Senior year is fast approaching, which means the questions about college have only intensified, to the point where the first question I am asked by any adult I meet is "So which college are you going to?" To the chagrin of most of these people, I don't have an answer to this question (well, not really). Apparently, because I haven't decided what college I'm going to go to yet, I am destined to live a sad, destitute life. What I don't understand is how I'm supposed to already know what college I want to go to when there are over 4,000 colleges in America, the vast majority of which I've never even heard of.
Even if you know what major you want to pursue in college, which is a big if (how are you supposed to know what we want to do for the rest of our life after just 17 years?), that still doesn't narrow the options down much, because most mainstream majors are available in pretty much every college. Obviously, some colleges are known for being strong in certain majors, but in reality you can pursue almost any major at every college.
If you've decided to go to one of Virginia's lovely in-state public colleges, that narrows down the options quite a bit; especially if you have good enough grades to take out all the crappy in-state schools and narrow it down to the likes of UVA, Virginia Tech, VCU, and William and Mary. I luckily (or maybe not so luckily) have the option to go anywhere in the country for college, meaning that all these in-state schools are just one of many possibilities for me.
I recently visited one college possibility, Georgetown, and it looked nice and all; the campus is pretty stunning, the academics are amazing, and the opportunities for internships are great, but I could say the same thing about a large number of colleges. What really separates a Georgetown from a UVA or a Princeton really? This confusion has left me with the odd situation of evaluating colleges based on their selectivity (Virginia Tech is not selective enough, for example, and Harvard is too selective) rather their merits; because I don't know enough about all these colleges to be able to tell the difference between each one's individual assets and liabilities.
Hopefully I'll figure this thing out before too long. I have high expectations for a college hunting trip I'm going to be taking up Northeast in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll get an even stronger version of that "I-can-imagine-myself-here vibe" than I got at Georgetown. Or maybe a ray of sunlight will fall on my face and I'll realize "this is the place I have to be", and all these college problems will be solved, and whenever someone asks me "what college are you going to?", I can answer confidently "NYU (or Columbia or Princeton)", instead of stuttering and trying to deflect the question. You can only hope, I guess.
Even if you know what major you want to pursue in college, which is a big if (how are you supposed to know what we want to do for the rest of our life after just 17 years?), that still doesn't narrow the options down much, because most mainstream majors are available in pretty much every college. Obviously, some colleges are known for being strong in certain majors, but in reality you can pursue almost any major at every college.
If you've decided to go to one of Virginia's lovely in-state public colleges, that narrows down the options quite a bit; especially if you have good enough grades to take out all the crappy in-state schools and narrow it down to the likes of UVA, Virginia Tech, VCU, and William and Mary. I luckily (or maybe not so luckily) have the option to go anywhere in the country for college, meaning that all these in-state schools are just one of many possibilities for me.
I recently visited one college possibility, Georgetown, and it looked nice and all; the campus is pretty stunning, the academics are amazing, and the opportunities for internships are great, but I could say the same thing about a large number of colleges. What really separates a Georgetown from a UVA or a Princeton really? This confusion has left me with the odd situation of evaluating colleges based on their selectivity (Virginia Tech is not selective enough, for example, and Harvard is too selective) rather their merits; because I don't know enough about all these colleges to be able to tell the difference between each one's individual assets and liabilities.
Hopefully I'll figure this thing out before too long. I have high expectations for a college hunting trip I'm going to be taking up Northeast in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll get an even stronger version of that "I-can-imagine-myself-here vibe" than I got at Georgetown. Or maybe a ray of sunlight will fall on my face and I'll realize "this is the place I have to be", and all these college problems will be solved, and whenever someone asks me "what college are you going to?", I can answer confidently "NYU (or Columbia or Princeton)", instead of stuttering and trying to deflect the question. You can only hope, I guess.
Ankit: I like your idea of experimenting with a blog that is not too 'intense' ... of writing something more 'breezy'.
ReplyDeleteWith this blog, you are almost there! The narrative flows very nicely ... there is growing evidence that you are mastering the medium.
And let me also compliment OUTSPOKEN for its vastly improved, and more pleasing, 'look and feel'.