Are you looking forward to going to college but not sure yet what kind of college you want to attend? This was the question that Paint Branch juniors who attended the National College Fair were looking to answer on April 21,2015.

The fair, which was organized by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), allowed students the opportunity to interact with admissions representatives from a wide range of postsecondary institutions from around the country and even from outside the United States like the University of Paris in France. The National College Fair, which was located in Gaithersburg, had over 3545 students present. Students were from all schools including Paint Branch, James Hubert Blake,and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High school.

Although the National College Fair was a little bit overcrowded, meaning that many students definitely did not have enough time to communicate thoroughly with colleges representatives, but it had some positive moments, and three medium-sized rooms had colleges stationed there during the short Fair. Although colleges were not stationed in alphabetical order, college’s representatives were ready to answer any questions students had, whether they were about scholarships, campus housing, diversity or academic majors. I asked a representative of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, “What kind of scholarships do they offer?” The representatives stated, “We offer scholarships starting up to $11,000, based on your high school grade-point average and your standardized test scores.”

At the National College Fair, students could get a small sense of whether they want to attend an out-of-state or in state school or attend college in state. On the other side, some students already know what college they want to attend; they could immediately feel like they were already attending that college by visiting the college representative.