Starting in the first week of September, Redwood hosts representatives from colleges all over the country to speak to students. The representatives hand out college pamphlets, stickers and interest forms. The information from the sessions can make the difference between deciding to book a plane ticket to tour a campus or crossing off a school from your list of potentials. However, according to a Bark October survey, few students actively take advantage of the opportunities these visits provide, with over 50 percent of students having not yet attended a college representative presentation in the college and career center this school year.
Outside of the informative benefits one gets when attending a college representative presentation, students also get time to talk with admissions representatives. Becky Bjursten, College and Career Specialist, advises students to come to the presentations for the numerous positive takeaways.
At the end of the visits, representatives often offer time for students to ask questions. This allows students to connect with the representative and learn more about the school, as most of the representatives who present have attended the colleges and universities themselves. The representatives will take a range of questions, from asking about the average accepted grade point average, what the dorms are like, how to answer a supplemental question or if a school tracks demonstrated interest.
Demonstrated interest is an applicant’s engagement with a school, such as through email list registration or social media interaction. This can be a determinant for a school in seeing what opportunities you have taken to learn more about their college in the time leading up to your application. At the college and career center visits, representatives who track interest will have a contact form, either on paper or online, to fill out with students’ contact information.
According to U.S. News, “Of the 185 colleges and universities that reported data to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, 15.7 [percent] rated demonstrated interest as being considerably important in their admissions decisions for fall 2023.” Colleges will each use and track demonstrated interest differently and some schools don’t consider it during admissions at all. The use of it, however, can help schools gauge the chance that the acceptance letter they send out turns into enrollment for that student.
By tracking which students attend campus tours, online or on campus, what they view on the college websites and attendance to presentations like the ones offered at Redwood, colleges can try to make it so they’re not shooting an acceptance letter into the abyss. This is what makes attending the college presentations that much more important.
The visits are held before the first class of each day, at 7:45 a.m., and during lunch. A list of the schools and their designated dates is under the College and Career Center tab on the Redwood website. While the times of the college visits are set up so it’s not during class time, waking up early for the visits or eating lunch without your friends and instead spending it listening to a presentation can seem unappealing. That being said, the pros heavily outweigh the cons when it comes to the decision of attending the college representative presentations.
While going to these presentations is mainly helpful for upperclassmen who are thinking more about college, whether you are a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, you can still take away something useful from attending the college visits, and you should. While it might seem daunting to think about college, going to these visits can help students get a better feel of where they might want to go for the next level of education. Whether you plan to go to one before they end this year or set a reminder to check the schedule at the start of next year, plan to go to the College and Career Center for a college representative visit. For the 2025-2026 school year, College representative visits continue through November.
