For the past two decades, St. Mark’s, Greenhill, Hockaday, Parish and ESD have rotated hosting the annual Dallas College Previews event. This year, the event was hosted by Greenhill on April 6. Each year, the college fair draws around 1,500 students, parents and college representatives. Students had the opportunity to speak with admissions officers from over 100 colleges across the U.S. as well as a few international institutions.
From 1 to 2:15 p.m., juniors participated in a case studies program, during which students, parents and an admission officer reviewed mock applications and determined which applicants would be admitted, denied and waitlisted. The goal was to help students understand how admissions officers weigh different factors of an application.
“It is a full fledged admission officer that will run the session, and so it kind of gives you an insight in terms of the admission process,” Al G. Hill, Jr. ‘63 Director of College Counseling Veronica Pulido said.
Following the case studies, the fair opened to all freshmen, sophomores and juniors from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. where students were welcome to meet with any of the visiting representatives. For sophomore Ian Lockard, this event was a great opportunity to explore the numerous unique colleges.
“I realized each college has its own quirks and traits that really make it unique and different from the others, which I didn’t really expect,” Lockard said. “I thought they were all kind of the same. I looked at everything from Nebraska, a big state school, to a tiny liberal arts school in the middle of Ohio. So there’s definitely a big variety of colleges out there.”
College representatives scanned students’ QR codes, so they could send additional information and track students’ demonstrated interest.
Pulido emphasized that the event was a preliminary step in the college search process.
“In terms of learning more about the institution, it doesn’t mean that you have needed to do ten hours of research on all these colleges,” Pulido said. “You’re just starting to gather bits and pieces of the different institutions.”
Pulido also encouraged students to keep an open mind when exploring the college fair.
“I think it’s important just for exposure, if nothing else,” Pulido said. “I like students to go in with a fresh mind, to check off the ones that you think you want to speak with ahead of time, but also say, ‘I would like to know a little bit more about some of these other colleges.’”
At the core, the event was designed to help students begin identifying and narrowing their college interests.
“Ultimately, all you’re doing is gathering information,” Pulido said. “You’re not signing up, you’re not doing anything enrolling to this institution, you’re really on a fact-finding mission, creating your criteria for college.”