Alabama State University hosted a Graduate & Professional School Fair on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the J.G. Hardy Center Ballrooms. Scouts from across the state set up booths to inform interested students in attending a graduate school once they graduate from ASU.
According to Sabrina Crowder, assistant vice president of Student Affairs/Student Engagement and Development and director of Career Services, the 2023 Graduate & Professional School Fair was designed to help students, particularly juniors and seniors, identify graduate programs from across the country.
A total of 14 schools sent a recruiter to attend the fair, including Life University, the University of Alabama, the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Clark Atlanta University, and Alabama State University set up their own booth.
“I wanted to make sure that our students are exposed to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly white institutions (PWI‘s) so they can see what is available to them once they make that decision to obtain a graduate degree or to attain a professional degree,” Crowder said.
Despite the ballroom not being packed with students looking for information, Crowder was still pleased with the turnout of students who did show up.
“I was pleased with the student turnout,” Crowder said. “I received a lot of positive feedback from the recruiters. They were impressed that from the time the school fair started up to the moment it ended, students were constantly coming into the space to speak with them.”
The recruiters were also pleased with the students who took the opportunity to speak with them and learn more about the colleges they were representing.
“The recruiters felt like our students did a good job, presenting themselves and asking some good questions about their programs,” Crowder said. “They appreciated our school fair for the simple fact that they had constant engagement with students and were able to provide application, waivers, and other pertinent information that would make the graduate or professional school application process smoother.”
Many emails were sent to students to inform them about the event, but considering that only a small percentage of the university actually attended, that may not have been enough.
“I do feel like the graduate school fair was advertising enough, but as I always like to say, there is always room for improvement to get even more students involved,” Crowder said.
Some students were even disappointed that there is no law school fair, but what they might not know is that there was one already in spring 2023.
“The law forum included law schools to recruit our students,” Crowder said. “We brought in a representative from the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) to give students vital information about taking that exam, we brought in lawyers and judges to discuss a day in the life of their profession in law, and we also invited law schools to recruit our students. We hope to do this event again in spring 2024.”
Despite these concerns, Crowder still believes that the graduate fair was a great success.
“I was pleased with the overall success,” Crowder said. “Like I said, before we had a great turn out of schools to attend and consistent engagement throughout the entire event from students. I receive positive feedback from students and recruiters. We will most definitely be having another graduate school, fair and fall 2024.”
She continued.
“I hope this graduate/professional school fair impacts the university in a positive manner by exposing our students to other universities where they can go and take their degree from ASU and compete for a graduate degree or consider coming back to ASU for the graduate degree. I also like the fact that other universities had the chance to come experience the ASU way, and see our students and see them as a valuable asset to add into any one of their graduate programs, and add even more value to their university as the students have added to ASU.”