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2014 Fall College Fair

October 27, 2014

2014 Fall College Fair

The 2014 Fall College Fair was held in Xian Mian Building in the afternoon of October 18th. The event gathered alumni and admission officers from 16 universities in the United States, Japan, U.K., Germany, Canada, and Switzerland, and Hong Kong. Students and parents from all four grades of the high school division attended this event.

This event created an excellent platform for parents and students to get to know possible future school choices. Alumni and admission officers explained the specialties of their respective schools along with the application procedures and requirements. Alumni shared their experience in the schools from a personal perspective that allowed students and parents to gain a variety of direct and insightful knowledge about life on campus. “This college fair certainly provided me with lots of information about schools that I might apply to in the future”, said Jeric Sim from 11th grade, “I was especially impressed by the alumni from Columbia University, he had lots of humor and made me want to become a Columbia student like him”.

The college fair helped to reduce the distance between students and universities by allowing parents and students to directly communicate with the schools and ask questions that are not listed on the school’s websites. It brings the concept of college from a distant and abstract destination in the future to a very real goal for students. “The presentations were all very intriguing and informative”, said Anna Tsai and Daniel Chu from 11th grade, who both worked as volunteers at this event, “I could see that many parents and students were very enthusiastic towards asking questions”.

Going back and forth between presentations and Q&A sessions, almost every school highlighted on the words “well-rounded”, and “holistic” when talking about their application and admission procedures. Schools look for well-rounded students that are able to balance between schoolwork and extracurricular activities. Most schools adopt a holistic admission criteria, looking at the student’s specialties, achievements, personality, and interests as a whole. The alumni from Columbia University said: “It is very important for applicants to have a good ‘fit’ with the school. At Columbia, entrepreneurship is greatly valued and we prefer to see students who are self-motivated. We don't mind failure because it is only through failure that you grow up”.

Among the colleges that attended this event, there were also schools with very specialized programs and areas of study. The joint institute between the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University offers collaborative classes specialized in engineering. “Students can choose to either spend two years in Shanghai and two years in the U.S. for a dual degree in both schools, or they can finish undergraduate in China and further their education in the home campus of University of Michigan”, explained the representative of this joint program. BPP University is also a school with specialized areas of study. It is one of the best schools for economics and business majors in the U.K., and offers very specialized majors from management, to banking and marketing. This is the first time that it has visited SHSID, and it is expected that more and more students from our school will apply to this university in the future.

The presentation from Waseda University was also very popular, especially among Japanese students and parents. Admission officers from this school introduced their international programs and explained that both application processes and courses will be offered in English within these programs. “We look for students who understand our school and actively seeks a higher education in Japan”, said the representatives during the presentation.

Overall, the college fair was a great success. Many students and parents found it well-organized and very informative despite occasional crowds that formed during the presentations of some universities. “This event gave me lots of information about universities and got me thinking about which schools I would prefer. Now I’ve decided to join in more clubs and activities and to keep my interests open”, said Vivian Chen from 10th grade.

Written by Grace Zhou 12(1) Picture by Daniel Chu 11(7)