By Hannah Chadwick
Where do you want to be for the next four years of your life? Seems like a pretty scary question, and while it is, a few Tempe Prep seniors have already worked hard and found their future college. College commitments are not due until May 1, but these seniors have started early and now have a clear path to their college of choice. However, while it may be easy now, it did not start that way and the process of finding their college took some work.
First they had to decide where they wanted to be and who they wanted around them for the next four years, then confirm their major and goals they wanted to study, and from there they had to research colleges and find one that was the right fit!
When deciding what college is right for you, there are a lot of factors that go into it and some just depend on what will suit you the best. For the seniors this year a lot of them already knew a location they hoped to study at and a community they hoped to find there, so then they just had to narrow down which college in that general criteria would fit their goals for their future the best!
Noah Frazier has decided to attend University of Arizona, and explains, “U of A was always on my list as an in-state school. When I researched all of the Arizona schools and compared them, U of A seemed like the one that could help me reach my academic and career goals best.”
Kelly Clark, who is planning on attending Queen’s University, knew she wanted to study in Canada. So after touring her school and falling in love with the town and community around Queens, she put in some research and discovered that the education program there was the best fit for her as well!
On top of the community, what’s most important when deciding your future college is the education program there and how it fits your academic needs. Finding your major is a great way to do this, but can be a hard process.
Sierra Smith plans to attend Arizona State University’s Barrett Honors College and study Biological Sciences with a focus in Genetics, Cell, and Developmental Biology on the Pre/Med track. However, deciding this major was not an easy process for her. She says “I’ve had an interesting experience with choosing a major. From the eighth grade I was dead set on aviation and the military, but after extensive research and 4 years of growing and learning about myself, it turned out not to be for me. It was scary changing the path I had already worked so hard on, but changing direction was one of the best decisions I ever made.” Sierra went through a process of personal growth when changing what she wanted to study and do when she switched from a military major to a biological one. However, now that she has she is excited for her future and happier than ever with her college decision!
Now knowing both the community you want and the major you want to study, all that is left is finding out which college has both and is the perfect fit for you! This is when researching becomes very important. For Kelly, she knew she loved Queens after touring it and meeting the community. However, she wanted to make sure it fit her academic needs as well. So she put in a lot of research and found out it had the perfect program for her! She says, “After research I realized that the education program at Queens was the best fit for me as well – a five-year program where I get both my BA and my teaching degree without having to move schools!” Kelly researched both the community by touring and the academic programs by asking questions and finding resources online, and now she has found the perfect college that fits all of her needs!
Finding a college can be a scary process, but for these three seniors and a few others, all they had to do was stay true to what they were looking for in a college and research as much as they could, which led each of them to their perfect fit!