Fair a starting point for freshmen

Shelby Smith and her mom went college shopping Sunday at UNO's Sapp Fieldhouse, but they weren't buying — at least not yet.

“There are just so many good schools out there,” the Plattsmouth High School senior said. “I change my mind every week.”

Smith also is having a hard time deciding on a major. She is interested in sports medicine but also likes musical theater.

“Sometimes I change my college (choice) depending on what career I'm leaning toward,” she said.

Sheri Smith just hopes her daughter is happy with her final choice of colleges, although she has one requirement of her own.

“I would like a school a little closer to home,” Sheri Smith said. “She's been talking about L.A. and New York.”

The college fair at the University of Nebraska at Omaha attracted more than 160 institutions. It's an annual event put on by the Education Quest Foundation.

“We want to give students and their families a starting point in choosing a school,” Brad Brown, the fair's co-chairman, said.

Brown said between 3,500 and 4,000 students visit the Omaha fair each year.

Kelly Hudek, a junior at Millard West High School who attended the event with her mom, Katie, liked the variety of schools represented at the fair.

“I kind of know what colleges in Nebraska have to offer, but today I got to see a bunch of schools that I had never been introduced to before,” Kelly Hudek said.

The future engineering student said she has been considering the University of Nebraska-Lincoln but the Missouri University of Science and Technology caught her interest Sunday.

“They seem to have a good (engineering) program, and I also liked their music program,” she said. “I play the cello.”

The number of schools at the fair was instrumental in attracting 25 students from Columbus High School, according to school counselor Carol Hess.

“There is a (college) fair in Columbus, but it's a lot smaller and we don't get a lot of the national schools,” Hess said. “For a lot of the kids, this is a first exposure to some new places.”

The Columbus students were given a sheet of possible questions to help them in their quest.

Matt Huber, a recruiter for Doane College in Crete, Neb., said three years of working the Omaha college fair has given him a pretty good idea of the No. 1 question.

“They want to know about scholarships,” Huber said. “They also want to know what majors we offer, where we're located and all the rest of the basics.”

Recruiting has been going well for Doane, Huber said.

The school of about 900 students welcomed its largest freshmen class (313 students) this year.

Contact the writer:

444-1272, kevin.cole@owh.com