When I was in High School I used to dream of the day I will get into my dream college, earn my degree, and make my parents proud. My parents were not lucky enough to get past the sixth grade. As a kid they would always tell me that I was going to get into Harvard. For this reason, I feel the need to obtain my college degree. I am not saying that to say I feel obligated, but rather to inform you that I want this degree in order to achieve my dream and my parents’ dream.
Thought my High School years the only thing I worried about was grades, grades, and grades. There was no way around them and I wanted to only obtain A’s and B’s. If I am being honest with you it was mostly because my teachers would always say that colleges wanted kids with A’s and B’s and not C’s. They made it seem as though C’s were an imidate rejection from any college you applied to, so I did my best to get A’s and B’s only. However, in sophomore year, I messed up and got a C in geometry. It was the year where my depression really started to affect me the most. Then in junior year it happened again, another C in Pre-calculus. I was sure that no college would ever want me because I had been told that the perfect student had all A’s and “near perfect” students got some B’s but mostly A’s. And there I was with two C’s and around the same amount of A’s as I had B’s. My depression got worse and worse as time passed. It got so bad that I had to seek help from a professional. I ended up finishing my senior year with only A’s and B’s and I felt proud of myself for achieving those grade in my final year.
When I applied for colleges I applied thinking I was not going to get accepted into any of them. I applied to several CSU’s and only one private college because I thought I wasn’t going to get accepted into the other private colleges I wanted to go to. I ended up getting into all the CSU’s I applied to and got rejected from the only private college I applied to. At the time was devastated; getting rejected from the University of Southern California was like telling me to give up on all my hopes and dreams in that very instant. Nonetheless, I decided to accept the request to go to one of the CSU’s I applied to. Which ended up being a good decision because private universities are not cheap and I would have gotten into debt if I had been accepted into USC. I now believe that things happen for a reason. This was all meant to be from the very beginning.
I ended up going to California State University Stanislaus, one of the cheapest universities in the state of California and probably in the entire US. I enjoy going here my financial aid covers all my tuition and I even have some money left over for my class textbooks (which are not cheap). Studying at CSU Stanislaus has definitely made me realize that not getting into a private university like me and my parents wished is not the end of the world. There are plenty of universities in the US and in other countries who offer exactly or nearly the same amount degree programs and courses as the expensive universities do. Why should we pay that much money for a college education that could be received by paying considerably lower tuition cost or, if you are lucky, none at all.
