Is that your final decision?

The college search process is intense. Not because you aren’t going to get into college…people who want to go to college will find a college that fits them. The intensity comes from the people you talk to throughout the college process that are bound and determined to convince you otherwise.

My college search process began without me really realizing it.  It was my 16th birthday and as my only present, my parents had flown my best friend from New Mexico to D.C. to visit.  Pretty cool!  So while she was there I had this idea to try to convince her that she should look at the same colleges I was looking at.  In order to do this she, my mom, and I decided to take a roadtrip down to Williamsburg.  (I now know that this was actually my mom’s trick to get me to look at William and Mary).  When we arrived it was pouring rain, we had no umbrella, we almost died going through confusion corner, and we couldn’t find parking.  Not a great start.  Finally after only four puddles and several near death experiences with uneven bricks we made it to the safety of the admission’s office.  As only rising Juniors none of us had any idea what to expect of our visit, but somehow by the end of the information session I had somehow signed on for AP Calculus and AP Latin at the recommendation of whichever dean staff member happened to be giving the info session.

Then we went on the tour.  Although it might not be the most professional thing to point out now, I will just say for the record that the tour guide was pretty much one of the most attractive guys I had ever seen to that date. Needless to say, I listened with rapt attention to every word out of the tour guide’s mouth.  As it turned out, every word was actually pretty good in my book.  After the tour, my mom asked my friend and I what we thought.  My friend, much to my secret dismay, did not seem interested at all.  But somewhere inside of me some sort of seed had been planted.  I liked it.  At the time, I was sure that the only reason I liked the school was because it was the first college I had seen, but over the course of the next couple of years I would begin to realize that I was wrong…

For more on my college search tune in to the next installment of my blog!