Some people may not associate scholars with fairs, but Thursday, Jan. 21, the two will come together in the Haley Center lobby.
The event is the Auburn University Law School Fair and it will be hosted by the Pre-Law Scholars Program.
"It's an opportunity for students interested in entering law school to meet with representatives on a personal level," said Dorothy Littleton, a political science professor and director of the Pre-Law Program. "Each school will have a table and at least one representative and materials available for distribution."
Littleton said the event will feature representatives from 43 different law schools from all over the country.
Students can expect to talk to admissions officers from well established law schools such as the University of Georgia School of Law and Vanderbilt University Law School or brand new programs such as Atlanta's John Marshall Law School.
The Law School Fair is the first event of its type the Pre-Law Scholars Program has hosted.
Littleton said she thinks the Law School Fair will benefit anyone interested in applying for law school, soon or in the future.
"A lot of times students are reluctant to telephone the office of a law school they're interested in, they may be a little intimidated by that," Littleton said. "So this is getting them a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with a representative in person, which is a good thing. Even though most of these materials are available on the Internet these days it's still nice to have that personal relationship so if you have questions later on you have the business card of a person you feel comfortable calling."
Paul Pless, the assistant dean of admissions at the University of Illinois College of Law, said law school fairs are just as important to school administrators as they are to students.
"Even though we are a state school, 51 percent of our student body is from out of state," Pless said. "It's important to us to have that kind of diversity in our classrooms."
For Pless, a diverse classroom is essential to education at the University of Illinois.
"For students at a state school like Auburn, they may not have considered another school like the University of Illinois," Pless said. "I would say for any event we go to, if we get one student then it was worth whatever we spent."
Tyler Evans, senior in political science, is looking forward to the Law School Fair as well. As president of the Pi Lambda Sigma Pre-Law Honor Society, Evans helped organize the Law School fair.
"This is the first time we've actually had this big of a showing," Evans said. "As far as I know, in terms of something this big, I think it's the first."
Evans said people who want to gather information at the fair should plan to devote some time during their day to attend, as Pi Lambda Sigma is anticipating between 300 and 500 people throughout the day.
"This will definitely be beneficial for the students because these law schools come to them; they just have to step out their front door," Evans said.
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