How to Coordinate the BEST College & Career Fair Ever!

As a past Admission Counselor for Hampton University, this post will come from two places. Place 1: as the school counselor who coordinates the event, and Place 2: as someone who spent many years behind that table at college fairs across the U.S. You can take my advice with a grain of salt, but I assure you, I know what I'm talking about here.

To assist new counselors struggling to pull together a College & Career Fair, I have compiled the following list of tips:

1. PLAN EARLY and stick to the originally posted schedule/date for the event.

It is truly bad form to send out requests for career and college representatives to attend your school mere weeks before you plan to host the event. Depending upon the time of the year, they may be sifting through hundreds of offers. Expecting them to attend because they're local, or just because you're having a fair is extremely presumptuous of you. Nothing screams "I know nothing about Admissions" like expecting counselors to jump at your beck and call.

In my opinion, college and career fair invites should be sent at least 6 weeks in advance, and if you plan to do it in the fall- 2 months advance. No exceptions. If you do not the turn out with be mediocre at best and it will not excite your students about college and career prospects.

Once you have the schedule written down and you've sent it out- STICK TO IT. Admission Counselors and Career Reps are extremely busy, often scheduling multiple recruitment events in one day. If you change the schedule there is a fairly high likelihood that you will be stepping on the toes of another event. You don't want to do that. It looks sloppy and unorganized.

2. Consider the time of the year you plan to have the event.

I'm telling you with FULL certainty the fall is not going to be a good time- here's why: every state and national college fair circuit schedule begins late August and ends sometime before Thanksgiving break. College fairs on these circuits typically service upwards of 3,000 students each stop. If your school does not have 3,000 students, it simply is not worth their time. Counselors and career reps will not attend.

If you are an elementary or middle school, you have NO business requesting admission counselors before the Spring. Know why? There is hardly enough time to go to all necessary fairs before the Early Action and Scholarship Deadlines hit, that it is not imperative (regardless of what you think), to ask them to speak to your students during this busy time. Best case scenario, your students have another 4 years before they'll be applying. Worst case scenario, it will be another 12. Don't waste their time. They will chuckle as they throw your invite in the garbage with the stack of hundreds of high school fairs they won't have time to attend as is.

3. Unless you have thousands of students, no college fair should be longer than 2 hours. Period, end of story. Don't argue with me.

Here's the thing, as I've said before, college and career fair reps have extremely busy lives. I'm talking working 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday-Friday most weeks, and driving upwards of 150 miles in their car a day. Sounds tiresome right? What is more tiresome is when you're stuck at a 6 hour fair that could have been completed in 2 hours with proper planning. We can handle more than 50 students at a time. There is no need to break up the school in shifts of that size. It elongates the fair to a ridiculous degree, and typically by the last rotation of students, we've seen them all already!

Be courteous of counselor's time. Keep it short and sweet. Make them want to come back to your school again. Don't hold them hostage so you can pat yourself on the back about hosting a full-day event. Also, lets be honest, you guys are busy. Do you want to be stuck in the gymnasium all day unreachable to your students and parents? No. You'll have a mountain of messages when you get back to your desk. If you can even SEE your desk, that is.

4. Serve some sort of food or beverage at your event- but we do NOT need an hour to eat or have a break. Who eats that slow?

It is truly good form to serve some sort of snack, food, or beverage at your college and career fair. It shows you care about hydrating or sustaining our energy. I'm not talking much. I get excited over a bottled water and a couple boxes of Dunkin Donuts in a corner.

Some of the best fairs will serve counselors lunch too! I always love that. However, I do not need an hour long break to eat. I'd rather have a short break and get back to meeting students OR you can give us a boxed lunch that we can leave with when the fair concludes. We do not mind eating in our cars. Our people eat, sleep, breathe, and thrive in our cars. We become one with our cars. Don't force me into a social situation where I have to sing for my lunch. That is awkward on a whole new level for someone who is used to the darkness of application file-reading season.

5. If you work at an elementary or middle school, only invite local colleges and career opportunities.

In a perfect world there would be a replenishing budget that would allow career and college reps to visit all types of students of all age brackets across the U.S. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Flights cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars and it's extremely illogical to expect a location to travel across state lines for the starting talk on college. You CAN however, research whether there is a local alumni association that would like to come to the fair. Many large colleges do and those folks actually have all the materials admission offices typically do. Spirited tablecloths included.

Also, invite local recruiters for the different military branches and even for-profit schools. It's time to be honest- not ALL students can or even should attend college. It is important that this demographic of students see all the opportunities available to them. Also, military-based scholarships are nothing to scoff at.

If possible, actually ASK your students what career fields and jobs interest them. That way they will actually be excited about attending and participating with the reps.

6. Consider the logistics for the counselors and reps.

NO ROUND TABLES. I REPEAT, NO ROUND TABLES. I'm sure as a school counselor you've attended a college fair, and you've seen the school tablecloths, right? Gorgeous! On a rectangle or square table. However, on a round table they look...just wrong. Not only that, but have you ever tried to hear what a student is saying in a noisy auditorium with at least 6 feet separating you and the garbled mouth teen in question? Logistically it is a nightmare.

Also, have the event in a location that is near the parking lot you've designated for your guests to park. Admission Counselors and Career Reps dress extremely professional and very nice. Nothing incites murderous rage like making me sweat through a button up at my first stop. Do not make us tote our roller bags up multiple flights of stairs or through tons of hallways. Make the location extremely accessible.

DO NOT DO A SPEAKER ROTATION. I went to a college fair once and they asked me to do a 15 minute talk every 5 minutes for 5 hours straight. By the time the day was over I had no voice and absolutely ZERO will to live. This isn't effective cause it does not give time for students to interact and they get bored too. Always aim for the best style of fair for YOUR students.

While I could probably go on and on, I think I'll end this now. Happy college and career fairing, folks!