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Discovering the Future

From pre-K to 12th grade, all students lives are encompassed by school. This calls for

different experiences by everyone and there is little say in the way you receive your education at

this age. Like most, I attended the schools in my hometown of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. I was

surrounded by parents who had already experienced the education system as well as four siblings

who also attended school. From Open Door Nursery School all the way to Chelmsford High

School, the years quickly passed by, rarely with any issues. The next stop would have to be in an

unfamiliar place, which would be chosen by myself this time around.

Up until high school, I thought little about what would come after the end of senior year.

My life consisted of learning the basics in school and finding out what I enjoyed. Once high

school came around, I knew I would have to begin to ponder the future. I also knew that this

process was gradual and ideas wouldnt develop overnight. This was not troubling but rather, it

excited me. In my mind, the first step was deciding a career path and eventually, I could research

schools. Throughout high school, I was never quite interested in any core subjects enough to

want to pursue any of them in college. This is where the electives came in to play. In the spring

of 8th grade, when it was time to choose classes for my freshman year of high school, I had

recently developed an interest in architecture. I was relatively creative and was also a good artist

so architecture seemed like a fascinating profession. I wanted to see if this interest would grow

further so I proceeded to sign up for the architecture elective that my school offered. The full

year course taught me an abundance of facts and skills when it came to developing houses,

buildings, bridges, etc. Although I had gained this knowledge, the information was not

compelling enough, so my interest fell through. My agenda now consisted of finding a new,
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more interesting elective. As I looked through what was available for my sophomore year, I

came across a variety of business classes. Business is an extremely useful trade, and having skills

in the realm of business can be beneficial in the type of society I am exposed to. With this in

mind, I signed up for a half-year Business Law course. Here, I learned a large number of factors

that law plays in the business world. The information covered seemed to be much more practical

to me, sparking a greater interest. Once sophomore year ended, I kept the idea of business in the

back of my mind and chose to go out on a limb and sign up for a programming class my junior

year. Programming seemed like an excellent skill to have in this day and age, judging by the

amount of technology we have, and I had seen some videos about it that were intriguing. From

early on, it was evident that programming in general was very tedious so I continued the class for

the rest of the year but had no more desire to do anything further with it. My final year of high

school emerged and the idea of business came back into view so I signed up for a few more

business classes and it seemed as though this would be the path that I would continue down. The

few extra business classes that I took senior year solidified my plan to pursue that in college.

Growing up I was very aware of what college was and what it entailed. I had heard many

stories of my parents experiences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell as well as my

aunts experiences at Boston College. These were the colleges that were on my mind because

they were mentioned most frequently by my family. This is not to mention the abundance of

advertisements associated with colleges such as TV commercials, billboards, and advertisements

on the internet or even all of the college sports that were on TV. My interest was always struck

whenever I discovered a new college. Overall, I had plenty of exposure to the hundreds of

colleges that surrounded me. With all of this exposure, I only began to look into specific colleges

during my junior year of high school. I developed some of my own standards on the types of
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colleges that I felt I would like. Some of these could be credited to what I had seen in the past in

advertisements or on TV or even in movies. First, I wanted a large school, which I believed

exceeded 10,000 students. Second, I wanted the college to be out of my home state of

Massachusetts, but somewhere in or around New England. Third, I wanted it to be a public

school. And fourth, I would prefer a school located in a rural or suburban area because I wasnt

very fond of city schools. With these standards in mind as well as my grades that were about

average, I began to research schools. There were many tools available during the research

process. College Board Search (https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search) as well as a

similar tool on my high schools Naviance website were key factors in helping me narrow down

schools with the standards that I mentioned before. I was able to select my preferences and a list

of results would appear based on schools that satisfied those preferences. From there, I could do

specific research on each of the schools specific website or watch videos about that school.

After developing a concrete list of the schools that I liked, the next step was to visit the schools.

The college tours were a large part of what encouraged me to apply to the schools that I chose.

Based on my research, I found that the University of Rhode Island, University of Connecticut,

University of Delaware, University of Vermont, University of Maine, and Penn State University

were the best choices for me.

