excellent chance to meet with potential students and their parents. "It's the experience of a lifetime,'' said Endicott College's Director of Admissions, Sharon Woodbury. "We have attended the College fair in the past and met a nice breadth and depth of student which is why we go. We have a good rapport with excellent schools and we get to personally speak with perspective students and their parents. "Bermudians add a wonderful mix to Endicott's student body; they add a wonderful diversity. They're always very bright and very polite -- just wonderful students. And because we have students from 43 countries, we are quite well-versed to helping those who are away from home adjust to college life. "Our students also benefit through the required internship programme we have. At the end of it, they have career references which can help solidify their major choice. We offer it all.'' According to assistant director of admissions at the University of South Carolina, Scott King, the Fair is an excellent opportunity for Bermudians to discover all that his institution has to offer. "We're a comprehensive university and we offer over eighty degree programmes,'' he said. "Everything from the very specialised to the professional degree. We have a four-year hotel/restaurant and tourism administration programme and they can transfer here from the (Bermuda) College and get their Bachelor's degree in a hospitality-type major or in pretty much any of the other programmes. In two years they have very ample qualifications to get an entry level position in the industry because that programme is so strong. So we would like to establish a liaison with the College. "Diversity is what the Bermudian student adds to our campus. At any given, time we have between two and three Bermudians and we're trying to increase those numbers. One of our major draws is our accessibility from Bermuda. Being in the Carolinas means we're close by points that are familiar to many Bermudians. We participated in the Fair last year and have a student coming in the Spring as a result. We're just hoping to make students aware that we are here and that we are an alternative educational opportunity.'' A diverse student body and a host of majors are some of the benefits one can expect if attending the American University of Paris, said Candace McLaughlin, the institute's assistant director of admissions. "We offer a lot of different majors;'' she said. "international business, economics, communications, French and art history are some of them. And so we thought they would learn more about the school and perhaps see it as an opportunity to continue their post-secondary education in Europe if that's of interest to them. The school is only 30 percent American and 15 percent French. The rest are from 90 different countries. "We participated in the Fair for the first time last year and had a fairly good response. Our Paris office recruits all over the world; the US office is normally just for the United States and Canada but since Bermuda's not far away, we decided to include it.'' Said Daryl Perry, assistant director of admissions at Florida's St. Thomas University: "We're located right outside the city of Miami, in Dade County.

We see Bermuda as a natural market as a lot of Bermudian students and their families travel to Southern and Central Florida so they are very familiar with the area. "We have an excellent academic programme and we've gotten a lot of attention from students and families alike. In fact, one of the students who attended last year's programme came and looked at our campus just last week.

We have a campus of only 1400 undergraduates, so we're very small and our students get a lot of individual attention. It's just one of the things that make us special. We're a community. Students know the faculty on a first name basis and vice versa. "We're a comprehensive university in a small town setting. We offer programmes in specific areas such as hospitality and tourism management, sports administration, we have a marketing business programme. At the completion of the programme, we want our students to be balanced and focused. But for the Fair, we just want to educate families and students to the many educational opportunities available to them. We don't care where you ultimately select -- although we would love it if you chose us -- the bottom line is us helping students further their education. We just want to provide a service to families and help them make better informed choices if we can.'' This marks the fourth year that the University of Kent at Canterbury has participated in the Fair, according to admissions director, Mary Hedges.

"Because Kent law school has a good programme there are a lot of Bermudians here,'' she explained, "so we go to Bermuda to recruit. We have quite a number of Bermudian students here and the Fair offers a great chance for students to see all that the universities are offering.'' Said Temple University's assistant director of admissions, Linda de Simone: "It's our fourth year attending the Fair and we find it very profitable. It's a wonderful way to meet a lot of Bermudian students, counsellors and education officers. Temple is an international university and we have students from 100 foreign countries and campuses overseas. It allows us to have a global perspective so it is important for us to seek students from outside the United States. We have 107 majors and we have Bermudian students every year who come; both from highschool and who transfer from other institutions.'' Principal of Whitney Institute, Gail Graham, said she thought the Fair provided her students with a tremendous opportunity. "It's a tremendous thing,'' she said.

"All too often students don't know of the various schools available, particularly on the East Coast. Most of our students are looking to first go to prep schools or junior college but (at the Fair) they get information on course availability, entry requirements and living conditions. It's a very easy way for them to do it instead of first finding names and then going to the various institutions and making choices and selections. This way they can make decisions here and it doesn't cost them anything. We've always taken our students to it and a number of them have gotten valuable information out of it.'' Agreed Kennette Smith, guidance counsellor at the Berkeley Institute: "It enables them to make initial contacts which help them decide what they want to do. They get to get printed literature on courses and have the opportunity to speak with someone from that school that could give them insightful information as to what they can expect and what's required as far as admissions criteria. Most of our students tend to do a post-graduate year or go to a boarding school when they finish here but this gives them some idea as to where they can go after.'' PHOTO Whitney Institute principal, Gail Graham BERMUDA COLLEGE BDC MINI SUPPLEMENT SUP