Every year, Schreiber offers seniors the opportunity to attend visits by different college representatives. These ambassadors come from universities all across the country. Nearly every day, details about college rep visits are listed on the morning announcements..
These announcements also remind seniors to inform their teachers before attending a representative visit or a college fair, as otherwise they may be marked absent from class. However, in some circumstances, teachers have been prohibiting their students from attending. This has led to minor disputes between faculty and seniors.
Choosing colleges to apply to can be a very difficult decision for any senior. In 2015, 36 percent of graduating applicants applied to seven or more universities. There are almost 6,000 colleges in the United States, meaning that seniors must choose schools carefully.. That said, any information a student receives about a university may be highly influential to their ultimate selections. Both college fairs and representative visits are significant for this reason.
Most students and teachers agree that students should be allowed to attend them, in general.
“If the student has all of their work completed, then I’d definitely let them go,” said social studies teacher Ms. Rashha Sahibzada.
Both college visits and college fairs are key aspects of the opportunities provided to the graduating class, but students are unable to take advantage of these opportunities unless teachers allow them to attend.
Due to these restrictions, many current seniors haven’t even considered attending fairs and rep visits.
From a teacher’s viewpoint, there are plenty of reasons as to why a student shouldn’t be attending a college visit. For example, an important assignment may be due during the same period as the event. It might seem disrespectful if a student chooses to leave class to attend a fair and the teacher may see it as a distraction to the class if students are constantly leaving and returning.
Similarly, students may have a test, or be preparing for an upcoming one. They might be torn between going to the fair or staying in class. There’s also a chance that the student has an important project, one that’s worth a large portion of their grade, and the teacher is worried about whether the student will find the time to study.
Some faculty members make it extremely difficult to make up missed classwork, and sometimes it isn’t easy to help students relearn material. It can be hard to balance between these fairs and missed classes, especially ones where you may need to make up work.
Still, even if a student is taking an advanced class, they should still be able to attend. Some students take these classes for the sole purpose of getting into a good school. If the students aren’t able to view and evaluate the colleges they may apply to in the future, their chances of getting into that college may drop.
“They should be able to go for the most part, unless there’s a test in the class,” said senior Leila Hay.
Every teacher in Schreiber wants their students to succeed, and prohibiting them from attending these visits isn’t to harm their odds of getting accepted into university. Sometimes, the teacher may even be right in preventing them from going, as a student’s academic studies and participation in extracurriculars are arguably the most important aspects of a collegiate resume.
“I think that, besides grades, being involved in various different fields, like sports or clubs, makes people stand out,” said band teacher Mr. Shane Helfner.
There is a strong argument on both sides, but we think that it should be mandatory for teachers to allow their students to attend both representative visits and college fairs. These are exceptional opportunities provided by Schreiber to the graduating classes, and seniors should always be able to take advantage of what’s given to help them, no matter the circumstances.