From Aug. 30-Oct. 30, colleges and universities from Menlo College to Scotland’s University of Dundee have been visiting Aragon students on campus, to teach students about their options for higher education.
The presenters aim to expose students to more colleges so they can figure out which places they’d best fit in.
“[Colleges] talk about their sports programs, housing and any kind of news that’s big in their school,” said College and Career Adviser Laurie Tezak. “They give [students] all the updates that they might need: [what’s] new about the school…what the school is looking for, like what kind of GPA [and] which courses.”
Tezak set up these presentations with a software called RepVisits, which allows her to post dates and times for college visits. From there, colleges interested in presenting at Aragon signed up.
“Now we have schools from Canada, Japan [and] France coming to present,” Tezak said.
These presentations help students gain an understanding of the college application process.
College presentations are typically open to grades 10 to 12.
“Once in a while I have a freshman that’ll come in and say, ‘Can I attend?’” Tezak said. “Of course I would never turn them away.”
Senior Janus Sucharitakul attended the University of Southern California’s presentation on Sept. 11.
“It was very informative,” Sucharitakul said. “They used our 20 minutes very well, in my opinion, [talking] exactly about what you want to hear: what they want to see in admissions.”
For students, college presentations have been an alternative to going in person.
“I liked the efficiency of it,” Sucharitakul said. “It’s really hard to like a college without going to see it because, outside of really heavy research, all you see is a name. If I can see a glimpse into [a school’s] life or into what they consider [and] what they value, that allows me to decide better, and that’s probably why USC is on my list now.”
Occasionally, student attedance has been a problem. Senior Anelise Ostrowski was the only attendee at Seton Hall’s presentation.
“I think not enough people know to sign up early, because they cancel if they don’t think enough people are going to be going,” Ostrowski said.
When it doesn’t seem like students will attend, Tezak makes an effort to ensure the representative’s time isn’t wasted.
“If I see that [students] haven’t signed up through Naviance to come and visit, I will email the [representative] in advance and say, ‘we don’t have anybody signed up,’” Tezak said. “They’ll always say ‘I’ll leave [behind] information if students come by.’”
Aragon’s financial aid and scholarships advisor Caroline Moala acknowledges the conflicts students have with the timings of these presentations.
“This is a great opportunity that no student should miss out on,” Moala said. “But I understand it’s during class time sometimes, and it’s hard for students.”
Some propose solutions for this inconvenience.
“If you check in Naviance, a lot of the colleges are [ones] you’ve probably never heard of, which is good—that means they increase in publicity—but because it’s during the school day, it’s hard to get students to attend,” Sucharitakul said. “So, if you want more students to attend, you would need to carve out some time.”
Still, these presentations are a resource for students to help them navigate the many options after they graduate. Presentations will continue until the end of October.
