Deciding on where to apply and attend college is no easy decision. Many high school students can become overwhelmed with the abundance of colleges to choose from. Luckily, students at St. Joe are given many opportunities to meet with college representatives from an extensive variety of universities, giving students a good basis for deciding where they may wish to attend.
St. Joe’s college advising staff informs the students of the university reps that are meeting each week. Every week at community time, students who are on the college advising counsel read from a list of colleges who are visiting the school that week. College advising also prepares for the week ahead by posting every Sunday on the St. Joe college Instagram with the schedule of colleges in attendance that week so students have the chance to look ahead and plan accordingly for colleges they are potentially interested in. When a student has a schedule that conflicts with a rep visit, college advising holds onto and displays pamphlets given out during the meetings as well as the rep’s business cards if students are looking to reach out to ask the questions that they didn’t get the chance to ask.
With representatives from several different universities, students have the chance to ask more personalized and specific questions that they most likely could not find online. The reps have all graduated from the colleges that they represent and therefore know firsthand what being a student at their specific school looks like. The reps have been trained about and know close to everything about their university and have an answer for almost all of the questions that are thrown at them.
Colleges from all over the nation send reps to SJA throughout the Fall semester. These college rep visits are open to all grades, but it is mostly encouraged that juniors and seniors attend more visits as they get closer to the college application and decision-making process. The visits also range in size. Since each meeting is an open invite to all students in the SJA community, there is no minimum or maximum limit for the number of students that have to be in attendance. Visits can be as small as a one-on-one meeting between a representative and a student, while others have over twenty students present.
Junior Claire Bucher explains the environment that these college rep visits create for the St. Joe students.
“I didn’t know what to expect going into my first visit, but it turned out to be great. The rep was so easy to talk to and I felt comfortable asking her all of my questions. She was so enthusiastic about answering my questions and overall gave me really helpful information. I didn’t feel any pressure at all; she wasn’t forcing me to go to this university by any means, just describing what makes it unique,” Claire said.
With so many choices, students are often faced with the challenge of narrowing down to what they want. The college rep visits allow students to get a feel for what each college brings and discover what they are looking for in a college.
Junior Ella Cooper describes her unexpected experiences while attending college rep visits.
“I have been to many college rep visits. I went to a couple of colleges that I had never heard of before, and I wasn’t expecting to consider them as possible options. I just wanted to get a feel for what I liked in a college, so I was pretty surprised when I realized I was actually very interested in these colleges, and I am now seriously considering going to a couple of them,” Ella said.
Overall, college rep visits are very helpful and often necessary when starting the college process. The reps give students an idea of what they want in college and ease a lot of stress by answering built-up questions. St. Joe students are very fortunate to be allowed to personally speak with many different reps and be given such a supportive environment during this process.
