It’s quite funny doing this project
just as my little sister is finishing up her senior year at a local high
school. Even with all of my help, we are barely keeping up with all of her
college things she has to do before going there. She will be attending to ECU
the next following fall semester. We have to set up her email for the school,
make sure she has all of her shots, orientation, and many more such as dorms. At
first, she was convinces that she had done everything that was on the ECU
checklist. I went and double check and realized that she hasn’t done a single
thing. When you get accepted to college, the school sends you a username and
password to identify you as a student. Well she thought that was her email for
the school which he had to set it up later. Preparing for college is not easy
at all. It’s quite confusing especially if you are a first year student.
For my first mini project, I had my
sister to help me out with it. Interviewing her about her years though the
school and what she remember what she did to prepare for college. I remember
when she was in her junior year of high school, I told her to take the SAT and don’t
wait like I did until my senior year. She had the opportunity to take the SAT
twice which she scored a bit better on her second try. She helped and listed
things that she could remember doing and what her adviser was telling her.
Thinking about the first project,
this was a general guide line to go to a university college. And then I thought
about it. Do you have to go to a university college? What if I don’t have the
money? What if I don’t get accepted? For my second project, I talked about having
other choices. You don’t have to go to a university college right out of high
school. In 1979, only 49 percent of students headed to either a two-year or
four-year college right after high school, but that jumped to a high of 70
percent in 2009 (Dwyer).
More and more students are going to college but are they making the right
decision? The project is showing students has more than more way of going to college. Going to college is never too late.
For my final project, I decided to talk
about my last mini project which was about choosing community college over
University College. Who am I talking to? I am talking to students who are first
in their family to go to college. College can be very overwhelming for new and
young students. Filing for scholarship or school could be very hard. The
advantage of going to a community college first is that the school is much
smaller, saved more money, and also guarantees to get in.
A
much smaller school means more face to face interaction. Students are more use
to this because they just got out of high school. In university, the classroom
is much larger. Some class can have over fifty students to hundreds. It’s much
harder to ask question and hear the professor talking. Sometimes you just can’t
keep up with the speed of the professor.
According to my reading, a father of a recent community college
grad noted, "If we had sent our daughter to UCLA directly out of high
school, we would have spent about $56,000 to get her through to her junior
year. She will be entering UCLA as a junior in the fall, and we only spent
around $3,000. Going to a community college allowed her to work and save for
two years and afforded her the time to apply for scholarships and grants to
offset the cost of her remaining two years of college"(Bueno).
Now, colleges are harder to get in. You’re losing fifty to
hundreds of dollar for the college application fee and not knowing if you are
going to be accepted. The fear of being rejected and not knowing if you are
going to college the very next year is frustrating. Community college is a
guarantee to get in.
I believed that they the school environment is everything to the student. If they feel good about belonging to a school, they would preform better as a student. Making the right choice and choosing the right college is crucial for success. From my own experiences, I made bad decision which had a bad outcome. The first school I enrolled to, I didn't like it. Spend two years there and it was a total waste of time and money. I was blinded by everyone in my family who wanted for me to go to a university. I don't blame them but it was my fault. Not seeing what I really want or seeing what's out there for me. I want students to learn from my mistakes. I want them to know that there are other ways of getting into college. Different paths that one can take and can still end up where they want to be.
Sources:
Bueno,
Laura. "Top 3 Reasons Why Your Teen Should Consider Community
College." Education.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.
Dwyer, Liz. "More High School
Students Are Going to College Than Ever Before." GOOD. N.p., 29 May
2012. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.
