Personal Narrative: Being A Non-Traditional College Student

Coming into the University I didn’t know what to expect, especially with taking 16 hours, and Comp being one of them. Being a first generation college student, has been rough especially since my older sister exceeded my parents expectations. I believe I am capable of succeeding in anything I set my mind to. I have always struggled with English/Writing since English is my second language. Many people tend to get surprised when I tell them I learned English at the age of 4, since they believed English would be my first language since I was born in the United States. Long story short, English is my second language because I was raised by my grandparents, since my parents always dedicated their time to work to provide us with a better future.

they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please

I look back at how I write. I actually changed my way after I get into college. When I was in high school, we don’t have writing class, the writing is combined with Chinese class. So we might just take 2 or 3 times writing class each semester. In the writing class, teacher taught us how to write, how to generate our idea. But except writing class we are asked for write, the only writing we need to do is for the exam. In the writing class, I would give some time to think about what I’m going to write, maybe I would write a outline. But for the exam, I don’t have time to do that. The writing part take 40 percent of the grade, but the time we got is depend on how fast we can finish the other parts of the exam. When I finish other parts of the

I have been in avid since my freshman year of high school and I can honestly say it has really changed my view of college.My freshman year of high school I wasn't even sure I wanted to go to college being that no one in my family went to college I was slightly discouraged.Through avid I learned about college and how it could really change my future.Avid helped me learn organizational skills and study skills that I didnt have before.We learned about taking cornell notes and using our binders as part of our organizational techniques.By becoming more organized I was able to see my grades drastically improve as well.Another concept AVID introduced was the use of planners of course before hand I knew what a planner was but I never really thought

As a non-traditional student, I had many opportunities to lead at school and work. As a matter fact it is hard to consider an internship because I am always having jobs which also gives me a chance to improve my leadership skills. I believe that a good leader must also be a good follower. I learned this in my first formal job as a chemical technician.

As a result of my parents emigrating from Vietnam to the United States, they were forced to start from scratch and build their ways up. Being a first generation college student, I also saw the struggles my parents had to endure in order to set me up for a better life. I was taught the importance of education and self-motivation in order to succeed in life. With this in mind I have set out to keep pushing myself to become a great engineer in order to provide a better life for my family and myself.

When I started college, I learned I have to do everything on my own. I had no idea what all I needed to do before the first semester began. I first learned that my mom couldn’t keep doing everything for me. It was my job to find out everything I needed. It was a tough adjustment from what I was used to but I was excited to get started.

College was always that one thing that seemed so far away to me. My whole life I remember people talking about it and all I could think about was how it seemed so for away; that I couldn’t possibly make it that far. But lo and behold, here I am; a freshman in college. Starting college of course comes with many fears; “What if I miss a class? What if I forget to do my homework? What if I get too homesick? Am I even ready for this?”. But out of all of those minor concerns, only one really makes me worried: What if I fail at my dream? I have always wanted to be an artist. I doodled everyday, taught myself the skills and even experimented with different methods and media. So it only seemed fitting that I become an artist (An animator to be more

College is not as big a change as I thought it was going to be. These first weeks are not even that different from high school. I go to school, home, and my boyfriend's. It is just another routine. All I really do is walk around campus with my headphones in and ignore everyone. My only friends really are my roommates. We all have to much life going on to really do many things together. Most of us are not even home most of the time.

As Senior year gets closer and closer to the end college is the next to approach. I have already applied to colleges after considering the many options and narrowing down my search. When it came to college I never really thought about not going. It has never really been an option because I wanted to go and my parents did too. When applying for college came up I did have a bump in the road because of money. I was given a choice to do what I wanted; to pick where I wanted to go, but I wasn’t as ready as I thought. While I was looking through colleges there were a lot of majors and minors I had never thought about. I knew I wanted to go to a four-year college, but where? After long talks with my counselor I finally settle for about seven school;

The decision to return to college after a twenty year hiatus was a very intimidating one. Not only was I twenty years out of school and my study habits and routine long forgotten, but the world itself had changed enormously in terms of technology and everyday procedures. There were no such things as PC’s cell phones and yes the Internet back in the 1980’s. Having evolved with this technology made my return to college that much easier, yet I was still very apprehensive regarding the uncertainty of my success. I made the decision in an intuitive manner at this point and jumped in feet first not knowing what to expect and relying on my intelligence to get me through. The first semester I took extremely serious and managed to become a rational/linear

The fact that there is life after school is honestly a little terrifying. Since the age of six we have been put in school and that is all we have known, but come college graduation we are all thrown out in the real world. We are expected to immediately go out and get a job, start a family and grow up. While this thought is a little scary I am very excited to go on this journey. From college on I hope to thrive in college, become a great teacher, create a family and be financially stable.

My personal experience as nontraditional student coming back to Umass was slight nerve racking. I was not sure how I was going to be greeted by my classmates or if they would even understand what it would be like and to have had the experiences of social class division and economic separation I struggled with my entire life. There were many times I doubted what I said or could offer my classmates would be valued and seen as a positive contribution. For these reasons I found having a professor who was not young and not as old who understood social stratification. Professor Ray eased my nerves in her class and gave not just myself but other students a space where they could stumble in thinking and be picked up without being criticized and judged.

For many families, this time of the year is all about getting their children back into a school routine, making sure they have everything they need for their classroom, and buying new clothes, shoes, and backpacks. For others, it means buying 50 pounds of textbooks for college, stocking up on coffee, and bracing yourself for long nights and hours of reading. I'm talking about the adult college student, because that's what I'm about to be in a few short days when classes start.

I was very nervous in the beginning but I tried to hide that from my client so she would feel more comfortable. I mainly listened in the beginning and started offering more answers as time went by. It felt more like a conversation then an official interview. It helped that we were in a familiar area and had an easier time talking to each other even in front of a camera. I did have a problem with my camera and had to stop halfway through to get a new one. We would have started the interview over but we had a limited time frame to work with because she had to leave soon.