Personal Narrative: My College Admissions Essay Contest

Alfreda was a first generation college student. She had a difficult academic experience being one of only four African American students majoring in animal science. She used her social life to help her cope with the experience. Alfreda mentioned Zinck 's night which is a campus tradition named after a bar keeper in Ithaca that owned a bar that was a haven for college students. Alfreda found no interest in this event, however, she did participate in Slope day because it was an opportunity for her and her friends to celebrate the last day of school. Instead of participating in the university-wide homecoming, she mentions a separate homecoming sponsored by a Black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha and the Festival of Black Gospel. She states:

When I first started thinking about college schools I never thought about going to MSU or Ole Miss. I wanted to go to the bigger universities, but I knew I wouldn’t do well if I went there my first year. My high school did not prepare me enough for University, and I hadn’t decided on a major either. I choose East Central Community College (ECCC) as the school I would go to for many reasons, and when I got here I knew I made the right choice.

Throughout my educational career at St. Paul High School I have been involved in many roles of academic excellence and leadership that I believe have well-prepared me for my future.  As a freshman and sophomore, I received two ACE Awards for maintaining a minimum 4.0 GPA and as a junior received and Academic Letter.  During my sophomore year of high school, I participated in a number of leadership roles including 2015 HOBY ambassador and The Congress of Future Medical Leaders delegate.  Now, as a senior, I have taken on more positions of academic leadership such as participating on the St. Paul High School Academic Challenge Team and being a member of the National Honor Society.  Although these are only a number of my accomplishments over the

As a student, I have always strived to do my best work. This determination also carries over into the rest of my life, including athletics, community service, and other extracurricular activities. I am currently a junior at POLYTECH High School and am a student in the Criminal Justice technical area. I am a member of the National Honor Society and our school-wide SkillsUSA chapter. Outside of school, I am a very active member of my church youth group and work often with the Knights of Columbus in community service efforts. I participate in shot put and discus with the school track team, and I also play volleyball. Through dedication and hard-work, I have managed to maintain high grades over the past three years of school and earn a rank of fourth in my class.

Science can be complicated, but it is one of the subjects that explains what goes on in our world. Throughout high school, science courses were always my favorite. I decided that my major of choice for college would be biology: the study of living organisms. Grogan College’s curricular focus “is the development of the professional self in the areas of health, medicine, nursing, education, criminal law, business, and the performing arts”. Looking at that statement made me realize that this residential college is my best fit. The words that captured my attention are health, medicine, and performing arts. As a color guard performer and biology major, it is important that I continue performing as an outlet, as well as increase my research skills.

Every day I went into work I knew one thing: one of the residents would not know who I was. He had seen me before. In fact, he had seen me more days than not in the last year. He held conversations with me, danced, went out in the community for various events, helped me cook, ate the food I made, and prayed with me every night. Despite that, every day he met me for the first time all over again.

In a few short weeks I will be coming up to my third official year as a clinically practicing bedside registered nurse. I am feeling a mixture of emotions: Pride, restlessness, uncertainty, elation, determination, humble, and many other feelings I cannot yet describe since there is no name for them. Nursing is all I ever wanted to do. I can’t quite remember how I caught the bug but I do remember making the decision to pursue this career and never looking back.

Were moving!My family and I were on the way to our new house.We were only about thirty minutes from the place,I could not wait.

I recently made the rank of Technical Sergeant in the United States Air Force. A feat that

I clicked on the mouse and it was done. I cannot believe it. I just submitted my college application for Armstrong State University. How surreal is that? I am saying a prayer because against all advice, this is the one and only college application I plan to submit. Some may say it’s a mistake or a pipe dream to only make one college selection, but I refuse to think of it as anything but my reality.

I wish to inform you that I graduated on December 15, 2017 and accomplished successfully the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Technology at Bowie State University.

With only one month left until the prestigious AP Calculus exam, I sat at my wooden desk, diligently memorizing and practicing endless problems in preparation; my dim lamp casting a small portion of light across my notebook. My body was at a constant struggle, my eyes were intermittently flickering from forcing myself awake, while my fuzzy slippers soothed my stress and allowed me to feel a bit more comfortable. I knew I had to receive a high score on this exam, as if it was a life or death situation. I was determined, motivated and dedicated to succeed no matter the circumstances. In short, I was ambitious.

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;

FOR a long time and for a lot of us, “college” was more or less a synonym for success. We had only to go. We had only to graduate. And if we did, according to parents and high-school guidance counselors and everything we heard and everything we read, we could pretty much count on a career, just about depend on a decent income and more or less expect security. A diploma wasn’t a piece of paper. It was an amulet.

After the initial stumbling block more commonly known as residential life, I faced the towering challenge of settling into classes. Once I had registered (which was itself something of a dilemma), I had in my hand a sheet of abbreviations that rivaled a military briefing or a computer manual. My first class, on a Thursday morning, was located in a building called CBW, which stood for Classroom Building West. Surely the