the fall (used to be held at the Nassau Coliseum) or at Hofstra University in the spring, but they do not participate in the majority of fairs on the Long Island circuit.
 
Be aware that one of Gempeshaw's initiatives, fully supported by members of the board is to recruit Catholic kids to St. John's. I would like to think that SJU would be present at all local college fairs since it costs very little to do so.

The whole discipline of colleges recruiting students is a highly structured process for the best schools. When we visited schools for my kids, it was clear in discussing our kids with those in admissions at those (mostly Catholic schools) that they had intimate knowledge of the Catholic high schools my kids went to and knew the guidance counselors by name. Every college has a target audience so when they choose college nights to attend it is based on a number of factors including success recruiting from a particular hs, the religious nature of that school, the academics at the hs, and socioeconomics of that community. College recruitment is a multi billion dollar sector and schools really have to compete for the best students and invest a large sum to have a large enough and competent staff to go after the kids they want at their school.
 
Having gone through the process with my son I wouldn't be surprised if they just missed the event. My son was set on going to Penn State, the school he attended had set up a fair and the Penn State recruiter missed the event. My son was dead set on getting information. he was not the only school (recruiter) who missed the scheduled event. Long story short a couple of other kids were interested and they got the guy to make a special visit. As for St John's, they awarded my son a full academic scholarship which he turned down to his father (and his wallets) dismay... :sick: He graduated from PSU last year and is still sitting on my couch looking for a job.... :(
 
I'm not sure how the college fair process works nationwide, but when we were at St. Francis prep, SJU and Fordham ( both My main options) had their own rooms to market themselves.
 
Sorry if this read is off topic - feel free to move or delete.

I live in Philly burbs and have a daughter who is a junior in a local public school.

We went to her first college fair at a large local Catholic HS in our town earlier this week. Over 120 colleges were there and had small tables set up with 1-2 school reps per table. Not this its a huge deal and I only have a sample size of 1 - but SJU was not one of those schools that sent a representative.

Some of the schools that stood out to me were St Bonn, the Catholic U, Gtown, The Hall, Xavier, Marquette, Nova, St Joes (philly), Monmouth, FDU, St Francis NY, Hofstra, and StonyBrook. Lots of other smaller ny, pa and NJ schools as well.

The representative from Xavier told me that he and the other Jesuit schools travel together (same bus - hotels, etc) to reduce costs and work together to recruit kids and educate parents. Good idea I thought.

Again, this is my first fair, but I wondering if any other posters see SJU active in the competitive student /parent recruiting world out there.
Click to expand...

I don't know how active they are out of state but we did see them around fairs in Long Island. My two oldest went to a catholic school on LI and St. John's would come down and take registrations at the school and gave an immediate response if you were accepted.
Click to expand...
 
We sent Steve Lavin. Guess he was a no show. Was the Fair around dinner time? :dry:
 
Sorry if this read is off topic - feel free to move or delete.

I live in Philly burbs and have a daughter who is a junior in a local public school.

We went to her first college fair at a large local Catholic HS in our town earlier this week. Over 120 colleges were there and had small tables set up with 1-2 school reps per table. Not this its a huge deal and I only have a sample size of 1 - but SJU was not one of those schools that sent a representative.

Some of the schools that stood out to me were St Bonn, the Catholic U, Gtown, The Hall, Xavier, Marquette, Nova, St Joes (philly), Monmouth, FDU, St Francis NY, Hofstra, and StonyBrook. Lots of other smaller ny, pa and NJ schools as well.

The representative from Xavier told me that he and the other Jesuit schools travel together (same bus - hotels, etc) to reduce costs and work together to recruit kids and educate parents. Good idea I thought.

Again, this is my first fair, but I wondering if any other posters see SJU active in the competitive student /parent recruiting world out there.
Click to expand...

I don't know how active they are out of state but we did see them around fairs in Long Island. My two oldest went to a catholic school on LI and St. John's would come down and take registrations at the school and gave an immediate response if you were accepted.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


St John's and almost all of the local colleges offers an onsite admissions program at NY area high schools. An admissions staff member visits the high school on a given day, analyzes each applicant's credentials and is authorized to offer an acceptance (and often financial aid package) to the student on the spot. This is done at selected high schools which have been strong feeders to that particular college in the past. Having been friends with several people in the St John's admissions office through the years, I can assure you that they actively recruit out of state students.
 
Thanks all. Great insight. Our next college fair is Monday night at a large mall in the philly burbs. Supposedly 200 schools will be there. Should be a busy night for sure...
 
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