Given a few minutes at best to forge a connection, answer questions and affect a young person's life, college recruiters at a college fair have their work cut out for them.
Representatives of 49 arts schools from around the nation descended on Interlochen Arts Academy's Kresge Auditorium Monday afternoon to share about their undergraduate and graduate programs in music, theater, graphic design, dance and visual arts. Schools represented included the Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Columbia College Chicago and Oberlin Conservatory.
Handing out glossy brochures, encouraging passers by to fill out info cards and fielding questions at a rapid pace, the recruiters talked to 500 Interlochen summer campers and another 100 people from the region.
"My mission is to answer questions and help them sort out what would be best for them — it may not be here but if I can help them I will,” said John Martin, admissions director for the college of music at Michigan State University. "They come in with lots of ideas and we try to help.”
Veteran recruiter Jo Faulmann of the Frost School of Music noted how the internet has altered the college selection process during her career. While face-to-face meetings and answering specific questions are still key, the students also want to gather information on their own time.
"I'm here to answer questions and get them to our web site — that's a huge, huge thing,” she said. "This is a really, really good fair because we have a captive audience here, these are the kids who want to devote their life to the arts.”
Andrea Kroesing, a third year student at Northwestern Michigan College, will complete her second associate's degree next spring and plans to transfer the following fall to a larger college. A visual artist who has already worked in graphic design, she attended the college fair with her mother and grandmother to explore options.
"I looked on the web [at schools] and it was actually nice to be able to talk to someone in person,” said the 2005 Traverse City West High School graduate. "I was asking about transferring credits and they had the answers for me.”
Kroesing has narrowed her focus to the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Savannah College of Art and Design and Columbus College of Art and Design. Leaning toward the College for Creative Studies, which did not attend the fair, she was pleased to learn more about the other two.
"I actually wanted to come here and get more information on the others,” she said.
When Michaela Shaw attended the college fair last summer, she surfed over all the information offered feeling slightly overwhelmed. This year, the California high school senior completing her second year as an Interlochen camper is ready for details. She had specific questions for recruiters at specific schools, including the Peabody Institute and what they offered in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University.
"I'm specifically looking at either conservatories with double degree programs with universities or at universities with double degree options,” said Shaw, a harpist who also wants to major in French or international studies.
Coming from a smaller school with a graduating class of 54 students, Lauren Beale of Frankfort attended the fair to gather information on film programs. A camper at Interlochen in the Motion Picture Arts program, Beale and her mother, Abby, appreciated having so many arts schools in one place.
"This is great, because most of the schools that come to Frankfort are there for athletics,” said Lauren, who will be a senior at Frankfort High School this fall.
Although they did wish that more recruiters knew about the film programs at their respective schools.
"This is mostly for music and theater students but a lot of them are at least able to give an idea of what the film program has to offer,” said Abby Beale.