how did you choose your colleges?

[La'Tonya]

Recent studies show that most first-generation and/or low income high school students tend to apply to "safety" colleges that are close to home, rather than private or elite institutions. (See: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/edu...)

In contrast, Cedric Jennings believed that going to local schools like UDC "would't be worth what [he'd] been through" given all of his effort and sacrifices (p. 49). In that regard, he was invested in meritocracy, where he believed that hard work should be duly rewarded.

What are your thoughts about Cedric's college choice process? What was your own experience like? In retrospect, is there anything you would do differently?

[Stella]

I relate to Cedric's reasoning regarding college selection; I, too, bought into the meritocracy myth and believed that my hard work would go to waste if I went to a local school. However, my father actively discouraged me from applying to schools outside of CA (several of which, like Mt. Holyoke, courted me with scholarship offers), saying that if I attended an out-of-state school, he wouldn't pay for me to come home during holidays and breaks. In the end, I attended UCLA, which, although close to home, is so radically different from my hometown that I ended up feeling like I'd gone to the other side of the moon anyway. Nonetheless, I often wonder how my life would've been different if I'd pursued my dream of going to school on the East Coast . . .

[Maruth]

I've revisited this question over and over, how did I select the colleges I applied for? And how did I make my final decision? My parents have been a critical support throughout my life but they have limited knowledge about US structures. My dad was one year shy of completing his college degree in our home country and used that knowledge base to help make sense of our US experience. I was very practical in my choice of applications I applied to one CSU, one UC and one private. I went with local schools that had some recognition not necessarily their academics but popularity, I didn't know better. I never considered out of state because I knew it wouldn't fly at home and to be honest didn't know it was an option. I got accepted into all 3 schools I applied to and was faced with a decision. To this day I remember the conversation with my parents, the CSU was a back up so discarded once I got the letters from UCLA and USC, so it was between the two. My dad said "well privates are always better than public" and so I took his advice a sent my commitment reply to USC. As I have reflected on that decision, I've come to understand that my dad's advice was based on the way things are in our home country- private is always better. It wasn't necessarily true here and in fact for certain fields UCLA would've been a better choice, but I didn't know better. USC turned out to be a great choice for me so much that I went back for my terminal degree :)

[Erick]

I have a mixed experience and a long one for sure. I went through this process 3 times. I wanted to go to college since I was in 6th grade even though I did not know what the heck that meant. When I was a freshmen in h.s. I knew I had to have a high GPA but I was not aware of how competitive it was going to be get into some of the top-tier schools. At first, I wanted to stay local. However, my counselor and some of my instructors encouraged me to look at private schools and out of state colleges because of their generous financial aid. At the time, private schools were the only ones that could provide me with any type of fin. aid because of my situation. I visited and researched public and private schools. I got interviews from Rice Univ., Pomona College, and Swarthmore Univ. I applied to 8 public schools and 9 privates. Since h.s., I wanted to go to a private school because they were smaller and had better fin. aid opportunities for me. My counselor always teased me about this because she did not want me to go through the struggle of applying to so many private schools. She told me the same thing when I was applying to school the second time around. I only got into 2 out of the 17 schools that I applied to as a h.s. senior. However, I decided to go to community college instead.

The second time around, I focused mostly on private schools for the reasons that I just mentioned. However, this time, I was more selective (e.g. location and academic calendar). I applied to 5 public schools and 7 privates. My dream school was Stanford but in my opinion, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) was the perfect school (e.g. close to home, private, semester system, etc.). I interviewed twice for CMC and was in love with the school. I was accepted to 6 out the 12 schools but CMC was not one of them. I went to CSUF because it was a semester school, it was cheap, and wanted to go there since h.s. I was a bit disappointed because I was not at a private school but I got over it and learned to love the school.

The last time I applied to college, was during almost 2 years ago. This time around, I only applied to LMU and was accepted 4 times in a row before finally enrolling. It met all of the characteristics that I was looking for in a school and I had been a finalist for the SJ scholarship as a sophomore in college. I did not want to leave CSUF but I had to because I could not pay for school anymore and LMU had offered me a full scholarship and the opportunity to finally fulfill my dream. My parents encouraged me to go to college but I had to figure out all of the logistics all on my own. It has been a long journey but that's what I experienced when I applied to college.

[Mary]

I can definitely relate to Cedric's feeling of not wanting to go to UDC. In my home town, most of the people who go to the local JC either never finish school at all or end up being several years behind in their schooling.

My own experience was a mess, I would never want to go through that process again. My family felt the need to input their opinion at every turn. It was impossible for me to please everyone. Originally, I wanted to go to a small Catholic college in Georgia, however the school shut down due to lack of funds. My father emphasized the fact that he would not allow me to continue to live with him if I chose to go to community college and having just moved to Los Angeles, I was terrified to disobey his wishes. On the other hand, my mother's side of the family insisted that I go to a school that was in line with their value system rather than going somewhere that may have forced me to defend or re-evaluate my own opinions. In the end, despite the fact that my family was proud of my acceptance to LMU, there was and continues to be whispers about how I will afford school and why I am choosing to pursue graduate school in a "useless field" (Psychology).

As I prepare for graduate school, I fear that similar process will take place. I already hear frequent opinions about where to go, rather than finding a school that will fit my needs. So if I had to do it again, and as I move into a process that seems similar to my family, I hope to be able to drown out the opinions of my family and do what is best for me. I have never regretted my decision to attend LMU, I wish that the process of getting here had been drastically different.

[La'Tonya]

Yes! Mary, the experience of applying to graduate school will likely bring back some of those old feelings you had. And most likely, our families may be even *less* informed about that process, so you may be swimming upstream once again.

Thankfully, Dr. Stella is making it her business to do more outreach concerning the graduate school admissions process, so that we can demystify it for everyone. Let's be honest: plenty of people choose schools (e.g., USC) for the name, not knowing all of the other variables that must be taken into consideration. It is so very tough to do drown out our families and support systems.