First time at an Education Fair :)

picture by Mosieur J.

It's the post-exam season and all the ex- SPM, Form 6 and A level students are deciding what courses they're gonna take. After a lot of sweat, tears, debating, praying and deliberation, I can say with some relief that I've chosen my courses for public universities. (More on that in my next post.) However, one always needs a plan B...in the event where either one would get a less preferred course/didn't get anything at all, there's still many private colleges to choose from. Taking advantage of increased college advertising in the week after SPM results were released and free admission :D, me and my Dad decided to take the plunge and find out what all the hype about education fairs was all about. Since there was no youth service on the 24th, off to Mid Valley we went to check out the Further Studies and Education Fair, Series 35.

 picture from doctorjob. Haha, you get the idea of how huge + crowded it was :D

PS. Note before posting: After an unannounced month of procrastinating from the blog, I'm back :) And for the missing 4 weeks there's gonna be 4 replacement blog posts, meaning at least 8 posts in April. Disciplined writing attempt for the win :D

When we were there, took like about 15-20 minutes to find parking, then another ten finding where the lift lobby was. Rusa masuk concrete jungle case here. 

After finding our bearings aka the lift lobby, it was pretty straightforward. The moment we arrived on the 3rd floor and saw a swarming crowd of looks-like-SPM-leavers all heading in one direction, we knew we were in the right place...

Walking into MVEC, the sheer size of the crowd overwhelmed me. The strategy that I thought of in my head previously about tapping college counselors' shoulders to ask in a mousy voice "Can I know more about your ... course?" vanished into thin air. To be honest, I got pretty tense and had to go outside for air. (Whoops, did I tell you that I get uncomfortable in massive crowds? One can feel so invisible in there, but disappearing was precisely what was on my mind then!)

Thank God Dad helped me. He said "Let me take the lead" and things got much smoother after that.

this pic was for The Star Edu Fair...similar layout just that the colleges all in different places. 

We went to the booths of college after college (okay, maybe just 6 colleges) asking the respective counselors about life in college, course information, transport and scholarship options etc. The counselors were different; some were friendly, some trying hard to sell their college, some laid back and chatty. There was this lecturer that was so honest and real with me that I'd to admit it was such a rare sight (I mean, he's supposed to promote his college!). He shared his own experience and even encouraged me to apply for public uni first to save my dad's hard earned cash. Now that's an educator. I have his name card (as well as some of the other counselors) so in the event the public uni reject me, got la some folks to call :D

Hmm, thoughts about the fair?

At a glance, it was mostly tailored for SPM leavers. It took a while for some of the colleges to find a counselor that can straight away tell me details on the degree courses. Most counselors there were tackling pre-u concerns, so if you're an SPM leaver and intend to find out more about particular course(s), this fair would be perfect for you :) We didn't come home empty handed though - we came home with advice, brochures, resources (especially from the Doctorjob booth giving away free mags for the first 500...we got'em xD) and contacts to put to good uses.

was here ftw :) sitting on the left with Dad in the front row. Career talks by doctorjob...this one is Ms. Michele Lam on career decisions.

PS. If you're blur all over and not sure which course you want at all(like me after SPM lol) then I would suggest you go for some counseling/psychological tests/advice from others first at least to get a general direction before going to such fairs. You may be absolutely clueless on what to do there (happened before, had experience with a college open day like that)

promo sikit :)