College Fairs

The past two nights I have attended two college fairs representing Miami University as a volunteer recruiter. I do this partly because I like to help out Miami, and also partly because I have found that I really enjoy the college fair/high school environment. There is something invigorating about advising high school students on one of the biggest decisions of their life. As someone who thought a lot about what college I should attend, I feel like I have a unique perspective on the entire process.

Anyway, I was talking to M last night about the latest college fair, and she informed me that during my monologue I had used the word "interesting"about 7 times. Her advice was to pick another adjective. The point I was trying to make was that the whole college fair environment intrigued (how about that?) me. Below are some of the noteworthy (another one) thoughts I had from the two college fairs:

• My favorite question from both fairs was one student who asked if their was a Chipotle in Oxford, OH? I joked that she obviously had her priorities straight, but honestly that isn't a bad question. Most of the other questions (ACT score, student population) you can easily get online, but something that specific is something that I can answer and is a valuable piece of information for that high school student.
• There are many exceptions, but overall it is clear that female students are much more personable than their male counterparts.
  
• I finally was able to use my little synchronized skating knowledge with one student. She was wearing a synchronized skating sweatshirt and knew about Miami's national title winning program. I was able to reference Miami's seven straight national titles, which normally impresses no one.
• One father came up to me and gave me a little fist pump while saying "the MAC." I asked him what school he attend and he told me it was the fellow MAC school Northern Illinois. At this point I could have either taken the MAC pride as it was or talk a little trash about Miami's MAC championship upset over the Huskies back in December. I choose the latter.
• One of the more funny moments yesterday was when a blonde cheerleader (she was wearing cheerleading shirt) came up to me and started talking about Florida. She quickly realized (maybe it was the banner that had the large text "Oxford, OH" on it) that this Miami was not the one in Florida. Her friends started giggling and making fun of her immediately.
• I have to hand it to the Inver Hill Community College rep, who despite his college's reputation seemed to have no problem flirting with the Michigan Tech, Holy Cross, Indiana or Iowa State college reps.
  
• I never thought I would be impressing prospective college students with the success of Miami's hockey team. I used the fact that Miami has made it to 2 out of the past 3 Frozen Four's and was a #1 seed in the tournament this year many times. I don't know if it is more surprising that Miami is good at hockey or that I actually care about that.

Anyway, those are just some of the thoughts I had from being a college fair rep. It was something that I am glad that I do, and would love to do more of in the future.