Not your Average Route to Success...

Hi again! I have an amazing friend (and fellow high school senior) who shared with me a post she wrote about her plans for next year. I'm sharing it on University Days because everyone can benefit from her message, whether he/she is decided or not on "regular" college. Enjoy! I know I did:).

-KC

Let's talk about my college plans.

So it’s that time of the year, where students get to finalize their choices about colleges. I am deciding between two colleges— Quinnipiac or Ithaca. I was accepted to both of them. I worked really, really hard during high school to get into a good college. I am glad I’m in, but I will not attend these schools.

Just like everyone else, I want to go to college in order to have a better chance of success. I  feel like high school wasn’t nearly enough for me to expand my mind and learn subjects more deeply. I found a lot of classes in high school to be a joke, to be honest. So I have always looked forward to college. College, college, college. All my friends and I would talk about which colleges we wanted to go to. It was very exciting. I am not eligible for in-state discounts, state nor federal financial aid, so I decided to apply to private colleges in hopes of getting a scholarship or good financial aid.

Even with scholarships, these prices are outrageous. Tuition, room, board, etc for Ithaca is $55,587; for Quinnipiac $55,580. For one year. One YEAR! that is MORE THAN 220,000 dollars for a bachelor’s degree. Do you know what I could do with that kind of money?  

And at best, scholarships and grants would mayyybe put this price down to $30,000/year. Maybe. If I’m lucky. So I faced a dilemma. These are both beautiful colleges and overall respected. But I just cannot afford $30,000 a year, not even if I apply to a bunch of scholarships— it’s just not possible.

So I felt bad. I felt bad for a while, down to uhhh, a day or so ago. But then I read about all of these people, who were middle class—mind you, more wealthy than I— talking about how they went to colleges they couldn’t really afford and graduated with $100,000+ (and counting) in debt from loans, or who had to drop out of school because it got so damn expensive. Ouch. I do not want that to happen to me.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that all my life I’ve been trained to think that going to a 4 year, reputable institution right out of high school  was the only way to go. If not, I might as well just give up on life because I would not go anywhere. I thought about all the people I read about and people I know in my life who are still paying their student loans, and how I so, so, did not want that to happen to me. I thought about how private and public college costs have skyrocketed in the past 20 years, way more than the rise of inflation, and how it wasn’t fair, not for me or any other family who worked hard to earn their money, or students who worked hard to get good grades. It just wasn’t fair.

So I started looking at the option of community college. At C.C, you can go to the same classes available in 4-year colleges. You get smaller classes and definitely  WAY CHEAPER tuition. You don’t have to worry about room or board. Your GPA will be high, you can transfer to a 4 year college and graduate and get the same diploma everyone else got from that school, for nearly half the price. That sounds great to me!

 Recently, I felt like I needed out of this place, like I could not take this town anymore. If I had been brought up in here, that would have been justified. But I wasn’t. I know the people in my country have it much, much worse. I’ve seen a lot of awful things. So I’m embarrassed of my past self for being so bratty and ungrateful. High school, THAT I am truly done with. But the town I live with and am surrounded by— I should not take it for granted. Truth is, I am very lucky.

I feel like I will miss the “regular” college experience— dorm life, parties, etc— but I know me. I know I’m not the procrastinator type (I know, I’m kind of weird) and I’m a worrier. I wouldn’t enjoy myself as much at a party if I had to worry about how I would pay for my books or next semester’s tuition. I don’t feel like regular teenager in the sense that attending a cool play or seeing someone really smart speaking at an event sounds way more exciting to me than getting wasted at a party at the moment.  That might change, but that’s how I feel right now.

So, unless I win the lottery (not likely) or these schools decide to pay full tuition, room, and board (wayy more unlikely) for me I will stay at home for two more years.  I’m a bit relieved, to be honest. I can focus more on growing and doing my own thing. I also have no idea what I want to study, so this is a good way to find out. I just feel like this is the right choice for me right now. If I had all the money in the world, yeah, I’d go to QU or IC. But I don’t, and I’m not about to pretend I do.  So, CC it is. And now I can say I’m 100% okay with that.