My College Choice Experience

I was born and raised in a single parent household with 3 older siblings
that encouraged higher education for success. Having a mother as an
educator, I was raised in my school, Clara Muhammad School of Masjid
Khalifah, that she established in 1998. She would wake me up at 6 am every
morning to get me dressed and ready for school so I could sleep in the car
parked outside our house as she got herself ready. I used the word, raised,
because since she was an administrator, we would have to stay at school
until about 8 or 9 p.m. at night to then return again at 7:30 am. In addition to
her career path, she also continued to pursue higher education by attaining
certificates and her masters degree. It was never really a conversation
about whether or not I was going to attend because I knew college was part
of my journey. As a child, I had a piggy bank that I used to save money for
college and family would come over to contribute. In the papers we would
write in school about where we see ourselves 10 years from now, I would
always talk about going to college and getting my masters. I was always
unclear about what I wanted to be when I grew up and what I wanted to go
to college for.
The NYC High School process includes an application and an interview.
Because my mother was close colleagues with a principal nearby her school,
my interview began with the words, You are attending Bedford Academy
and I will get you into college with a scholarship. In terms of college choice,
I guess my only choice was to go. In efforts to improve my testing scores, I
participating in different SAT prep programs, took the SATs about 3 times, as
well as, the ACT once to get into a better school. In my junior year of high
school, my older sister who attended Binghamton University took me on a
college tour of different campuses along the northeast coast. In addition,
anytime when we went on a vacation, somehow she would make sure we
toured colleges in that area.
When senior year came around, my guidance counselor introduced a
college acceptance competition. If you got accepted into a college, they

would hang your acceptance letter around the school. The standard at the
time was to apply to 2 CUNY schools, 4 SUNY schools, 2 Ivy Leagues, 4
private schools, and 4 public schools. They would offer college tours, trips to
college fairs, and let us know about campus overnights. I applied to about 16
schools in total because my guidance counselor would provide us with fee
waivers for every application. My number one choice was Brown University. I
had an alumni interview was them, visited their campus, and attended
information sessions. However, they rejected me and I cried for days. On the
plus side, I received acceptance to about 8 or 9 other schools with
scholarships. As a high school senior, I was actually pretty organized. I had a
spreadsheet of all the schools, location, size, accepted or denied, scholarship
amount. Probably through College board, Wells College found my information
and sent me an email offered next week notification. I got accepted, my
letter was placed on the school wall, and I submitted my FAFSA to them. I
visited campus for a tour and fell in love with the location and the
friendliness of the staff. Ultimately, they provided the most financial
assistance so I chose them. Looking back on that experience, Wells College
was a great institutional fit for my values and goals.
In my senior year of college, I knew I really wanted to pursue a
masters degree because that was in my life plan. I was a Theatre/Dance
major with a Childhood Education minor and neither of those inspired me to
further my education. When I spoke with the Assistant Director of Student
Activities and Leadership, she questioned what I enjoyed doing and I
responded everything Im doing now including several leadership roles on
campus. As a Resident Assistant, Tour Guide, and President of organizations, I
truly enjoyed sharing my experiences with other students. She told me to
consider higher education specifically student affairs. By the time, I knew this
was a career path, it was December and several deadlines passed. We also
did not have GRE options on campus and it was expensive. Unlike high
school, I could not receive fee waivers for my applications so I only applied to
2 schools. Wells lacked access to public transportation so I was only able to

visit 1 open house and that was for UB. Since I could not afford to attend
private school, I had to chose public education for my masters. I figured
since I will be pursuing what I love, everything else will fall into place.