Personal Narrative: I Want To Get The Most Out Of College

I am fortunate enough to have parents that can afford to send me to college, and support my choice to pursue a higher education. By attending college, I will eventually graduate with a degree and later earn a high paying career. Along with this, I have found college to be a way to discovering who I am. I have been able to move out, take over my own bills, and earn responsibility by doing so. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to attend college. Financial reasons typically hold individuals back from attending universities, and that later may affect their lives. Although I attend class daily, the true effect college will have on me in the future goes unnoticed. An education is something that is highly valued, and so important. Everyone should have the chance to have an education, but unfortunately, it does not happen. College for me, is a privilege. Therefore, I will work hard to earn my degree, and later put it to

As a young girl, the idea of college was a distant dream that I knew was important. I was told every day for the past 12 years of my life that college is the threshold to a better life because with a college degree you can accomplish so much more. Now, as a high school graduate, College and everything that comes with it is my reality. From applying to accepting an offer to orientation and financial obligations is all too real. I am just starting to realize how difficult college is.

Everyone has a different story and background, but we all hold similar aspirations for the future. We can either let our background draw us into an inescapable black hole or use it to thrive over any obstacle. For many minority students as myself, the shot at college is the only chance we truly get to overcome our situations. It’s true that not everyone needs a college education to succeed, but the truth is not everyone has the resources to make something of themselves without the valuable education which a renowned institution like the University of Illinois has to offer. I come from a low-income family which had their share of struggles from an early age, which impacted our lives greatly. My decision on what major I possibly might be interested in pursuing might not have been directly linked with my family history, but the overall aspiration of attending college has. At the age of eight I faced the sad reality that I would be left without a father figure. My dad would be incarcerated for the next seven years for dealing drugs and at the end of his sentence he would be deported back to Mexico. This incident left a heartbroken family and a mother to fend for four kids all by herself. This overall incident was a wake-up call to better myself and not let myself be defined by the mistakes, which my father committed. I saw the struggles, which my mother had to endure.My mother is one of the most

Ever since you were little, your parents have been talking about this wonderful thing called college. They told you that you have to go there to get an education before you can get a good job. Many kids have dreamed of going to college, and being able to get the job of their dreams. By putting in hard work and dedication to good grades in high school, you had high hopes that you would be able to get into an Ivy League school. The American dream of being able to go to college to get a degree is sliding away from many people due to rising costs. With increasing tuition prices and job loss, the college dream is slowly and surely slipping away from many students and their families.

Starting in high school, students are not given equal opportunities to excel because of family background. Furthermore, the admissions process itself has its flaws—legacies, minorities, and athletes are being chosen over exceptionally gifted valedictorians. Even after college, the problems do not end; possible joblessness and student debt are unavoidable. On top of these major problems, educators and parents continue to convince kids everywhere that college is the only option to become successful, and choosing another path is heavily looked down upon. The newest generation’s life is centered around the climax of college while at the same time, more and more students are unable to attend universities because of cost or rejection, but this is a paradox. The more high schoolers work hard, the more high schoolers will get turned down to their dream schools, and the more the college admissions process effectively become a lottery, leading to “many highly talented, brilliant, creative people thinking they’re not” (Robinson). The widespread college problem has no easy fix, nor does it have a single solution. Rather than working to fix the unfixable, adults must stop putting such emphasis on the college pathway, and instead stress that there are other options. The future of the job world is unknown; there is no way to know if an expensive college education is the right choice. College, with all of its flaws, is just one option in preparing for the future; it is not necessarily the best. Therefore, the single word, “college,” should stop dividing the academic from the non-academic or the successful from the unsuccessful, and instead be considered a single path in an array of worthy

I am a first-generation college student. My parents never got passed high school. They were both faced with hardship and had no choice but to get a job to deal with the responsibilities of home. My dad left India at the age of 16 to build a better life for himself and my mom in America. In my household, education has always been a priority. Since my parents have felt firsthand how life is like without a degree, they made it their mission to ingrain in us a value for education like no other. However, there have been many situations in which I have found myself lost and looking for answers about college. Sadly, by being a first-generation student, my parents could not help me. Not only could they not help me, but being the first to attend college

