The annual Seattle NACAC College Fair, held at the Washington State Convention Center, is coming Nov. 4. The fair will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Nov. 4, and 12 to 4 p.m., Nov. 5.

When students preregister for the event online, a personalized bar code is created that can be printed out and brought to the fair. Scanning the barcode simplifies the process for everyone since the demographic data, test scores and academic interests can quickly be entered at each booth that the student visits, freeing up time to ask questions of the representatives.

Families might want to go to the NACAC website and follow the links to college fairs to see the entire list of schools scheduled to attend. I suggest that students as early as freshman or sophomore year attend the fair, just to get an idea of the types of college options that are available throughout the country.

If you have ever been to a college fair, you know that there will be hundreds of families and students lined up to ask questions. In order to make your visit worthwhile, make time before attending the fair to research which school reps you particularly want to meet with.

Ideally, you might want to read up on some of these schools in order to come prepared to ask questions that go beyond the basic information provided on the schools’ websites. Since many of these schools are outside of our state, I always like to ask how easy it is to travel to the campus, knowing that students are generally on their own after freshman year, when their parents drop them off.

Sponsors are asking that students preregister for this event by going to www.gotomycf.com.

Joan Franklin is the owner of MI College Support (formerly The College Source), an independent college counseling practice. She can be reached at (206) 232-5626 or joanfranklin@micollegesupport.org.