Minutes
recorded by:
Dalia Khalil, Program Specialist, AMIDEAST, Cairo,
Egypt, omeroman@frcu.eum.eg
Mr. George C. Dariotis, Educational Adviser, U.S. Educational Foundation, Athens, Greece started the session by stating that their Foundation organized two successful college fairs.
The reason behind thinking of having a college fair in Athens was that US universities were already in Europe for the London, Paris, and Brussels college fairs. For future cooperation, dates for those fairs could be coordinated to encourage the university
representatives to participate.
Remarks by Marie O'Hara, Head, Educational Advising Center, US/UK Fulbright Commission, London, United Kingdom
Marie had a very unique experience with the college fairs. In London, college fairs first started in 1978 with college alumni. the first one was held at the American Embassy. Twenty one universities participated and two hundred and fifty students attended
. It was considered the first established college fair in Europe.
As a follow up, a planned committee was established the next year. In 1994, the organizing committee looked for larger facilities and the second fair was held. This time, one hundred and two universities participated, which demonstrated increasing interes
t in the US education.
Planning the London College Day (September 1995):
- 11 months prior:
Committee meeting to review and make recommendations
Agree on a date for following year's event
Support report sent to representatives attending
Application for sponsorship
- 9 months prior:
Registration materials mailed to US administration, personnel and alumni
Plan information sessions and speakers
- 5 months prior:
Committee meeting
Publicity to schools/colleges(it goes twice before holidays)
Press releases
- 3 months prior:
Printing of official brochures and posters
- 2 months prior:
Press releases/articles(free advertising)
Logistical information to all the representatives attending
Registration information to schools/colleges
- 1 month prior:
Book an official photographer
Order college signs
Make catering arrangements
Confirm arrangements with American School of London
- THE EVENT
Who gains from this event?
1) The student:
It was quite different from London's fair, since the Russian students did not know much about the basic issues in the American educational system. It was in the shape of an advising fair held in the advising center itself in Moscow.
The bad news was that the center did not have any budget for such an event, but the good news was that they managed it very well, so they had no overhead expenses.
On the advising fair:
- They had several booths set for the professional, undergraduate, graduate, English education and scholarships & fellowships opportunities.
- Panel discussions (different issues)
- Video screening of U.S. universities
- Used a TV games program
Planning for the advising took about 6 months, which included:
- Outreach to the universities through direct mailing to introduce the center's activities, the advising fair, and registration for the fair.
- Faxes to universities for follow up.
- Advertisements in the newspapers.
- Invitation of speakers ( most of them were contacts to the center)
- Use of interns: Four interns helped with the preparation. The Center could not have done it without them!
Who gained?
The center gained a lot of publicity through the fair. As a result, they got more students and more bridges were built between students and the center concerning the U.S. education. This advising fair may be a seed for a real college fair in the future, a
fter economic reform has taken place.
III. LINDEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
Remarks by Jynks Burton, Project Dir., Linden Educational Services, Washington, DC
This is an organization responsible for organizing recruitment tours for admission officers at the U.S. universities to three regions: Asia, Middle East, and Latin America.
Each tour will include five to thirteen cities in one of the three regions. The U.S. recruit could visit ten to fifteen schools in each city.
Guidelines for a large fair:
- Be prepared: since Linden sends you three updates that have all kinds of questionnaires to prepare appropriate packages for the college representatives
- Adequate facilities: you have to have enough room for each college representative.
- Select the right timing for the fair to suite your students
- Publicity
- Produce a guide to give information about all participating universities(tuition, offered majors, etc.)
Remarks by Gregory T. Walker, Associate Director, International Affairs, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Each fair has its own flavor, but we are still interested in participating for many reasons:
-Screening a significant number of students in few hours
- An opportunity to see a diversity of students
- Meet important contacts from different countries
- Respond to the special inquiries from students through the follow up process
- Learning about the cultural and other trends in many countries
George suggested a way to judge a college fair:
- Exposure to the alumni
- A way to learn the physical location of foreign schools
- Cheaper accommodation
- Shows the special areas in education to be targeted in the future: institutions, location, or students)
- You learn a lot from the group you are traveling with on your tour
- The overall of the college fair helps in planning for next year
Questions and Answers:
Q: To Marie: Have you thought of having a fair for graduate students?
A: For graduates, we cannot logistically organize a general graduate fair since it is different on the graduate level.
Q: How much do you charge the U.S. colleges?
A: $ 150.00 for the university fee, which is very cheap since in other areas of the world the fees could be $2000.00. For the students, the registration fee to get into the fair is one British pound.
Marie also suggested that advisers interested in having a similar fair could contact her and ask for the mailing list that she used in reaching U.S. colleges this would save the advisers some time.
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