Throughout each school year, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) hosts a traveling college fair that typically features reps from at least 200 schools around the country as well as workshops about financial aid and choosing the right college. They attempt to hit most of the major metropolitan areas in order to serve as many students as possible and hopefully there is one in your town in the near future.
Here is a schedule for the Spring 2011 circuit. They are starting in Pittsburgh on February 3rd and will be bouncing around the east coast, Texas, California and Hawai'i until May 1st. The rest of the country is covered during their Fall circuit, which starts each September.
At these college fairs you can expect lots of crowds, especially at the tables of popular schools. But if you are patient and persistent you will eventually get to talk to the admissions rep behind the table to ask your pressing questions. If you're like me, though, it's more palatable to just pick up brochures from colleges of interest and call an admissions rep directly at another time, when you can have their full attention.
If your child is interested strictly in performing or visual arts colleges, please check back in the fall for the college fairs specifically for that subcategory. (If this is the case, I also suggest you look into National Portfolio Day events, but that is a whole 'nother post.)
The NACAC website also contains lots of valuable articles, book reviews and other resources for prospective college students and their parents. There are even links to college admissions-related blogs, podcasts and social networking. They also have the Steps to College newsletter designed to "introduce and reinforce the issues students tend to neglect."
I highly recommend you take a few minutes to see what they offer.
