Summer College Visits: The Quest to Find a School
If you’re lucky enough (and brave enough) to consider a school more than 10 miles from home (You are! You can do it!), you’re going to have to visit it at least once. If you haven’t decided on a school yet, this summer is a great opportunity to explore your options. If you’ve got the time this summer, use it! Wander campuses without a guide, and see as much as you can. One way of going about this quest is to make a family vacation out of it, like I did. The younger siblings and the parents will probably drive you crazy, but have everyone climb in the minivan (so dorky, I know, I lived it), and hit the road. If you’re curious about a state or city rather than a specific school, this is a great time to visit several schools. Larger, more popular schools tend to be fairly [...]
Scholarship Stories: A Little Time Can Go a Long Way
There are scholarships for almost everything. If you’re a girl over 5’9”, a weightlifter with a stellar GPA or even just a squirrel-lover (squirrels are known to award students $10 plus three walnuts), there’s probably a scholarship out there to help get you through college. Kidding about the squirrels, but the rest is true. It’s spending the time to find, apply, interview–and actually spending that time–that’s tough. When I was headed off to school, I knew I couldn’t afford to go out of state unless I had some significant scholarship money, or else I couldn’t go without equally significant student loans. And I really, really wanted to leave the state. Hoping to avoid crushing debt, I spent many weekends looking for and applying for money. Ten years later, the Internet makes it light-years easier than I had it, but it’s still a chore, I know. Think about it, though. Giving [...]
How I Picked My Major — What Do I Want to Do When I Grow Up?
It all started with a simple question: what do I want to do when I grow up? From a young age, I really wanted a career in reading (specifically, Baby-Sitters Club books), and I wanted to go to college out of state. So I went to Arizona State University (ASU) and majored in journalism. Almost ten years later, I now do marketing for a bank in Pasadena, Calif. Huh? How did I get here? In 6th grade, we had a newspaper unit. I somehow got the editor-in-chief gig, which mainly consisted of giving up recess for a couple of days to try to edit and put the thing together. Despite the extra hours and lack of quality in the final product, I really enjoyed the experience. I realize now that’s where the first journalism seed was planted.
