"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end."
-Author Unknown
Searching for the right college to go to is stressful, believe me. There are around 9,000 universities globally, not to mention community colleges, trade schools, etc. So how do you find out which one is right for you? I was set on attending Columbia University in the City of New York. When I toured the campus, I immediately fell in love with the school. I applied to 14 schools, which I now realize was an insane amount, with a backup to my backup to my backup, as a way of guaranteeing that I would have somewhere to go. Then May came around, and it was time for admission decisions to be sent out. When I received the email with my admissions decision, I was extremely excited, as it was the first major school that I had heard back from. I finally opened the email to find out that I was accepted! I was still waiting to hear from a few other schools though, so it was still up in the air as to where I was going to attend. A few days later Columbia posted their admission decisions, and unfortunately I was not accepted. When I opened my rejection email, I was devastated. That was the only school I would have enrolled to in a heartbeat. Then came one of the hardest decisions I have had to make. I had a month to decide which offer to accept, and I firmly believed it would take me that entire month. Every school seemed to have something great to offer, and I was afraid to commit to just one. I talked to my parents, teachers, friends, etc., hoping that they would somehow lead me to the right answer. My stats teacher said he had a student the previous year that was faced with the same dilemma, and that he helped her set up a table analyzing the differences between her two choices. So, he helped me go through this same process, but with my top 5 schools. (At this point, Northwestern wasn't even on the list. I hadn't been given notice of the financial aid package they were offering me yet, and I figured it would just be too expensive to attend there.) After about an hour of rating each school based on location, prestige, financial aid, distance from home, etc., two schools came to a close tie. I was still at a loss as to where to attend, and as the deadline came closer, I was becoming even more and more stressed.
Then my financial aid package from Northwestern came….
Out of all the schools I was accepted to, Northwestern had offered me the most in scholarships. It's located in the small suburb Evanston, but still close enough to a big city like Chicago. As far as academic prestige, it was the highest ranked school I had been accepted to. I may not know anyone who will be going there, but I knew that it would provide the challenge that I was looking for as well as the ability to turn over a new leaf. I had somehow overlooked this option, but as I looked at everything this school had to offer me, I knew it was where I was supposed to go. The biggest factor that scared me was that I had never toured the school or even stepped foot in the state of Illinois. Even without that, I felt that a decision had been made. Looking back, I realize now that everything really does happen for a reason. I decided to attend Northwestern University because it perfectly matched every element that I wanted in a university. Hopefully I can help others in their quest to find their perfect college fit, as I am confident that I have found mine.
Then my financial aid package from Northwestern came….
Out of all the schools I was accepted to, Northwestern had offered me the most in scholarships. It's located in the small suburb Evanston, but still close enough to a big city like Chicago. As far as academic prestige, it was the highest ranked school I had been accepted to. I may not know anyone who will be going there, but I knew that it would provide the challenge that I was looking for as well as the ability to turn over a new leaf. I had somehow overlooked this option, but as I looked at everything this school had to offer me, I knew it was where I was supposed to go. The biggest factor that scared me was that I had never toured the school or even stepped foot in the state of Illinois. Even without that, I felt that a decision had been made. Looking back, I realize now that everything really does happen for a reason. I decided to attend Northwestern University because it perfectly matched every element that I wanted in a university. Hopefully I can help others in their quest to find their perfect college fit, as I am confident that I have found mine.
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