Community College Success Stories

rparkxo
Sun, 03 Aug 2014 09:09:32 +0000

I remember lurking around this thread for the longest time about a year ago, when I was deciding whether attending community college was a good idea. It gave me a lot of hope and inspiration so thank you to everyone who has posted their stories!

High school was a blur of emotional/social issues and needless to say it wasn’t the best time. I focused so much of my energy on always trying to be accepted and being someone I wasn’t that I was inevitably desperate, depressed, and careless about school. My depression seemed to be getting worse and worse and there were too many times to remember when I didn’t feel like living was worth it anymore. I always had high expectations of myself and imagined myself going to a top college somewhere but my actions and emotional state clearly didn’t reflect those expectations. I had an SAT score of close to 2200 and took mostly AP classes but consistently received less-than-stellar grades. I just barely graduated with a 3.2 after leaving school my senior year, through the help of several people who helped me so much. I considered taking a gap year but ended up deciding to go to community college to save money and continue learning. It wasn’t an easy decision but I can easily say that it was the best possible one.

I made sure to do lots of online research about transferring to four-year universities from community college (including this thread) and discovered that it wasn’t a super uncommon process. One fantastic resource was a girl named Isa Adney who I found on youtube one day. If you’re looking for some good advice about succeeding in community college and transferring, she’s the person to go to.

Once I got there I got involved as soon as possible by starting a community service club, joining student government, and meeting lots of people. Earlier in the year I’d also started working on a project for North Korean refugees and volunteered for several organizations in my city. This past spring I was invited to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University which was an eye-opening experience. These combined extracurriculars were the most powerful part of my application and really helped me find my purpose.

I got accepted to UT Austin, USD, Cornell, American University and GWU out of the eight colleges I applied to. I remember finding out about my acceptance to Cornell during my communications class and bursting out into tears because I was so happy and surprised. Similar thing happened when I got accepted to UT Austin, my top choice. Unfortunately they gave me too little financial aid and so I’m heading to Washington DC to go to GWU this fall. Very excited to experience DC for all its adventures and opportunities!

There are so many positive aspects to my community college experience. First of all, it was super easy to get involved since not as many students were doing so. I also can’t complain about the cheap cost, or nearly free in my case since I got a scholarship that covered tuition. Taking the classes I took helped me narrow down my major (marketing/international relations) and figure out what I want to be when I “grew up”, but the best part were all the awesome friends and professors that genuinely made me feel at home.

The downsides? Being surrounded by people who don’t care much about school, getting asked where I was going to college and being judged, missing out on the typical college experience that my friends were having, feeling kind of alone in the transfer process sometimes. I think it’s easy to feel isolated and bored in the community college environment, but there are always groups and organizations that can vastly improve your social life.

Wow that was an extremely long post but I’ve been itching to tell someone my story for a while now. Community college truly made me a better person and I can hardly believe that I was the girl I was a year ago. Good luck to everyone going through this process, I wish you all the best!