Junior year has been the most challenging year of high school. I have had to study/work harder and make more difficult decisions than ever before. One of those decisions includes deciding which college I would like to go to. My mom and I have spent hours researching colleges in search of an appealing, affordable option.
Grades, GPA’s, ACTs, I anticipated, but dreaded the stress of junior year. My mom tried to prep me over the summer, constantly repeating, “You are going have to work very hard this year in order to get good grades, achieve a good score on the ACT, earn a good GPA, narrow down your major, and pick what college you would like to go to.” I felt like screaming, “Ahhhhhhh,” the list daunting and why does everything have to have acronyms?!
Not realizing the task that was ahead of me, I used the smile and nod technique and half-heartedly agreed, “Yeah, I know, I know. I have to study constantly, go to all of the college fairs, plan college visits and do a lot of research on colleges I may be interested in.”
Mom gave me a look, “You have to be serious about this Sam.” she said, “We should start researching colleges now. That way--when we go to the college fairs--we know what to look for.”
“Okay, I get it. I will start looking tomorrow.” I said with an eye roll. Of course, over the rest of the summer I said the same thing over and over again. I procrastinated into the school year by watching TV, reading books, and hanging out with friends. That is, until my mom made me go to the first college fair. I full heartedly planned on dragging my feet the entire time, but then I found out we were planning to go with my friend, Hannah, and both of our moms went. This made me perk up a little bit. I figured if I had to suffer, at least I would have somebody else to be there with me. However, when we got there my friend and I went our separate ways, each following our mom because we were completely at a loss on what to do. My mom and I went from table to table at first just browsing because I had done no research on the topic and I had no idea what questions to ask in order to get the information I needed. The whole night seemed to be a blur of confusion. Afterwards, I decided I needed to step up my game.
My mom thought that I was procrastinating too much in the college search. She thought I should have done more research going into the college fair. However, she told me repeatedly that she cannot help me make all of the decisions. Also, that she could not make me do what I refused to do. My mom repeatedly says to me, “Sam, you have a lot of work ahead of you. I will help you get started with finding a college you want to go to. I will also help you along the way if you are struggling, but I cannot do everything for you. You have to learn to do this stuff on your own.”
After the college fair my mom and I went home and looked over all of the brochures we picked up from the multitude of colleges. Over the next few months we were able to narrow it down to many colleges in Illinois and a few in select surrounding states. I began to feel a little less panicked about the work I had to do on searching out a suitable college. In April I took the ACT and--after receiving my score--I was able to narrow down my choices more by looking at the acceptance scores.
By this point in time, I have spent hours studying for the ACT in order to get a good score, I have looked into majors I may be interested in, and I have looked over and researched a huge list of colleges. After all of this I have not made a for sure decision about what college I want to go to. However, I have made it through my junior year of high school with good grades, successfully taken the ACT, narrowed down my major to something in the science area, and last--but certainly not least--I have made a small list of colleges that sparked my interest. On the list I have included cost of tuition and room and board, distance from home, size of the school, sports offered, extracurricular activities offered, and majors that are offered at the school. Overall, I have come a long way from the oblivious sophomore that I was over the summer.