I arrive at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on Monday at 6:25 p.m., five minutes before the sixth annual College Fair starts. A student volunteer hands me a blue reusable grocery bag for my fliers, which I gratefully accept. There’s a huge crowd of people waiting outside O’Brien hall and at first I panic, thinking I’m going to have to wait in line just to get inside. But thankfully, at 6:30 the doors open and the crowd slowly starts to file in.

O’Brien Hall is huge, and smells slightly like a past event that may or may not have involved alcohol. It’s fine, though, because my attention is very quickly diverted to not crashing into the San Dieguito Union High School District students and families streaming through the door.

In front of me in the hall are rows upon rows of tables, behind which representatives from the colleges stand, bedecked in their college colors. Many of them are local alumni, while others work for the college admissions offices. In total there are over 200 colleges represented.

I look at my dad to see if we have a game plan and I’m not disappointed. He tells me he’s looked at the list of colleges and knows which ones we should talk to, then heads off. I have to run to keep up.

It takes us the next hour to get through all the colleges. Starting at the end of one row, we begin to wind ourselves through the tables, stopping at any interesting ones to grab a flier or ask a quick question. For me, those questions would be regarding the strength of their science program (no matter what college you ask, you won’t get worse than a “good” science program, apparently) or the atmosphere on campus, but I heard others asking about the admissions process, or financial aid, or anything in between (such as my social dad, who quizzed the poor representatives about their own majors and lives).

By the end of the night I had also perfected my polite nod, which I used every time I accidently caught the eye of a college representative who I didn’t want to talk to, and my polite “no thank you,” which I used when offered a flier I didn’t want. Occasionally, I had to resort to more than a polite no because some of those reps can be pushy.

Mixed in with the college tables were tables advertising SAT prep companies, financial aid companies and summer programs. The college fair also offered three college-led information sessions for the students and parents about the UC admissions process and choosing college majors.

By the end of the night my feet hurt (okay, maybe because I was wearing heels) and my reusable bag was so full of fliers that I felt like it was filled with rocks. But it’s okay, because by the time I left I’d learned about new colleges to consider, and expanded my knowledge of colleges I’d previously heard of.