Definitions of College Fair Types

Illinois Regional College Fairs

Illinois Regional Fairs are programs hosted at community college or college sites, or alternating high school sites; they are planned and implemented by several high schools from the area, along with an on-site director from the host venue. These programs are truly “owned and operated” by the schools that form their Planning Committee. Colleges and universities pay registration fees for these programs. These fees are used to offset some of the costs incurred by the host institution, and to guarantee a certain level of operating quality. Illinois Regional Fair registration will be available on the IACAC website in early June.

NACAC Fairs

NACAC fairs are sponsored throughout the country by our national organization – the National Association for College Admission Counseling. They tend to draw a national group of colleges and universities and are quite large in nature. We have listed, in the calendar, our own Chicago NACAC fair, as well as those occurring in our surrounding states.

IACAC Recognized Fairs

All IACAC recognized fairs will be required to offer/use StriveScan student scanning at their events. StriveScan is a student scanning tool that is at no cost to you as the colleges/universities pay to access this feature. Students can access a QR code on a mobile device or use a print-out if mobile devices are prohibited in your building. Fair host training with the StriveScan staff will be required to ensure its success.

IACAC Recognized programs must meet at least one of the following criteria:

1. A program that is planned and executed by 3 or more high schools. Participating schools do not host duplicate college fairs.
2. A program that is attended by 500 or more students and parents and 100 or more college/university admission representatives.
3. A program that, at a minimum, accommodates students from an entire community college district or from an Illinois state regional school district. Participating schools do not host duplicate college fairs.

A post-event survey to the college/university representatives will also be required in order to remain listed as an IACAC Recognized fair on our calendar.

Please note: IACAC continues to be aware of the unique issues surrounding schools located in urban and rural areas. These college fair date requests will be reviewed by the committee and approved on an individual basis. If you have questions about this category, please reach out to icf@iacac.org.

If you are a Chicago Public School looking to host a fair, we encourage you to consider the CPS Network Fairs, held on the following dates: forthcoming. If you are not planning on attending, or not able to attend the CPS Network Fairs, please be advised that fairs are required to use Strive Scan, an approved CPS vendor, must only be 1.5 hours, and a post-event survey must be collected for future event improvements.

If your school is outside the Chicago area in central or southern Illinois and does not meet the above requirements, we encourage you to contact icf@iacac.org. We will be happy to assist in determining how best to promote your program.

For additional information, contact the Illinois College Fair Committee