Shopping for College

The scene in Atlanta's Civic Center resembled an industrial trade show as hundreds of customers drifted past display booths festooned with bright banners and posters. A revolving display in one booth vied for attention with a video-tape demonstration next door. Some salesmen engaged visitors hi animated discussion, while others passed out catalogues and brochures. The products they were promoting were not power boats or automobiles but colleges. Their customers were 1,000 high school students and their parents, drawn to the city's first national college fair.

Similar fairs are taking place hi other cities, sponsored by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (N.A.C.A.C.). The fairs are higher education's newest tactic to combat a downturn in the rate of enrollment that threatens the survival of dozens of colleges--most of them private--and the financial stability of many more. Some 150 institutions, from Boston University (enrollment: 15,000) to North Carolina's Davidson College (1,100) paid $150 to set up booths for the daylong fair. Representatives of the American College Testing Program and the Veterans Administration were also on hand to advise students on financial aid, special benefits and testing. "The bits-and-pieces approach to college shopping just wasn't working," says N.A.C.A.C. Executive Director Ted Cooper. "Now we have put together a real educational marketplace. This is where students get all the answers."

Although the fairs have been faulted by some educators for "hucksterism," most parents and students find them a valuable and timesaving means of getting information. As Abdul Rehman Amlani, 22, a Pakistani student interested in computer studies, put it: "It saves writing all those letters. You meet the admissions directors personally, and you can find out about financial aid."

College officials are also enthusiastic. In one day at a fair, an admissions officer can see an average of 200 students --a total that in traditional recruiting procedures would require some three weeks of traveling. But that has not made the selling job any easier. Says John Lhidell, director of admissions at Atlanta's Massey Junior College: "If you want a coat, you go to a shopping center. You shop price, quality. There is a lot more importance to shopping for a college. These kids are not going to take the first thing they're offered, because they know what's available now."

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