During the first semester, there are many opportunities to talk to college representatives and start making connections. This is especially important for the juniors and seniors to help them find a school that fits them and their needs. While students consistently have college representatives visits at Barstow, the most popular events are college fairs. One takes place at Barstow while the other at Rockhurst High School.

“There was a high energy level at the Rockhurst college fair when you walked into it. There were many new college reps that were excited to start connecting with students, but everyone was so excited for college recruitment to return to normal. At Rockhurst, we had over half of the junior and senior classes there, which was a really good number,” Mrs. Caelin Anderson, one of the Barstow college counselors, said.

The college fair at Barstow is a mini-college fair that goes on for about 30 minutes. Barstow hosts closer schools such as St. Louis University, Benedictine College, and Creighton University but also a few outside of the Midwest such as the University of San Diego, Salve Regina, and the University of Dallas. Most of the schools Barstow hosted were also religious colleges.

At the college fair, there were tables set up in the Varsity Gym for the college representatives to set up their booths. However, there were some miscommunications. The college representatives could not get started till 15 minutes after the scheduled time. Nonetheless, students were expected to talk to two representatives and exchange information in the allotted time. That, however, didn’t stop students from engaging with the representatives they did get the chance to speak with.

“What stood out about the Barstow college fair was the student participation. Everyone was self-motivated to talk to colleges, Mr. Hill and I try to encourage this and we saw great participation from the students. Afterward, many of the colleges commented that the reps enjoyed the conversations they had with students,” Mrs. Anderson said.

The following night, Rockhurst also hosted a college fair, the annual Kansas City Private High Schools’ college fair. Rockhurst hosted the same colleges that Barstow did, but they also featured many out-of-state colleges such as the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago, and the University of Southern California. The U.S. Naval Academy and Virginia Military Institute even made an appearance at the fair.

About 130 colleges attended the fair. Along with Barstow, students from schools like Pembroke Hill, Bishop Miege, St. Thomas Aquinas, and other private high schools in the Kansas City area attended the college fair. 

“The Rockhurst college fair was so much better than the Barstow one. There were a lot more colleges to choose from and they were not all religious. However, both of the college fairs were helpful,” Rian Jacobs (‘24) said.

“Rockhurst was good, it had more variety and just more schools in general,” James Knoflicek (‘24) agreed. Such universities included the University of Missouri at Columbia, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, Kansas State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University.

On top of the universities that are in the United States, the college fair also featured some international universities. Queen Mary University of London and the University of Glasgow attended.

Barstow college counselors encouraged students to attend these college fairs to start networking and to get comfortable with these interactions. These college fairs also offer the opportunity to further relationships with schools that students are already looking at while also showing different schools that may interest them. 

“At the Rockhurst event, a lot of colleges I am interested in were present. Not all of them, but at least a few I liked were there. I also found a few new ones that were interesting,” Knoflicek added.

Along with the fairs, Barstow hosts college representative visits throughout the first semester. The college visits to Barstow provide a more in-depth overview of the school than the college fair does. The college visits have a small group of students talk to an admissions office about the admissions process, what classes are available, and the different kinds of opportunities the school offers. Most of the colleges that appeared at the Barstow and Rockhurst college fairs will come to Barstow for privately-scheduled conferences.

“We have 77 college rep visits scheduled for the fall, but we are seeing those numbers grow, there are reps who are still scheduling for October. Last week alone we had 31 visits. We probably made it through about a quarter of the total during this last week. We will break 100 college visits, not including the fair,” Mrs. Anderson said. 

On top of all of these college visits, there are other college-related events that students can do. On the college counseling website, students can find a variety of different schools, such as national test dates, registration deadlines, and fun workshops. If someone missed out on the visits and fairs, there is so much more to come so do not worry. 

This is an important time for juniors and seniors so make the most of the first semester with the college fairs and visits.