To assist sophomores and juniors to help them connect with colleges, admission representatives, and current students, CollegeBoard has launched BigFutureDays, a regional series of virtual college fairs with registration now open for Texas and its regional event on March 30.

“Student Search Service is a free voluntary program connecting students with information about educational and financial aid opportunities from eligible colleges, universities, scholarships, and other educational programs,” College and Career Facilitator Leslie Thompson said. “When you opt into Student Search Service, the information that you have provided on your answer sheet and score range from your CollegeBoard exams may be shared with colleges and universities. Students are required to join Student Search Service to register for BigFuture Days and their information is shared with colleges they interact with during BigFuture Days and organizations participating in Student Search Service.”

There are four different BigFutureDay virtual events for four regions across the country: West + Southwest, Southeast, Northeast, and Midwest. Students can attend as many regions as they like from their devices.

“I think this can benefit me because it is basically a college search, but organized by the most influential education organization in the country, so this will make the process more effective and efficient,” sophomore Ishayu Gupta said. “I think meeting with college representatives is important however, I think meeting with current students is more important because they truly go through the college experience and how life is on their own. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to attend one of these virtual college fairs. I will probably create a spreadsheet with my list of colleges and whether or not they are a reach school, target school, or a safety school for me.”

Although the event is meant for high school sophomores and juniors, younger and older students are also welcome to attend as well as parents/guardians.

“I feel like CollegeBoard’s initiative to start these virtual college fairs will be very helpful to students because it’d give us a deeper and more clear understanding of what we look for in colleges and what colleges look for in us,” freshman Gousikaa Suresh said. “It’s important to plan ahead and narrow down your college choices because once you’ve done that it’ll give you more time to think about what that specific college you chose and how you can prepare for your future in that college. Right now, Im a freshman so I’m mainly focusing on my classes, my extracurriculars, my interests, but I’m slowly planning towards what colleges I want to attend.”