Picking a university used to mean that high-school students had to spend hours browsing brochures, making long phone calls to admissions officers and even buying expensive plane tickets to visit campuses. But thanks to Maclean’s, students can now save their cash for tuition, and browse Canada’s top universities and colleges at an online campus fair.

On Oct. 22 Maclean’s and media company Youth Culture are organizing and sponsoring a virtual fair that will include live video feeds of speakers, university and college information booths and the chance for students to interact with their peers.

Tony Keller, the managing editor of special projects for Maclean’s, said it will run like a traditional university fair, except in a virtual setting, comparable to Second Life, the popular virtual world. The fair was created by Unisfair, a company that provides creates virtual events, trade shows and conferences.

The fair will be archived online for 90 days, so students unable to attend can log in and get information packs from universities and listen to speakers. However, students who miss the Oct. 22 fair will not be able to log in to chat with speakers and university representatives.

Maclean’s has lined up several speakers to discuss their university and life experiences with students. Vincent Lam, the Toronto-based doctor and writer who recently won the Giller prize and Doctors Without Borders Canada founder Richard Heinzl have already been confirmed, along with several of Maclean’s university student bloggers.

Keller said that while Maclean’s has a broad reach to through its print edition and annual guide to Canadian universities, the magazine has been striving to interact with students online.

To help promote the fair, Maclean’s has partnered with Youth Culture, the company that publishes Vervegirl and Fuel. In hopes of drawing big crowds, Maclean’s is advertising the fair in both publications, and Vervegirl.com is offering students incentives to register. In a bid to get international students interested in the fair, Maclean’s has also formed a partnership with Topuniversities.com, a site run by the London Times. Ads will be placed on the website and Maclean’s will be sending information about the fair to people on it its mailing list.