When junior Jillian Volk walked into the college fair on March 15, she felt overwhelmed, but impressed by all of the post-secondary school options presented.

“I think it was very overwhelming because they try to separate it by grades but the grades stay together, so it’s just overwhelming,”  Volk said. “There’s a lot of people and there’s a lot of different colleges you can choose from and especially like for me, I have no idea what I want to do with my future, so it’s just overwhelming how many there are. It’s just crazy that there’s so many choices.”

9th grade counselor Barb Nelson said the college fair is meant to expose students to over 120 education options.

“The college fair is something that is meant to expose students to over 120, typically it’s around that number, college reps that come to visit. It’s a great way for them to be able to kind of first hand experience talking to reps, asking questions (and) being able to look at the variety of different schools that are available to them,” Nelson said.

Nelson said the college fair occurs every year, so students don’t miss out on the opportunity to explore their options.

“The counselors this year debated because we said should we do this like every other year, but then it’s hard because juniors who really should be the ones looking, kind of they miss it if they don’t have it that particular year. We kind of just continue to have it because it’s nice to continue to offer it for students as part of our college and career kind of readiness plan for them for students thinking about again life after high school,” Nelson said.

Volk said she felt the college fair was helpful to her by getting information on what colleges are looking for.

“I found it helpful because the colleges I’m interested in, it tells me what they want from me and like what they have that I would like to use in my future,” Volk said.

Nelson said the college fair offers a variety of options when it comes to post-secondary education, which helps students get an idea of what they want for their future.

“It’s that first exploration for some kids because we have ninth and tenth graders go, maybe it’s their first chance kind of thinking ahead to what life might be like after high school and kind of thinking of that post secondary track that they might be taking and the variety of different schools,” Nelson said. “At the college fair there’s everything from Aveda Institute to two year schools to four year schools and so it’s nice for them to see the variety of different options that are available.”

Volk said she was excited to see some of the smaller colleges in the area that peaked her interest.

“I guess the colleges that I’d rather want to go to, so more of like the smaller schools in Minnesota not just like big universities like division one schools just like smaller ones that are you know that are around town,” Volk said.

Volk said she found the college fair helpful and gained knowledge on what the colleges are looking for and would attend again.

“I gained from attending the college fair seeing like what all the colleges are looking for in a future student and what their expectations are from a high schooler  and just like seeing all the schools and seeing just like all the people looking at different schools,” Volk said.