The annual Alumni College Fair, which was held on Jan. 19, gave sophomores and juniors the chance to hear the inside scoop on college life from QSI alumni. Their insights and advice covered academic and financial issues as well as social life on campus and students had a range of take-aways.

After listening to some alumni, sophomore Ahmad Mohabir felt relieved that he wouldn’t be stuck in a major he didn’t like.

“If you’re in college you have the opportunity to change what you want to do. I mean you can change your major,” said Mohabir. “That’s good because you can explore different fields and find out what you’re really passionate about.”

And taking a variety of classes can also help you after college.

“Kayla Cousin (class of 2021) who attends SUNY Oneonta said she was doing animation and explained that if you’re getting into any field of art, you should do a little bit of everything in art to have experience,” said Christian Olivares, a sophomore. “And if you get hired and they need someone who can draw, you can draw and if they need someone who can do animation, you can do animation.”

Beyond academics, students had their questions about how to finance college answered.

“It really surprised me how it’s actually possible to be able to attend an expensive and prestigious university like NYU without having to necessarily pay thousands and thousands of dollars,” said Angely Ramirez, a junior.

Alumni pointed out that the financial burden of college can also be lessened for students if they’re able to take classes at Queens College (QC) during their junior and senior years. According to Kionna Pannazzo (class of 2019) who graduated from Ithaca College last May, all of her credits from QC were accepted. When colleges accept these credits, it can save students money because it puts them on track to complete college in fewer than four years.

“Many alumni said that instead of taking classes that they didn’t need to, they were able to go right into their major because of the amount of credits they had,”  said Ramirez.

Alumni gave advice about other benefits of taking college classes during high school.

“The [students] from Stony Brook kind of encouraged me to take more college classes to make my transcript look better,” said Farabi Shahin, a junior.

And Pannazzo also told students how taking college classes while she was in high school taught her “the importance of syllabi, building relationships with professors, utilizing the library, attending office hours, and being integrated in campus activities.” 

One topic that most students were very interested in was about the social life at college. Alumni advised students to consider social life on campus when choosing between colleges, noting that at schools with limited social environments, students may miss out on the traditional college experience.

Amir Madmoune (class of 2018), who graduated from Wheaton College in 2021 described the social life as being “all self-driven because it’s a dorming school.” His advice was to first, “attend everything that seems interesting” and then narrow it down to seven things, including classes. 

“They said that you can join a lot of different clubs that interest you but you shouldn’t join too many or else you’ll be overwhelmed,” said Mohabir. “One person told me that they joined a culinary club and they exchanged food with thei

r roommates. Like one would cook and another person would cook food and they would just exchange.” 

Samantha Oest (class of 2023) attends SUNY Purchase College and shared that she joined theater.

“She told us that you had to take risks and talked about having a theater career and people, like critics, are not going to like you but that doesn’t matter because you just can’t care about what people say,” said Olivares.

According to school counselor, Lindsey Sequeira, the purpose of the event was to “promote networking, mentorship, and community building, while also providing valuable insights into the college experience and post-graduate life.” 

This year, alumni from 17 different schools attended, nine of them public and eight private. Sequeira included alumni from schools “outside of the CUNY system” to expose students to a “broader range of colleges.”

“I guess it definitely helped with deciding on which colleges I am going to apply [to],” said Shahin. 

Sophomore Mayesa Tasnim agreed with Shahin, but not all students did. 

“I got some ideas of what the colleges that I want to apply to would be like but not an overall better idea of where I exactly want to go,” said junior Brady Arena.