In case you haven’t noticed the new desks at the cafeteria this year, there are now college visits four days a week taking place at the cafeteria. This change comes after declining attendance to the old system of college visits.
Under the previous set of rules students would have to sign up ahead of time in order to meet with colleges visiting the high school. Oftentimes students would have to miss valuable class time just for the purpose of looking into a college they have interest in. The new system aims to rectify these issues.
“Now we’re trying to get the college reps two times a day during all lunch periods. So someone from Slippery Rock would be at a table during periods Five, Six, and Seven,” counselor Mrs. Shauna Hunt said.
The change was made in an effort to increase the outreach of the colleges who are visiting. Under the old system, the vast majority of the student population was unaware of the opportunity to visit with a college during school hours.
“We had declining attendance for the past five years for those who actually came to the visits and sometimes meetings were getting canceled because no one showed up,” Mrs. Hunt said.
Additionally, the old rule that you could only visit five schools in a year has now been abolished.
“Now you will no longer be limited to five schools because you’re not missing class time”.
Due to different colleges being set up at the cafeteria, the military recruiters will now have to take a backseat.
“The military is going to have to split with themselves. We’re asking the military not to come more than one time a month. So it might be a Navy and a college or maybe two colleges, but we’re trying to avoid having two services at the same time,”
Despite the optimism surrounding the new change, there have been some growing pains.
“Most of the colleges don’t even stay until the end of the period which defeats the whole purpose. It’s just awkward trying to find a point in the beginning of the period to check things out when you are waiting to be called up for lunch,“ senior Jack Salego said.
For the teachers who work near the cafeteria, the solution for students lies in being more clear about how long these colleges will actually be staying at the cafeteria.
“I think counseling did a good job with the new system. I have noticed there may need to be more clarity regarding the messaging. Sometimes colleges are here for all three lunch periods, but sometimes colleges are only at the cafeteria for an hour so we just need some consistency. Whether that be a standardized routine, or having more detailed announcements about college visits,” GATE teacher Christina Paladino said.
Despite that, as far as the administration is concerned, the new visiting program has been a step in the right direction.
“I think it is going well so far. The colleges are certainly exposed to a larger amount of students. The students are able to see as many schools as they want this way and it does not have to be scheduled or come at the cost of missing class.” Mrs. Hunt said.
