College Admissions Essay: My Advice To The College Bound

To me college is like the next step of life to adulthood; it is where you get a taste of the authentic world and learn how to adjust and manage on your own. In addition, it can be a place of magnification and polished skills within a community that strives for a prosperous life with an effulgent vocation. Thus, attending college was compulsory for me in order to reach future goals, and North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT) transpired to be just right for me. The distance was within range and they have an outstanding mechanical engineering program that I could solemnly benefit from. Overall, attending this university has opened many doors of opportunities that arrange with my personal and professional goals through their culture and community. Furthermore, I endeavor to put myself first and review my precedent accomplishments to strive for better while exposing myself to incipient challenges and obstacles.

When someone thinks about their mental life, some may think “I’m perfectly healthy” or “I don’t have mental problems”. Yet, for others, they may think “Yeah I have some mental issues” or “Yeah, I get nervous from time to time”. For me, anxiety has always been a problem of mine. I can’t even begin to describe how many times it has gotten in the way of me trying to enjoy an event, or spending time with family, because my mind is constantly racing. I’ve struggled with anxiety since I was a kid. Not only do I struggle with it, but members of my family do also. I believe that I may have gotten my anxiety from my family but it’s always been something I didn’t talk about.

Since I started community college I’ve heard several dozen cases of people changing their major, changing their transfer college, or just changing their mind. I’m not likely to do any of that, I choose to use my time in high school deciding what I wanted to do and so far I am sticking to it without a doubt in my mind. I chose to go to community college, earn my Associate's in Business Administration, and transfer to James Madison University in the fall of 2018, graduate in 2020 with my Bachelor’s. I intend to get my Master’s either right after my Bachelor’s or within a few years of my career. I hope to have a job leaving JMU, my first accounting job of my career. I decided to major in accounting for a plethora of reasons, but not what most people expect.

Everyone has to make choices in their life. Some are everyday choices, like what to eat or drink. Others are more critical, like choosing a job. Important decisions take time to comprehend. Like with me, the decision to go to college was the most critical choice in my life and for my future, and I will never regret it. Going to college is important because it helps me find a job, it expands my knowledge, and it is a wonderful experience.

Probably the most important turning point in my life happened in 1992.  At this time, I was eight years old and living in Williamsport Pennsylvania.  My dad had a well-paying job at Anchor Darling Valve Company, I was attending a parochial school and I thought life was just great.  At the time we lived in a large four-story house with a separate three-story garage and an acre of forest for a backyard.  I had a ten-speed bicycle and I would often go bicycling with my friends at the nearby cemetery.  No-one ever objected to this, in fact people would often have picnics at the top of this hill at the cemetery.  I guess the only things I ever complained about were the constant music

Imagine me -- a hotshot 14 year old, destined for the Ivy leagues, captain of the JV wrestling squad (weighing in at an impressive 5'3", 115 pounds), and an overall smart alec strolling into high school as if it owed me something. Failure was not a part of my claimed impressive and nothing could stop me from being top of my class (spoiler if you haven't looked at the rest of my application: I'm not).

Being the product of immigrant parents, I’ve never taken education for granted. When my father was younger, he grew up in the countryside of Fuzhou. It was separate from the rest of China in that laws, such as those limiting the number of children a family could have, and an a proper education system didn’t apply. Where he was from, they grew what they ate and ate what they grew, living day to day. When he came to America, he didn’t speak a lick of English and struggled to receive the education needed for many careers. So, he started as a restaurant worker, and saved up the money to be a co-owner, and then a manager. My parents worked tireless nights for over twenty years, from 10 am to 11 pm, never taking a day off. They sent me to school

Imagine yourself stuck in a nutshell, jammed in between the two biggest decisions of your life. That was me. Wedged between the two most important decisions of my tenth grade year, for my eleventh grade year… to tryout for the school dance team or to not try out.

Ever since I was a little girl my main long-term goal was to find a career that I loved. I knew that I wanted to put my own level of happiness over income. I also knew that I wanted a job that makes a difference. After numerous family members, teachers and friends asking what I wanted to do after school I began to look within myself to decide what I was passionate about that I could turn into a career. After some self-reflection I determined that I was passionate about loving my family, helping others, school, and softball. Soon it became clear to me that I wanted to become a high school math teacher which would also allow me to coach.

I started to live by a quote by Jean Houston saying, “Never let your emotions overpower your intelligence.” I say that is completely true. Emotions are only temporary and intelligence is permanent. Making decisions based upon a temporary feeling can result into a regret or a problem to solve. Only time will tell.

As I first came across this essay prompt, I was discouraged at the thought of trying to make myself stand out from the thousands of other students applying and competing to make themselves appear ____ in 750 words or less. I panicked, feeling as if I had nothing to offer in regard to unique interests or life experiences. An ordinary, white, high school female with happily-married parents and minimal hardship, my story is not one that easily gains the attention of ____. Sitting in my desk at Northwest Christian School, thinking about how I could make my ordinary self stand out, it hit me that the normal experiences I encounter each day are actually quite far from normal. My life as a private school student, though NORMAL in my eyes, sets me

A Look Back at The Past On the same familiar road I drove thinking of what I recalled from my time here. I had never really spent my time enjoying high school. The stress made sure of that everything meant to be enjoyable was overshadowed by . I spent every waking moment with the idea of a future in my mind which made the entire experience much less enjoyable than for some. Though looking back at it now I had no regrets.

In second grade I started reading anything I could get my hands on. The power of knowledge allowed me to

Everyone at some point in their lives start a journey, whether it’s towards success, love, fame, money, etc. We all had start it somewhere, mines started quite early, maybe around the beginning of the second grade in elementary. I was seven at the time. I still remember the majority of my classmates and my teacher, Mrs. Edwards. Which up to this day, I still think about, her kind manners and those vivid, somewhat aggravating, memories with my class.

As I hear laughing and gossip vibrate through the wind, I look down and analyze all the things that are wrong with me. The first thought that enters my mind concerns my appearance. I think about the decisions I made this morning about my outfit, hair, and makeup. My face becomes bright red and my heart fills with anxiety. I assume that every overheard conversation is about me. I see watching me with judgemental eyes as I hide my face behind my hair looking and pretend to occupy myself with the blank screen of my phone. In those moments of anxiety and fear, I lose my train of thought and get lost in all the insecurities I have built up inside of me. These emotions have existed within me for nine years. I have since developed the security and