{"id":3198,"date":"2025-05-19T14:16:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T18:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/?p=3198"},"modified":"2025-05-20T10:18:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:18:26","slug":"how-to-do-a-college-fair-gronk-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/blog\/how-to-do-a-college-fair-gronk-style\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0643\u064a\u0641\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0645\u0644 \u0645\u0639\u0631\u0636 \u0644\u0644\u0643\u0644\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u063a\u0631\u0627\u0631 GRONK-Style"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, so I missed watching the New England Patriots play in the Superbowl this week and watching my favorites, TB12 and Gronk, crush their opponents. While I admire their antics off the field, I loved their competitive streaks when playing. They demonstrated many valuable skills that can be applied when approaching a college fair! Like with any game plan, preparation is the key to success!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two ways to attend\u200b\u200b college fairs:<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nacacattend.org\/fairs\/in-person-college-fairs?utm_source=MarketingCloud&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=January+2025+Counselor+Newsletter&amp;utm_content=virtual+and+in-person+college+fairs\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in person<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nacacattend.org\/fairs\/virtual-fairs?utm_source=MarketingCloud&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=January+2025+Counselor+Newsletter&amp;utm_content=virtual+and+in-person+college+fairs\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">virtually<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nacacattend.org\/fairs?utm_source=MarketingCloud&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=January+2025+Counselor+Newsletter&amp;utm_content=virtual+and+in-person+college+fairs\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NACAC <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">offers both options, and you may also have one at your school or nearby. Your guidance counselor or college counselor can provide that information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>First,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> get to the fair early to be on time when the doors open. If virtual, make sure to schedule appointments ahead of time and be in the queue before the meeting starts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Second<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, know your offense, opponent, defense, and coaches and research the list of all the schools attending the fair.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offense &#8211; If in person, get a room chart, if possible, and start at the back of the room first and move toward the front. Everyone else starts at the front of the room, so you\u2019ll be stuck in the same blob of people hoping to beat the crowds to talk to your favorite school. Go to your most selective or favorite school first, and wear smart\/casual clothing. And PLEASE have a firm handshake (no floppy fish!) or do an appropriate fist pump (you don\u2019t want to break anyone\u2019s bones) while looking the admissions officer in the eye<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Opponents &#8211; other students angling to get questions answered by the same influential admissions officers with whom you\u2019re hoping to speak<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Defense &#8211; anticipate your opponents\u2019 moves so you can be prepared for when you have a moment to talk one-on-one with the college officer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coaches &#8211; admissions officers for the college whose table you\u2019ve approached<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Game Plan:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a list of colleges in which you\u2019re certain you\u2019re interested.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there other schools that you\u2019re curious about? &#8211; in this football analogy, we\u2019ll call them the special teams since you don\u2019t know what to expect from them<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For each school, research their website (even the special teams) and take notes so you don\u2019t get all the info jumbled up with the other schools\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look at the following:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Academic programs, research and internship opportunities, study abroad programs, student life, signature programs, clubs and organizations, and traditions &#8211; anything you\u2019re curious about that you\u2019d want to be involved with during your next academic chapter.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now ask yourself: Did I see or hear about something unique? Did I like most of everything but am unsure about something else? Was there a burning question about the academic program that would make me choose this school over another <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IF <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it had that one missing element?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Admissions &#8211; do they have a minimum average standardized test score for accepted students? Do they prioritize Early Action students over Regular Decision applicants for spots in the incoming class? What percentage of the entire class is usually admitted in the EDI and EDII rounds?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Write those questions down, PER SCHOOL, on a notebook page, a piece of heavy paper, or your phone. When you get through your opponents and have used your offensive (not offensive \ud83e\udd2a) skills to navigate the defense, and your moment has arrived, you\u2019re ready to get the intel from that admissions officer you so preciously seek\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As with a good offense, you\u2019ll also need some tools in your pocket. Make yourself a QR code on your phone before the fair. There are plenty of free options online. To that QR code, you can attach a PDF of your resume and your contact info. The admissions officer can then scan your QR code and instantly include you in their database as being clever and cool enough to know this technology existed (obvi \ud83d\ude09). You did an awesome job demonstrating interest! If you\u2019re doing a virtual college fair, have your resume handy if you want to attach it to your registration with a specific school.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IMPORTANT! Make sure to do the following while meeting with the admissions officer:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get their contact info so you can send a quick follow-up text or email (that day, if possible, for some really big cred and to show you\u2019re organized and on it!) thanking them for the time they spent talking with you and letting them know how much you enjoyed learning about x___.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manage your time &#8211; as much as you want to hang out with the Notre Dame team and talk about the Fighting Irish, you also have other schools you want to check out. You don\u2019t want to be that person to get a red flag for hogging the table while also making a bad impression. If you plan on 5 minutes of quality discussion with an admission officer per school, that\u2019s a success! Then, you&#8217;ll have made an impressive statement by re-engaging later in the day with a thoughtful text\/email! Don\u2019t worry. After the fair, you\u2019ll have time to digest all the information you gleaned.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And as Gronk (who was in the National Honor Society, fyi) said:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cJust like any other game we&#8217;re taking on, we&#8217;ve got to prepare, prepare hard, mentally, physically.\u201d <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have fun at the fair. Spike that ball!! Let\u2019s GO!!!<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, so I missed watching the New England Patriots play in the Superbowl this week and watching my favorites, TB12 and Gronk, crush their opponents. While I admire their antics off the field, I loved their competitive streaks when playing. They demonstrated many valuable skills that can be applied when approaching a college fair! Like [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":3199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[98,87,140,175,176,138,124],"topic":[208,212],"class_list":["post-3198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wise-insights","tag-admissions","tag-application","tag-college-decisions","tag-college-fair","tag-college-visits","tag-early-college","tag-visits","topic-college","topic-school"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2025-02-11-at-4.06.50\u202fPM.png","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 17:16:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4979,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions\/4979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3198"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcmillaneducationinternational.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}