Junior Feels Overwhelmed by College Process, but is Optimistic for Future

We were in sophomore English class, presenting “about me” posters as part of a first week get-to-know-you activity. My mouth hung open in amazement as one of my peers detailed her plans for the future.

“After high school, I want to go to either Brown or Georgetown for college, where I will major in political science and minor in international relations and cultural studies. Then I want to work at an embassy, and then four or five years after that I want to go to grad school. Eventually I want to work at the U.N. or the I.C.C. (International Criminal Court), and get my doctorate so I can become a professor at a college.”

Our posters had to have a section dedicated to “the future.” Her future section included college mascots, organization logos, and every other detail you could imagine. Mine consisted of a graduation cap, the silhouette of a city skyline, and a wedding dress. I didn’t even know my plans for the rest of high school, let alone college and my career.

As soon as I entered junior year, the questions started coming my way.  “So have you thought about colleges yet?” “Where do you want to apply to?” “What are your plans for the future?” It was like having the label of “junior in high school” automatically meant that college was now the only thing on my mind.

In the midst of kids who knew where they wanted to go, what they wanted to do, and what their third dog’s name was going to be, I felt like I knew less than ever before about what I wanted to do with my future.

Ever since fifth grade, when two broken bones resulted in four months with a cast and countless trips to the orthopedic clinic, I have wanted to be a doctor. I used to be one of those people that had it all planned out. I was going to go to some great college, complete four years there, then immediately go to some other great medical school and coast along until I reached the end result of being a doctor.

However, once I reached high school I began having second thoughts about this grand scheme of mine.

Before sophomore year, school had always come pretty easily to me. But when I hit that year, I realized how much work it can be when you are taking a variety of challenging courses, all of which expect you to be putting in your best effort and committing a good amount of time to your studies. These are the kind of courses I would be taking for the rest of my career as a student if I really wanted to become a doctor. This got me to thinking if it was all really worth it, all the time that’s required, all the studying, for the next ten years of my life. Is that really what I wanted?

Besides the realization of the sheer amount of work my goals would require, a trip that I took this summer also got me thinking about my future. In July, I spent two weeks in Tanzania, teaching English at a school and working in an orphanage. This trip changed the way I looked at the world, and at my life and goals. I realized how much I love traveling and seeing new and different cultures around the world, and it made me wonder if I really wanted to spend my whole young-adult life in school. I wondered if I might instead want to spend these years working abroad. Was being a doctor really right for me?

And lastly, this year is the first year that my fellow classmates and I, as juniors, have begun to look seriously at the choices we have for college. Before now, we may have had a few universities that we had heard of in mind, but now we have to start considering all that is out there and everything that factors into our choice: money, location, size–the list goes on and on.

This aspect is what makes the process of choosing a college most confusing. Before this year, my knowledge of what universities are out there was acquired mainly by watching college sports and listening in on older friends as they discussed where they were sending in their applications. Junior year was the first year that I was really exposed to the variety and huge number of options out there that I didn’t even know existed.

Each May as I scan through the final issue of the Harbinger and look at the list of colleges that seniors have chosen to attend come fall, there are always eight or nine random schools that I have never heard of. I always wonder how someone found this school. What made him or her decide that they wanted to go there? How did he or she know that this college was worth visiting?

College Clinic at East rolled around, and I thought I would finally get some guidance as to what colleges to look at. But instead, I left that night feeling more overwhelmed than ever. I couldn’t think of anything except the hundreds of tables I walked by, the 30 or so pamphlets I picked up but would probably never get a chance to read, and the multitude of colleges that thought I was “right for them.”

These thoughts lingered with me for a few days after the clinic, but as I really started thinking deeply about colleges and my future for the first time, something occurred to me.

Although at this moment, choosing the right college seems like the biggest choice in my life, in ten years when I look back on things, chances are I will be content with wherever I end up going. Yeah, I might not get in to my number one choice, but who’s to say that I can’t have a great college experience at my safety school?

Every time I log on to Facebook, my news-feed is full of pictures of friends enjoying their freshman year of college, and I am almost positive that not ALL of them are currently attending the number one school that was on their list.

This realization has made the whole process of looking for a college a lot less stressful. Now whatever college I look at, I genuinely try to picture myself there. I know that I don’t have to go to some prestigious, well-known university to have a successful college career.

Every college in the country has certain aspects that make it great. Wherever I go, I’ll meet new people, take classes that I enjoy, find my niche there and take advantage of the experience.