Why did you pick your college?

ennaxor
Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:22:15 +0000

Pepperdine was always my dream school. It’s where my mom went, and is affiliated with the Church of Christ, so as a little kid I just thought, “I want to go there too!”

When it came time to actually apply for schools, despite the massive amount of mail I’d received from various colleges, I’d hardly done any research. I ended up applying to Pepperdine, UCI (where I’d already been guaranteed acceptance through ELC), UCLA (mainly because I was already applying to UCI and wouldn’t have to fill out a seperate application, and wanted to see if I’d get it), University of Nebraska (who was offering me a full scholarship for being a National Hispanic Scholar), and Cal State Long Beach and Fullerton (just to keep options open).

By this point I at least had better reasons for wanting to go to Pepperdine. I still liked the fact that it was with the Church of Christ, but I also liked that it was a smaller school and had a pretty good program for my major. I’d been to the campus a few times for various events (twice for their lecturships, their senior preview day, a weekend trip with my youth group) and loved everything about it.

The only other school I actually visited to check out the campus was Nebraska. They had a National Hispanic Scholars weekend, which I went to with my dad. It was okay, they definitely had a good journalism department, but I couldn’t really see myself there.

I ended up getting accepted at all the schools I applied to. Pepperdine was the last I heard back from; their acceptance letter came the day before I flew out to Nebraska with Dad, and the day after we got back I got a call from Pepperdine informing me that I’d been awarded their top merit scholarship. Since financial aid was always the biggest concern about Pepperdine, that phone call cinched the decision.

After one year at Pepperdine, I know it was definitely the right choice for me. Still, looking back I know I really should have looked more into other schools. Had things not worked out with Pepperdine, I honestly have no idea where I would have ended up.