Personal Experience: College Life

The College Board is a non-profit organization composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational programs. College Board provides widely-known resources, tools and services to students, parents, and colleges on topics such as college prep, admissions, and financial aid. How College Shapes Lives is based off information found in the report, Education Pays 2013: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society. This report is an in-depth database describing the difference in earnings, lifestyles, and behavior patterns that correlate to a person’s higher education level. How College Shapes Lives further examines how an individual can benefit from higher education and how society as a whole benefits from it. How College Shapes Lives was written by Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose and Jennifer Ma.

The preconceived notion of college life is that everyone is broke, tired, and struggling academically, spiritually and socially. While the college experience is different for each individual attending, everyone is pretty much going through the same things. We all eat the same food, experience the same fatigue after staying up all night studying for that exam coming up, checking our bank accounts and cringing when we see that we only have a few measly dollars left and regret the Whataburger we bought the other night when we thought we just had to have it and the food from the cafeteria would not suffice. I pretty much expected all of this. I expected the difficulty of the classes, the tiny showers, and the rush of people moving from class to class. What I did not

“Today is finally the day,” I thought with butterflies in my stomach as I hopped into my car and trekked forty miles to The University of Massachusetts Boston. Everyone’s first day as a college student is daunting and the nerves were definitely high that day. I was no longer attending a high school of a little over five hundred students, but rather a university with a total undergraduate enrollment of over twenty-two thousand students. This day was the start of a new chapter in my life and the University introduced entirely new opportunities for me to explore. Since the first day here, I have been submersed in a culturally diverse community that has challenged and allowed me to gain a new perspective of this world. The University of Massachusetts Boston is more than a school that I attend to gain a degree; it is a place where I continually learn and grow. I quickly fell in love with UMass Boston and only a few weeks into attending, found myself referring to it as my school. During my first year I was able to meet new people through my freshman success community and eventually form new friendships. Everything seemed to fall into place and my worries disappeared, but more personal challenge arose as the year continued on.

Growing up, I had amazing parents. They would truly do anything for me and they did do everything for me. My mother worked long hours, while my father worked multiple jobs (while pursuing his degree) just to provide for my family and I. They wanted my siblings and I to have a better life than they did. My mother was the first generation born in America, while the rest of her family was from Honduras. Although my father is a legal United States citizen, he was born in San Juan Puerto Rico. Being dealt not the best hand in life, they realized that the way for me and my siblings to have a different life is for us to have an education. With that being said, I was enrolled in a private school at a very young age. I remember reading while in private

Reflectively looking back on the semester that I failed, I noticed that I had no discipline or accountability. Being in college gives you the sense of

Whether you are a monster or a human you will find that in life there are going to obstacles that you must overcome. The life of a college freshman is no different than the life outside of college. By analyzing the main characters in the movies in Back to School (BTS) and Monsters University (MU) we can see the direct effects college has on these students’ lives. The similarities and differences of the movie BTS and MU, reveal stereotypical incoming attitudes, the reasons for attendance, and the lessons learned of closely- connected, college freshman.

Life during college and after college can be very stressful. Teenagers are emerging into young adults while college graduates are preparing for the real world. These young grown-ups are now responsible of their own health, school life, and financial condition (Civitci & Civitci, 2015). During college, most students worry about maintaining a social life while keeping grade point average up. Along with those who graduate college, struggle to find stability.

For those who attended college will say that their best years of their lives were in college, while others say otherwise. So far, my SU experience has been a blast so far, but with four years still coming ahead, there is a myriad of matters that I want to do before I graduate. As noted by Barack Obama Howard University commencement speech “Change is the effort of committed citizens who hitch their wagons to something bigger than themselves and fight for every day.” (Obama, 6), I will make use of my time for the purpose of changing the world for the better. Some of these topics that I want to do are participating in classes or majoring in another topic, traveling abroad to possibly a developing country, working at a major or a little company as an intern, finding myself and developing my people/leadership skills, and growing my skills of cooking. Hopefully, my college years will be the best moments of my life and during these times I would develop these lifelong skills for the future.

College is a great place to grow as a person, but you have to plan out what you will do in order to have the greatest experience possible. Without having a plan you will not be able to go forward with great confidence that you have made all of the right choices in college. This means you should not party and make bad decisions that will ruin your chances at making a great career out of your time and money that is going in for your education. I believe that you should not be part of the crowd that is only at school to party and to has fun, I believe that you should join a group that will help with your education and that you can still have a good time with. You should also have great relationships with your professors in order for you to go to them and talk about problems or issues that you are having with the classes you are taking and maybe they can give you advice on how you could improve in the class that you are struggling in, or maybe they can just be a person to talk to. Professors are great tools for you to use to start doing the best you can possibly do with the help and guidance that only professors can give.

Do you believe that college is for everyone? The article “Is College for Everyone” was written by Pharinet. It is located on the website AssociatedContent.com. Pharinet states her opinion that college is not for everyone. She explains the challenges of receiving a higher education. Now days individuals are expected to receive an education beyond high school. People believe you have to attend college to earn a degree for a brighter and successful future. Pharinet suggest, “Higher education is not the key to happiness and success for everyone.” Reasons for attending college differ depending on the person. Some people find college to be a little out of their price

The message that past college students continue to repeat is that college was the best times of their lives. However, naturally being rewarded with so much fun and activities, we must make ourselves accountable for how we decide to spend our undergraduate years. Based on what we have gained on our own past experiences, we must apply it to our lives now to achieve the best version of ourselves.

Fear is not a word that was in my typical vocabulary, as most people who know me I was very active throughout my highschool years. I participated in many things such as Student Council,Cheer,Band, and other extracurriculars. To do most of these you are expected to have courage and so on. One thing I understand now more than ever is that you never leave what you can do today for tomorrow, the opportunities might be gone. Many things would go through my mind these past months before I had to start college in the fall. It finally hit me that I was becoming an adult with many responsibilities ahead of me. This didn’t seem to bother me much since I kinda had everything figured out or so I thought. I wasn’t the first of my siblings to graduate. I forecasted I would have the help I needed occasionally throughout my college journey. As the days went by college registrations were getting closer than ever. I honestly was super excited to be back in school with familiar faces and even to meet new ones. The news I would be receiving two-weeks before I officially started college really set me back physically and emotionally. By this time I had met someone I’ve never in a million years thought I would meet my new friend fear.

I once told my parents when I was just six years old that I wanted to be ten times better than they were. Both of my parents came to America from Jamaica who worked hard to buy my brother and me a house to grow up in. Both of my parents could not afford to go to college in Jamaica so being born and raised in the Bronx they give me the opportunities that they never had. Yes, I wanted to be ten times better than my parents but I didn’t know all the obstacles that I would face or how hard it would be to obtain a degree.

I am very thankful to have been born into my family. With exception’s such as Yale, or Harvard my parents were more than happy to send me to whatever college that interested me. As a child I have gotten to experience things such as vacations to Disney World, waterparks, and going to the beautiful beaches of Mexico, and Dominican Republic. These are opportunities that many people may never get a chance to have in their life. Which is why through the past eighteen years I have been taught, and expected by my family, and peers to do something big in my life in order to continue living, and someday provide the same lifestyle.

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