Applying to college was both a stressful time and an exciting time due to the criteria

involved in applying but also knowing that this was the start of a new chapter in my life. I had

the option of applying early decision, early action, or normal. With the help of my guidance

counselor, we determined it would be best to apply normal so that I could incorporate my first

semester grades into my transcripts, increasing my chances of getting into the schools. Along

with the six schools I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I also applied to the University of
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Massachusetts Amherst, the University of New Hampshire, Providence College, Westfield State

University. These additional schools were used as safety schools or leverage schools for financial

aid. Every school except for Penn State University and Westfield State University used the

Common Application (http://www.commonapp.org) website for applying. The majority of the

Common Application website was relatively simple to use. I would fill out the required

information for each school and in addition, I would insert the college essay which I had written

prior to completing each application. After, I would submit each application and pay the

respected application fee. Separate from the Common Application website, I would have two of

my teachers, which I had selected, submit letters of recommendation. Additionally, my guidance

counselor would submit my high school transcripts, and I would submit my SAT grades through

College Board (https://www.collegeboard.org). The applications for Penn State University and

Westfield State University consisted of the same process, but instead of using the Common

Application, I used the schools website. Overall, the process took a bit of time but I was able to

spread it out equally so that I could easily complete it.

Along the journey to find the school that I would attend after high school, I came across

obstacles that challenged me and that I was forced to work through. One of those areas involved

the various parts and steps it took to apply to each school. I had to keep track of each step that I

accomplished in order to complete everything on time. I did this by creating a checklist with all

of the mandatory parts that I needed to complete. This made the process drastically easier. One

thing I should have done differently is to apply early action. My first semester grades had little

effect on my overall GPA yet the wait time to receive a response from each school seemed to be

longest when applying normal. An area which I consider to be the biggest conflict was my

decision to apply to the University of Central Florida. I applied to all of my schools except the
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University of Central Florida in December and once I started to receive replies from each school,

I started to get the feeling that I wanted something different. I envisioned myself somewhere

different, possibly a place that had different conditions as the ones I always experienced in New

England. This caused me to research some large schools in Florida. I wanted to make a

compromise with my previous standards and look at some schools further away. By this time, it

was already March and most of the large Florida schools deadlines had passed to apply so I

applied to one that hadnt passed- the University of Central Florida. After about a month, I had

already received all of the letters from the other schools that I applied to, and finally I received

an answer from the University of Central Florida. They had waitlisted me. This was not good

news because in the letter, it said I would be accepted or denied by mid-May, which was passed

the deadline to decide which college I would attend. I began to think that I would settle for one

of my other schools but suddenly, about two weeks later, I was accepted. This was very

shocking, being notified much earlier than expected. I wasted no time and booked a flight to

Florida over April vacation for a tour of the school. Although the distance could be an issue, I

knew that I could make it work.

As I toured through the campus of the University of Central Florida I immediately knew

that I wanted to attend there in the fall semester. I could see myself attending that type of school.

The number of students and the campus size were both massive- a factor that appeared necessary

for me. They layout of the campus was visually appealing and easy to maneuver. The distance

from home was only a minor issue, but was something I could definitely get used to. After being

in Florida for just a day, I made it clear to my parents when I returned home that I wanted to

attend. After a few days of talking, we put in the deposit. I then applied for housing and looked
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into meal plans. I was finally satisfied with my decision of choosing to attend the University of

Central Florida for college.

The summer before college consisted of work, having good times with friends and

family, and researching what I would need for the next year of my life that I would be spending

in a new place. This was partly new to my family because I was the first of my four siblings to

go off to college. As the weeks passed by, I made sure I had all of the supplies that I needed for

college, especially because I would be so far from home. Packed with four suitcases of just my

individual belongings, my whole family flew down to Florida with me for move in day.

Anything that was unable to fit in the suitcases I bought in Orlando. I was able to quickly settle

in and begin to adjust to my new home. I am currently attending the University of Central

Florida and enjoying what life has to offer in Orlando.