Essay about My College Experience: Plans vs. Reality

I’m raised in an environment filled with negative stereotypes, high dropout rates, fewer resources, and low expectations. As a Mexican American from the San Fernando Valley, educational opportunities do not come often. In middle school it massed into my head that going to college is my way towards success. Soon it became the only option for me and as a result, I joined Project Grad to begin my journey towards college. They introduced me to the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference during my junior year. After applying and attending, the conference eliminated the label that Latinos are not college material. Subsequently, I grabbed as many opportunities as I could. In my junior my school did not put me in any AP classes. Therefore, I went to go

Midway into my sophomore year of high school is when I learned that my family will be moving to Massachusetts due to my father’s job relocation. At first, I was set to move to Massachusetts with my family, which meant transferring to my third high school in three years and having to switch to a different club soccer team during the most important year of recruiting for college soccer. Then, an opportunity was presented to me in which I would be able to stay at my current high school and my current soccer team. The opportunity being that I would stay with a close family friend who attended the same school and plays for the same soccer team, but in exchange I would have to leave my mother and father for the next two years of my life. My family and I thoroughly discussed the plan and after many heated arguments and fights, we finally decided that I would stay behind and stay with the Williams family for the next two years of my life. This life changing opportunity has slowly but surely helped me transition from a child into a young adult.

The challenge transitioning to college is that I will not have my parents around to provide for me. I have been around my parents all my life and they have provided for me and made sure I make the right decisions, but when I go to college I have to do everything myself which will be a whole new experience for me since I have never done it before.

Going into college, I knew that there will be an abundance of life lessons learned, but I did not ken that I would be able to absorb so much in such a short duration. This past year in college, I gained vital skills and grew stronger mentally. College is a place where everyone learns from their failures and successes, and with that, there are numerous things to learn from that. My experiences in college edified me how to work with others, communicate with professionals efficaciously, and make perdurable relationships. In addition, being away from home and living in an unfamiliar environment without my family availed me to become independent. Surviving on my own, I learned to make my bed, cook, do laundry, clean up after myself, and more. College taught me skills beyond the classroom, and it withal a leeway to becoming independent away

To begin with, college has always been one of those things that I have wanted and just needed to do. I was unsure for the longest of how, what, or when it would happen but I knew

"Tomorrow is the first day of what I will become." I wrote this in my diary the night before my first day of college. I was anxious as I imagined the stereotypical college room: intellectual students, in-depth discussions about neat stuff, and of course, a casual professor sporting the tweed jacket with leather elbows. I was also ill as I foresaw myself drowning in a murky pool of reading assignments and finals, hearing a deep, depressing voice ask "What can you do with your life?" Since then, I've settled comfortably into the college "scene" and have treated myself to the myth that I'll hear my calling someday, and that my future will introduce itself to me with a hardy handshake. I can't completely rid my

From one of the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, to one of the greatest pop stars to ever take the stage, to one of the greatest actors to ever grace the screen, to the most decorated Olympian ever the University of Michigan has not only a long history but a pedigree of producing men and women that are nothing short of excellent. My personal goal is to be nothing short of excellent. I believe that UM is the best university at taking raw talent and transforming it into pure greatness. The writing department of UM is no exception. When searching for potential universities, UM stuck out due to its impeccable track record of rigor and professor availability. I am not simply looking for just any old college but rather one where I am stretched

During my first year in college I did not realize the major challenges I would face being a first-generation college student that was undeclared as a major. I knew I had to continue my education as many of my teachers and advisers in high school had mentioned. But I never knew the struggle of not having a family member to turn for advice or guidance to navigate my college education or choosing a major. Being a college student opened my eyes in seeing the world through a different perspective primarily through knowledge I had never came across before. I became interested in helping other students in their path post-high school by volunteering, mentoring and working with high school students in their process of applying or learning about their postsecondary education options. After working with different ethnic groups I came to realize that those that identified as Latino were not the only ones facing similar or same challenges as myself but other ethnic groups as well. As I worked with a student interested in attending a four year university but was not A-G eligible because they were three classes away from being eligible to apply. As the student had mentioned that the counselor did not enroll them in the right classes, however, if the student had known the A-G requirements they might have been aware of changes that should have occurred before their senior year. Being able to advise the student through the options available to him in regards to applying and taking the course

“Rude”, “selfish”, “brat”. I was going to tell the story of another black girl escaping the ghetto but someone told me to show you who I am. I may be another black girl from the ghetto but that isn’t who I am. I can’t tell you who I am because I haven’t fully discovered myself yet but I can tell you who I aspire to be and how I got to be falsely labeled “rude, selfish, and a brat”.

Anticipation arose in the back seats of a cramped car in a foreign country, when I finally had the circumstance to converse with a man who I eagerly wished to meet, though I never really had contact with. Naive to the cultural beliefs in the world, I ignorantly neglect my worries of the reasons as to why my father would have abandoned me at a young age, I just felt happiness to finally see the person who should be crucial to the mental and emotional development of a child. Then, in a language I do not fully comprehend, I clearly understood the meanings of the words he spoke, about his decisions, about me. He left and never attempted contact because I’m a girl, and girls do not obtain greatness in his culture. He left my mother as a young immigrant

"Have a seat," The woman spoke fairly uninterested as if she had done this one-hundred other times already today. I hesitantly walked into the dimly lit room and took up the chair across from the self proclaimed clairvoyant, who currently was stuffing her iPhone into her handbag. The small room reeked of incense, the only window was covered with an embroidered tapestry, and small candles placed randomly around the room was its only source of light. The woman glanced me over for a while before she finally spoke again.

Every single human being lives by certain principles. This also means people have different personalities and opinions. Based on my experience as a minority living in United States, I came to appreciate the struggles I faced in my life. The reason is struggles positively shape my goals and desires in life. I believe one thing that sets me apart from other candidates applying to the University of California is contributing positive aspects to society.

For many, after graduating high school the next big step is college. I never asked myself why or if I even wanted to. Yet, since I was not yet ready to join the work force, and didn’t want to disappoint my parents, I simply followed the path that I was supposed to take. For a while I had no direction, but through the loss of my high school English teacher and my dream of making my family proud, I discovered that college was the place I wanted and needed to be.

If you could somehow take all the anxious emotions in a person and ever so gently hand it back to them, I would have dropped mine today. Tomorrow is move in day. The day started out poorly to begin with because it was also my younger brother’s birthday. His name is Ayden, he is turning into a teenager, and couldn’t be more excited, all week he has been bragging to the youngest of our trio of siblings that “I’m gonna be thirteen Eian, that means I’ll be a teen like Devin!”. Ayden has dirty blond hair, and it looks like he had a bowl cut and just let it grow, so now his hair is 4 inches long and shaggier than ever. The best and most amusing part of his hair is that it never quite stays down in the right places, he was cursed

As I graduated high school, I thought college would just be yet another four years of high school, and I was wrong. College opens many new doors in a young man or woman’s life. There are new responsibilities and pressures that you will have to deal with, and with more freedom these responsibilities and pressures can be difficult to handle. College has changed a great deal over the years and these changes, such as more freedoms, make college a much more challenging experience. You need to start preparing for college now by making yourself more responsible and having more self-control. Although you think college is merely partying with easy classes on the side, I have experienced pressures and work loads that make the experience challenging