Every since I was a child my parents always spoke about college.A dream of theirs has now become a huge goal for me, to be the first in my family to attend and graduate college. In the third grade, after getting a good grade on my tests their faces would light up and would tell me how proud they were of the intelligent young lady I was becoming and how they wanted me to make something great out of myself, but most importantly impact and change something in the community. As a little third grade girl I smiled and noded without fully grasping the meaning of what they were talking about. By the age of ten I knew what they meant and that’s how I knew that pursuing law school and becoming a lawyer is what I wanted to do with my life,

“Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation” (1). Many people believe that school isn’t for everyone, and whoever goes is privileged for doing so. Countless people in the world today do not attend college, and this is mainly due to an influence of those in their family. Perhaps they are unsupportive of higher education, their parents and family members may view their entry into college as a break in the family system rather than a continuation of their schooling and higher learning. Most of the first-generation students decide to apply to colleges, because they aspire to jobs which require degrees. However, unlike some students whose parents have earned a degree, they often seek out college to bring honor to their families, and to ensure they make a decent amount of money for their future.

Even though I was prepared for college once I was a senior because of my guidance counselor, I still felt like I was alone in the college process since my parents were not able to provide much help, making me have to figure out many things on my own. In “No Rich Child Left Behind,” the reality of how upper class families provide their children with the best of the best when it comes to anything, the reproduction of social class is apparent. Rich children are put way ahead of less privileged children, giving them a leg up when it came to becoming super successful adults, just like their parents. Even though this was not my reality, my parents did their best to give me a good education that would prepare me for the real

College is a chance to further the education of most teens and adults in the modern world. Many people have the choice to enter college after high school or go later in their lives. Both of my parents made separate choices but both turned out to be very successful in their lives. College is a really tough decisions that could be beneficial in most cases because you do happen to get paid more money with a college degree. My mom chose to go to high school to continue her education in the medical field and it eventually paid off, getting out of student loans and having a lot of money to get the needs and wants of my family. My father chose to use his skills and the trades he learned to work and make money to support him and my mom, and he still continues to work using the trades he learned growing up. Both had different opinions on college and made their decisions according to the way they have been raised and their environment. Everyone’s environment and ideas is one of the largest influences in going to college because they shape every decision that you have ever made and really effect your future. My decision had been made to go to college to make my future much better

Students from all over the United States are told all through their life that they need to attend college if they ever want to be successful, however, this is far from the truth. Often schools are culprits for driving students to attend money driven colleges, in other cases it is family. While schools all too often make the push on students to continue their schooling, parents can cause the same situation, as they may not have a degree and be working a low-paying factory job. Now kids already don’t want to be like their parents when they get older, so seeing them suffer in poverty or barely above the poverty line can cause some dissatisfaction, further seeking a degree to live a life that they never got. What many

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

Choices people make while they are young can affect them for the rest of their lives. From a very young age, children are asked what they want to be when they grow up, and they are told they can be anything they want to be with hard work and dedication. Countless children say they want to be doctors and lawyers, but they are unaware of the financial burden they would take on to achieve these dreams. Going to college is not a simple as it may seem while guidance counselors promise it is the only way to be successful in life it only leaves students in debt and jobless. A college education is a key to unlocking the doors to these sought out professions but most of the time individuals can not afford the “key to success.” College is not for everyone

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.

During my 8th grade year, my algebra 1 teacher asked me if I had thought about attending college. My answer at the time was very nonchalant: “I don't know, maybe.” But since then that question often crossed my mind, becoming “Why not attend college? What’s holding you back? Is it doubt about being capable enough?” Eventually, I told myself, “Yes, you can take on anything you set your mind to.” So I looked for the classes required for college and put all of my energy and resources toward academic achievement.