<p>Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thanks again for all the helpful advice and support! I know this thread has proven very useful when discussing college with my parents and I greatly appreciate all the contributors. Hopefully the OP wont mind me hijacking his/her thread. </p>
<p>A small update for those of you who would like to hear: I think will put a deposit at both UGA and Emory to buy more time for my final choice. GT is pretty much out of the running since I feel their academics are strongly suited towards hard science majors. Although I feel I would be most at home there, I would like to opportunity to experience different things and grow in more than just the academic arena. Many of the friends I hang out with are going there and I would like the opportunity to broaden my outlook.</p>
<p>As for UGA and Emory, my parents have told me that the financial situation may play a bigger role than I initially thought. Currently Emory is 16k ( 8k paid by parents, 4k loans, 4k work study, the rest Emory Grant) which is a “better deal” for the education than 13k for UGA. I received around 5k in outside scholarships recently but Emory caps off at a certain amount before they start to withdraw from their grant. For example, getting 20k outside scholarship (impossible for me lol) would mean than my parents still pay 8k but Emory’s grant towards me decreases. This does not apply for me at UGA, so potentially the costs could be 0 (if i can get enough outside scholarships, knock on wood haha). While this may not seem important now, I must consider next year and the year after. My brother will be graduating next year and no longer counted as a dependent, so my EFC will definitely rise. Also my mother expects more $ this year so Emory’s financials may increase more than we can handle. </p>
<p>I am leaning more towards UGA honors over Emory because I feel like I can grow as a person there and establish myself and eventually find who I am. I feel as though my entire life my parents and peers have been pressuring me into what I “should do” instead of what I really want to do and it is only now when I am on the brink of a huge decision do they let me choose. I do not mean this in a bad way, I just feel I lost something along the way…Hopefully, I can throw myself out there and meet plenty of new people and change my personality for the better(idk if personality is the right word). Also, I get this feeling that UGA will be more like the real world in the sense that you will deal with all kinds of people (idk how to explain it, and hopefully that didnt sound condescending). At Emory, I feel that the students are in this “pre-professional bubble” so to say. And I mean that in the sense that they are so set on becoming a doctor or lawyer or business person that they live in a sort of different environment that does not transfer its applicability to “the real world”. I definitely value growth as an individual and I know that it is not learned in a classroom. </p>
<p>I think much of my problem stems from the fact that I really have no idea what I want to do in life. I have many interests but not really any passions. I came into the college application process thinking i would pick a college and then pick a profession based on what that college excels at. For example, if I picked GT, I would major in Biomedical engineering since GT is amazing at that. But now the more I think about it, I feel I kinda got it backwards…</p>
<p>Anyways my doctor put it in an interesting way today. he said “there are 4 areas you can go into. Sales, Services, Manufacturing, and spiritual. But Spiritual doesn’t make much money. So you gotta decide whether you want to sell, help people, build things, or find meaning”. I had never thought about it in that way before…</p>
<p>Oh well, too much writing/ranting/stream of consciousness for tonight/morning. Thanks for listening…</p>