Group 2 Post 2

This free write post is about my college experience.

My first two years of college, I attended NAU.  I LOVED it.  The people were friendly- so friendly they would just smile and say hi to you on the street and wouldn't think twice about it.  The campus had a real cohesive feel.  I worked in undergraduate admissions and was an orientation leader and was part of an all-girls community service group as well as my freshman hall association. I was a biology major my freshman year- I had wanted to be a marine biologist from the time I was 5. I attended Sea World Camp, ocean camp at Catalina Island, went to countless aquariums and watched/read everything on marine biology. But once I got into college, I realized there's so much out there to learn about.  I wanted to see what else I could be good at.  One of the reasons I chose NAU was for their participation in the National Student Exchange program. I planned to spend a year in California or Florida getting specific marine biology education.

So I change my major to "undecided."  This made me the butt of many jokes, but I didn't mind. I still thought it would be cool to go on a student exchange.  The summer between freshman and sophomore year my entire family spent a week in New York City in a amazing brownstone apartment on the Upper West Side.  It was a dream come true.  I still don't know how we scored that place at the price we did! I thought it would be the perfect place to live and decided I would do my student exchange there.  My suite mate at the time also thought it would be cool to live in Boston as she had some family she didn't know that well there.  We both got in and couldn't be more excited.

Because not every school participates in NSE, the closest I could get to Manhattan was Queens College.  My experience in Queens could fill an entire book, but I'll condense it into a few sentences.  I had TERRIBLE roommates who fought constantly, making being in my apartment horrible.  Getting to the city took an hour including a walk to a bus stop, a bus ride, and a subway ride.  The closest grocery store was Target- a walk to a bus, the bus ride, and a 15 minute walk to a mall that Target was in.  I quickly learned that having my own car at home was quite the luxury.  I learned that semester that I'm capable of doing things on my own.  Before that, I was never alone.  I had my parents, I had my best friend of 14 years, I had my suite mates and other friends.  There's nothing like getting dropped off in an unknown city without knowing a soul to make you feel alone.  But I got through it.  It was not glamorous, it was not the time of my life like so many of my friends' experiences abroad.  It was terrible and I hated it.  But I grew so much from my time in New York.  And looking back, I had some really incredible moments.  And I miss the city (not Queens) like crazy.

My major in Queens was Urban Studies.  It was something I didn't even know existed until I looked at their classes.  I had one really amazing teacher that sparked my interest in the subject.  I realized this was something I could see myself studying for the next 2 years and realized I couldn't do that at NAU.  I had to make my first major life decision and decide to leave the place I loved for ASU.

Now, my experience at ASU has been quite similar to my experience at Queens College.  Everything that could go wrong at both schools, has.  I try to give it a chance here, but literally everything has been a struggle.  Between admissions, advising, class selections and graduation, there have been problems all along the way.  It's frustrating because working in admissions and orientation at NAU, I know how these processes are supposed to go and that's not how they happened.  The silver lining in this, is that I want to take these bad experiences and use them as fuel to bring order to universities like these.  I have decided that I want to attend grad school to get a masters in student affairs.  I've seen a school run like a well oiled machine, and I have seen two schools run like chickens with their heads cut off.  As a student at all three, I can definitely tell you which is more inviting.