College Fantasy
By ladylau - Posted on February 21st, 2008
I don't know about you guys, but my whole life I always pictured the college process a lot differently than how I view it today. I imagined visiting numerous colleges and thinking that there would be one college out there for me. I also thought I would travel to a bunch of states over the summer and find a college half way across the country that I was absolutely destined for. Finally, I figured I would return home from school everyday running for the mail and freaking out for minutes that would seem like hours until I finally decided to open the letter.
Reality check! I'm a senior in high school who visited tons of colleges over the summer; however, I liked more than one. I never seemed to find "the one" that I thought I would fall in love with instantly. The colleges I have applied to all have their positives and negatives. Maybe its just me, but I think I gave my dream college so much praise that it is impossible for any college to live up to. So what did I do? I applied to 5 colleges. Four of them were early and one of them I was regular decision. Where were they located? Four of them are located in the state I currently live in, and one is located out of state just an hour or so away from my house.
Acceptance time! I didn't run into my house everyday searching for the mail. I did, however, call my house everyday on the way to work asking if I had any mail. Did I ever freak out over opening the mail? No! Why? I never got the chance to. My first acceptance was received by my second choice school. My grandmother called my cell phone up and said "Lauren, you have a letter from Salve! Congratulations!" "Congratulations?" I asked, "What do you mean? How do you know whether to congratulate me or not?" That's right! She opened my letter. My precious letter that I put so much emphasis on my whole life. I had the whole idea planned out in my head. I was supposed to run into the house and freak out when I saw the letter refusing to open it being terrified of being rejected. Instead, I was on the bus with a bunch of kids listening to their iPods as I find out that I was accepted to college. Granted I was probably the 4th person to receive this news, but I received it after waiting all those years. My other acceptances? I called my mom from the bathroom in my school along with my friend. We heard that other people had gotten rejection letters from a college that we had both applied to. Being the impatient seniors that we are, we called our houses on our cell phone asking if the mail had came. My friend got her news, but there was still no mail at my house. I went on to my classes and continued to take notes when I heard an announcement for me to go down to the guidance office. I strolled down there, happy to get out of class, and wondering why I was being called down. My guidance counselor was busy so I went on the computer while I was waiting for her. I logged onto the website of one of the colleges I applied to and decided to check the status of my application. There it was! A little green checkmark saying that I had been accepted. "Wowwwww" I said out loud. "Lauren, is that you?" my guidance counselor asked. "Yes!" I answered. "Lauren, your mom just called and she wanted me to let you know that you were accepted to Providence College!" Two answers within one minute, neither of which I tore open a letter.
I'm not saying that any of this is a bad thing! It was nice to hear my grandmother so excited on the phone, to see the smile on my guidance counselor's face after all she had helped me with, and to have my friends by my side when I witnessed the little green checkmark on the computer screen. I wouldn't have these outcomes any other way because it was special for me. :-) Corny, isn't it? As for my dream college? Who needs the stress of being so hung up on one place? Rather than stressing over which college I will choose to attend, I am mainly focusing on which college will cost me the least amount of money. Since I worked so hard over the summer , I truly love all of the colleges that I applied to. Now I am simply dealing with the financial issues and weighing out the positive and negatives of all my schools. I have yet to hear from two colleges, but am I stressing over it? No way! At the rate I am going at, I will only have to pay about $6,000.00 to go to a college that costs over $40,000.00 This includes living there.
I am in no way suggesting that all of you out there stop dreaming about your dream school. That is what I did, and things are turning out great so far. Just make sure you turn your dreams into a reality and get to work the summer before your senior year so you have a lot of the busy work done before school starts. By doing this, I have plenty of more time to focus on scholarships now.
Let me know how your college journeys turned out! I am really interested in finding out if I am the majority or minority when I say that some people put too much emphasis on finding a dream college. Thank you for reading and responding!
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I agree. Maybe you wished it all away?
I got lucky. I found my dream college. The first college, and only, that I visited is it. I can't wait to go there in the fall. I just got lucky. But I kind of feel left out because a lot of my friends are having difficulties choosing a school to go to out of all the ones they've been accepted to. I've only applied to the one. I've got provisional acceptance and now I'm just waiting for the official letter.
But good luck and happy choosing!
It's an inside joke thing...