With over 100 representatives from colleges all around the world, the 2017 Palo Alto College Fair was an opportunity for students to pursue possible post-high school destinations.

Students often view the annual college fair as an opportunity to gain more knowledge about they want to go to college and what they want to study. The fair also gave students the opportunity to understand of what each college provides in terms of culture, academic rigor and student life.

“I wanted to gain some exposure on the different universities that I might not yet know about to open my mindset a little bit more. There was a lot of good information at the stands, people who could answer my questions thoroughly, and a lot of people with experienced backgrounds.”

Bridgette Gong

Representatives from the schools provided information for prospective students from both high schools.

“Depending on what the students are interested in, I tell them about our location, our size and kind of different programs we offer  and different things about our  campus life,” said St. Lawrence University representative Mary Kelly.

Attendees said they were pleased with the sophistication and convenience of the event.

“It was a great way to learn about colleges without needing to go through the process of doing visits and other things like that,” Paly junior Nicholas Welch said.

The only downside for some students of the event was the lengthy lines. Schools with long lines included the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, the University of Southern California (USC) and other popular schools among Paly and Gunn students.

“Some of the long lines in front of the popular schools really took time away from getting exposure to as many schools as possible, because you would have to wait so long just to talk to one representative,” Gunn junior Brenda Cornelio said. “Maybe if they could get more [representatives] it would flow better.”

Despite the lines, the event had a large turnout.

“I’m really surprised at how well this even turned out because there are representatives from so many different schools, and it’s really great to learn about different schools from so many places across the world,” Gong said. “I definitely got what I wanted out of the fair.”