Soon you will never have to hear the question again: Where are you going to college? What can be even more frustrating than trying to decide where to attend college is the regret you’ll feel if you think you made the wrong choice.
I was hooked on one school since the day I set foot on its beautiful campus. Some people insist that you can “feel” the school that is best suited for you the first time you visit. I was sure I could feel the fit. I pictured myself strolling down the sidewalks and hallways. And although the town didn’t impress me, I was so engrossed with the campus that I didn’t care if I ever left it in the four blissful years I planned on spending there. As I passed students already attending the college, I imagined who I would be friends with, which boys I would like and who my soccer teammates would be. Throughout all this daydreaming, my parents warned me not to jump to conclusions. After all, I still had roughly 10 schools left to visit on our 22-campus excursion. But after I visited this school, I didn’t give the others a chance.
Through the fall of my senior year, I kept thinking of my dream college and the future I would create there. My parents liked the school, too, and were ready to write the deposit check early. I was psyched. There was one last thing to be done before we made things official. Mom wanted me to visit the campus for a weekend and stay a night in the dorms. I expected a weekend filled with cool girls, cute boys and stories to brag about to my high school friends. Two friends drove me down the next weekend, where I met my host for the night. She gave me yet another tour of campus and took me to some of the lounges and athletic facilities I had not seen before. After dinner with some of her friends, we went back to her room. That was one of the worst nights of my life.
I was bored out of my mind and stuck on a teeny campus. I called my friends at 10 p.m., crying and begging for them to come get me. After they refused and told me I needed to stick it out, I finally forced myself to sleep. Setting the alarm practically for dawn, I wasted no time calling my ride out. I vowed that I would never go back to that school and, four years later, I haven’t even gone within 30 miles of the town. What went wrong? I couldn’t tell you.
It was a combination of unfriendly people, a boring town and bland food. Things that just rubbed me the wrong way. Problem was, I had been so caught up in the school that I had no other colleges to consider. I had to re-evaluate my list of prospective colleges. This was a dreary process. However, I did some revisiting and decided that these colleges weren’t so bad after all.
Once spring rolled around, I finally had an answer to the infamous question of where was I going to school. I will not advise you to go with that supposed gut feeling that one school is your best match. Instead, really and truly give every school you visit a chance, even if it’s 10 times less appealing than your favorite. Don’t make any quick, rash decisions. After all, this is four years we are talking about! Deciding to enroll in a school early could be premature. So give your prospective early-decision school one last visit before you sign your college years away.
Yvonne VanVechten is an intern for The Next Step Magazine.
