If your dream college came to visit your high school, would you skip a math test to meet with their representative? What if it was a safety school? The possibility of this may shock you.
High school juniors and seniors have been voluntarily missing class this fall, as admissions representatives from colleges come to visit our school. When students are applying to ten schools or more and continuously missing classes, teachers are forced to rearrange their daily activities.
With most colleges being a significant ways away from Irvington, in some cases a multiple hour drive our flight. For this reason, admissions representatives from colleges and universities across the country come to Irvington so students can show some demonstrated interest and meet with the people in person who will be reviewing their application. All of these meetings are during one period, and can cause some students to miss assignments in class.
“I think that it’s very important that we go to these meetings and meet with admissions reps so I think it’s worth missing one or two classes”, Caroline Harty exclaimed.
Seniors appreciate these meetings, but they can get in the way of schoolwork. Senior Billy LeBlanc said, “As much as I appreciate college reps reaching out to our 12th grade class and helping us learn more about the college, its a really great experience. With senior grades being more important than ever, it’s imperative that we go to class so we get the grades we all want to see.
For some students, missing class is not what they are missing out on. If you are set to go to a school you see yourself at, and then it turns out you have a social studies test that same period, students are left with an important choice to make.
A majority of meetings are scheduled during periods 1, 2, and 7. As an effect, the same classes are being missed by students over and over. This leaves the same classes with gaps multiple times a week.
While some would suggest a college fair to happen, the answer is that it is harder than it seems. With thousands of colleges across the country, only a couple hundred make their way to Irvington, and these admissions fellows are on the road for multiple weeks at a time, moving from school to school. To have them all congregate at one time would be too time consuming, not factoring in the difficulty it would take to organize such a schedule.
