41.1 F
Memphis
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Buy now

spot_img

This is a new post

My Career Planning teacher Ms. Myers was passing out our graduation requirements and on the list it said to “Apply to 27 Colleges and must be accepted to 4”. I was like wait, what, I don’t even know of 27 colleges that I’m interested in, plus I would be bless to even get accepted to 2 out 4.

I sat calm in confusion for a second but I was determined to graduate. I went on the internet and type in a list of HBCU’S, so many pop up I wrote down the ones I was familiar with and possibly could get accepted to. I narrow it down to the colleges that will accept a gpa of 2.0 – 2.5 and there was hope. I realize that it’s possible for everyone to be accepted to college.

I start applying and the acceptance letters start coming in, even with a low ACT score, some acceptances was conditional but not that many. I got accepted into 9 colleges in total all out of state.

The senior class would go to Tennessee Promise workshops at Southwest and I’ll sit there and be like I can’t go to college here in Memphis. It was a must that I got out of the city, every time I would discuss leaving my mom would suggest University of Memphis or Lemoyne Owen College. No, Ma’am I’m leaving you, then she says what if something happen to you while you’re away at school, you get sick or a bad accident and I need to be there. I took what she was said into consideration and also became a little paranoid so I narrowed my college list down again by the distance.

I still wanted to leave, I wanted to develop independency. I wanted to attend a school no more than 3 hours away. My top 3 schools looked to be University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Alcorn State and Alabama A & M College.

 

People would always ask why not Tennessee State University a lot of my classmates were claiming to go there and I wanted a new start. I was strolling down my timeline and saw a picture of the 84th Miss University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and I was like Arkansas is right over the bridge but how far is Pine Bluff from Memphis 2hrs and 30mins I was like that’s great. I knew I was going to University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff before I was even accepted. I kept it to myself for a while around school before anyone decide that they want to go.

A recruiter came in from UAPB it was bittersweet happy to meet one but I knew that he’s about to sell this school to others. He spoke for 30 mins to us and told us the minimum they will accept on the ACT is a 10 and gpa of a 2.0. Few months later my acceptance letter came overwhelmed with excitement even started to make friends with a few before I even got there.

August was finally here and its move in day we cross the bridge and imagining how the campus would look, smell and what in the world would my roommate be like. Once we got there my mom decorated my room and it was time for her to go. I start sobbing uncontrollably I didn’t want to stay, I don’t know anyone, this a new town I’m 2hrs away I wasn’t ready like I thought I was. I really regretted that I didn’t visit the campus prior to moving in and I advise anyone to visit the campus before attending.

Going out of state to college is very expensive tuition and living funds can get out of your budget. It’s hard especially if everything is away from campus and you don’t have a car and you have to find a responsible driver and pay them gas money, paying to wash your clothes and buying dorm toiletry items constantly begins to add up.

 

The learning experience out of it was learning to budget, manage money and becoming a responsible adult. It’s so many things I could’ve done becomes I was away from home but my mother instilled a lot of mannerism and class in me that I knew better. I’ll recommend out of state college to anyone at least give it a try for 1 year and if you don’t like it you can always transfer back.

Related Articles

Stay Connected

21,507FansLike
2,634FollowersFollow
17,200SubscribersSubscribe
- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest Articles