Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I Guess When It All Comes Down to It

Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up
These are the best days of our lives
The only thing that matters
Is just following your heart
And eventually you'll finally get it right.

                          In This Diary, The Ataris

As a senior, I’ve had to narrow down the colleges I plan to apply to. It’s an extremely daunting decision because it will virtually shape the rest of my life…scary!! Before today my top choices were: WVU, University of Mary Washington, Salem College, and VT. But today, my top choices were blown away.

Shenandoah University has always been the “school in town.” We attended plays every summer at the theatre and played in the park that borders it’s campus. It’s a private, United Methodist college—that much I knew from the VA United Methodist Conferences I attended with my grandparents. And that private means more money. Like UVA tuition. So it’s never really been a school I considered—too close for comfort ;)

Today, on a FBLA field trip, we toured SU’s new business school and let me tell you I was impressed with a capital “I”.  The class sizes are small (25 is much better then UVA’s 200) and the professors were engaging and really cool (I met three and all of them left me thinking even hours later.) There are summers’ abroad and internships and lots of financial aide programs. You also receive a MacBook which is a definite plus seeing as I’ve been saving up for one (yes, it’s added to the tuition).

The only real downside I found to the school was that it’s about 15 minutes from my house; so much for getting out of town. I guess I’m realizing that this town isn’t as bad as I once thought…it’s actually pretty great.

But like my grandmother told me this evening, “You better look a few more places, Hannah. You might be one of those people that falls in love with every school.” I think this is going to be one of those times that I take Gram’s advice, even when I know that SU is a top contender at this point.

SO for today’s Your Turn Tuesday, how did you decide where you wanted to go to college? What made it stand out to you? Was it the campus, a professor?

4 comments:

  1. One of the only regrets I have is that I didn't go away to college and do the whole collge experience. It's the very best time in your life and you should take full advantage of it.
    I graduated from Shenandoah, because you're options become limited after you become a mommmy, and yes its a great school and yes you are going to do great no matter where you go but its 15 minutes down the road and you should definitely check out all the schools you are interested in before choosing "the one".
    Love you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. this has nothing to do with Hannah's blog but are you more of a M O M M Y when you spell it with four M's instead of three?

    now on to the serious stuff... i never had the opportunity to go away to school and that is one of the biggest regrets of my life... i went to LFCC and the community college in Moorefield but it just wasn't the same... i was very envious of the girls who went away and lived on campus... if you decide that SU is the college of choice please, please take advantage of the summer's abroad... and really take advantage of being away... ;-)

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  3. Hey you, go away to college. PUUUHLLLEEEASSEEE. I've been looking forward to this time in your life for a loong time now. I can finally be an only child. You're already gonna use all the family's money to go to college in general, so why not go big and go away.

    ....just saying. hahaha :)

    love, anonymous <3

    ReplyDelete
  4. this has nothing to do with Hannah's blog but are you more of a M O M M Y when you spell it with four M's instead of three?

    now on to the serious stuff... i never had the opportunity to go away to school and that is one of the biggest regrets of my life... i went to LFCC and the community college in Moorefield but it just wasn't the same... i was very envious of the girls who went away and lived on campus... if you decide that SU is the college of choice please, please take advantage of the summer's abroad... and really take advantage of being away... ;-)

    ReplyDelete

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