Lazy Fairs

I am always suspicious of websites that have odd and informal names, such as “studyabroad.com” or “name123.org”. Sometimes, as it so happened today, the odd named website belongs to a legitimate organization, one that aims to ease the flow of bright young students from third world countries to the beautiful west. Let’s call the organizers Quack, for simplicity, held an education fair at an overly glamorous hotel sporting posters saying, “ALL students make it to high paying jobs,” and “ALL students guaranteed work permits and citizenship.” These guarantees also make me suspicious.

While the plush carpets and the quietness of the ballroom did not fail to enchant me, I was immensely bothered by the limited programs being offered and most importantly, the use of old brochures that had neither the right in available programs, nor in country of focus (let me just say, best to highlight student successes of Bangladesh if you are holding the fair here– especially since the organization has been here for the last ten years). Add to that, none of the featured programs offered any form of financial aid. Not that they mentioned it in the brochures, it was there in the website which I checked later.

Quite a waste of afternoon, really. But it did get better when I had some uber delicious ice-cream (oreo flavoured, what do you think?) at the overly glamorous hotel with an unbelievably nice Him.

Sumaiya R. © 2010